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The Eve of A New Beginning
Creative Director Reynir Harðarson on EVE Online's ever-expanding universe
First launching players into the deepest folds of outer space in 2003, Eve Online has captivated the imagination of tens of thousands of fans around the world. Attracted by the sophisticated gameplay and highly-detailed graphics, and set against the backdrop of deep space, players from around the globe vie to compete in battles that will determine the fate of the universe. The game, which has been perpetually played out on a single shard or instance for the last several years, is in fact creating its own history, which is continually canonized in EON, the official EVE Online print magazine.
While a growing number of gamers join the fray to conquer mega-space stations, EVE Online has been quietly conquering its own records. At the dawn of 2006, EVE's subscription base closed-in on the one hundred thousand mark, and just recently the game peaked with over 23,000 concurrent users. Amazing, but not surprising to the EVE Online team, based in Reykjavik, Iceland, who have seen this record surpassed weekly since the end of 2005.
But can too much success be a bad thing? Not when CCP, EVE Online's developer, takes the plunge and upgrades the entire EVE system to IBM 64bit Blades, maximizing their server capacity while enhancing the fluidity of the gameplay. To celebrate, LQGaming Services: arranged for a sit-down with Eve Online Creative Director Reynir Haršarson to discuss the MMOG's bright future:
LQGaming Services:: You just hit the largest concurrent number of users that EVE has yet seen last month. Tell us what this says about the health of EVE Online.
Reynir Harðarson: We hit
23,123
concurrent users on January 15th. This is an undisputed world record for a single shard. EVE has never grown as fast as it is growing now. As I write this, EVE has 95K subscribers and is heading straight to the stars.
"EVE has never grown as fast as it is growing now. As I write this, EVE has 95K subscribers and is heading straight to the stars."
LQGaming Services:: The EVE Fanfest was in October in Iceland, quite a different venue from the other major MMO publishers who have their Fanfairs in the US. What kind of attendance did you have this year?
Reynir Harðarson: This year's fanfest was quite the success. Around 400 people attended from all over the world. We wanted the EVE fanfest to be a very special event, and hosting it in Iceland is quite an adventure in itself. The Icelandic landscape and nature is like going to another planet, so it is the perfect setting.
LQGaming Services:: You've recently gone to a new server technology provided by IBM. What can your audience expect to see from this new technology, and how will it affect EVE as a whole?
Reynir Harðarson: We are using Blades from IBM. This is working very well for us and IBM is an excellent partner to work with. Currently we are upgrading the cluster to 64bit Blades and this will enable us to double or even triple the performance of the cluster, which is needed to accommodate the massive growth in users we are experiencing.
LQGaming Services:: EVE Online currently offers EON, a quarterly magazine at your online store. SOE has also begun a magazine to cover its MMO titles. Why do you think print magazines based on MMO's are taking off across the industry now?
Reynir Harðarson: Magazines are a very interesting medium and are very different experience from reading the web. We are doing EON in collaboration with MMM Publishing in the UK and it is quite the success. EON makes it possible for us to dig really deep into the EVE community and tell stories from within the world in the context of a magazine. This is taking EVE journalism to a new level. We are very excited about this project and it is being very well received by the EVE community. I think doing a magazine for a MMO makes a lot of sense, and especially for EVE as it is so driven by the players themselves and hence the magazine becomes a great platform for telling the stories that happen in the world. I expect we will see more of this happening in the MMO industry in the time coming.
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