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GDC Europe 09: CCP – Winning the War

A great talk Hilmar Petursson introduces CCP (developer and now also publisher and IP holder of Eve Online). He divides MMOs in thema parks and playgrounds, whereas WoW is the first and Eve of course is the latter. Within a playground people can make new friends compared to the theme parl easily, but the environment is more challenging and not so flashing and rewarding.

Obviously the whole Eve world is in the hand of the players, so there is minor interference by game masters etc. So compared to many other games divine intervention is reduced to a minimum. Hilmar has shown several good examples on how political and commercial alliances form and challenge each other. They even have an economic newsletter produced by an economist quarterly.

Hilmar also announced a new product, called “DUST 514″, a first person shooter integrated in and connected with the Eve Universe. It will be a console game with a lot of real time strategy. DUST mercenaries have to be contracted by Eve cooperations and will fight the infantry wars. It’s developed in Shanghai and kept secret now for three years. The trailer looks great, expect the video to be online soon.