Progress Update: 7/21/21

SPOILER WARNING

As I mentioned before, the progress updates during this research cycle are going to be much more frequent. I'm aiming for weekly updates, since I'll be able to share a lot more about what I'm learning and what I'm doing due to the public nature of the topic.

As I've mentioned before, the new video is going to be about EVE Online, and while I've stated publicly that it will be at least three hours long, I expect it to be significantly longer, though that is subject to change depending on what the video needs. This public angle has allowed me to attract the attention of a significant portion of the EVE community, and many of them are more than willing to share their knowledge and their stories, especially the veteran players.

I've been speaking with Andrew Groen, author of Empires of EVE, who has been giving me some direction, but I actually suspect that I'll be speaking to him the least out of everyone. He's more there as a guide. So far, the person with whom I've spoken the most is former Mercenary Coalition and Pandemic Legion leader Seleene, who is notorious for sharing his experiences, and he's been an enthusiastic and friendly guide. He's also agreed to help me connect with other veterans who had a high-level view of the game over the years.

But I also had a surprising group of people reach out to me, as well: the company who makes and maintains the game, CCP. (While they share a name with the ruling party of China, they have no relationship) I spoke with some of the community managers just today, and they expressed that they were already familiar with my videos and have offered their enthusiastic support, offering to give me archived information, promotional material, and private servers to collect visuals unhassled, as well as connecting me with prominent and experienced players. This may be the largest project that I've ever attempted, but I will be doing so with guidance from knowledgeable people who also want to see this project succeed. Of course, I will do my best to sort out bias by trying to verify events with multiple people, since players tend to have colored memories of their experiences with the game.

Beyond speaking with people and consuming EVE-related media, I've been playing the game myself. To keep it brief, I started my game experience by joining a few other new players in a highsec mining corp, making safe but low pay. While I quickly took on a leadership position shipping and selling ore for us, I quickly realized that I would need to move on quickly to experience more of the game, and so I joined EVE University, an in-game institution that has existed nearly since the game launched 18 years ago and is dedicated to teaching new players the various aspects of the game.

With them, I got my first taste of combat. I joined a roaming fleet that traveled through nullsec for a couple of hours, searching for a fight, and there, I had my first taste of combat. We discovered a similarly-sized fleet and engaged in combat, where we managed to inflict just a bit more damage on the enemy than we received ourselves. While the action was frantic, the fleet commander was calm, and everyone was completely quiet and focused while playing. I'll probably find myself moving to a logistics ship, since they seem to be needed more.

I also joined a mining fleet for an evening, where someone beelined for me to destroy me for some bewildering reason, but I managed to escape intact. There's a part of me that wonders if they were targeting me specifically due to my high profile, or if it's just a coincidence.

When running alone, I've taken to exploring as a way to generate revenue, something much more profitable than mining, even in a barge.

I'm also working on a few other projects, including a large fiction project that I'll be able to talk more about eventually. For now, it must remain secret.

I'll see you all again next weekend (most likely) with an update on my research progress.

-Fredrik