Flying Solo In EVE: A Decade-Long RMT Rule Is Broken

After slowing down my blogging last week I return to give my weekly column on EVE Online. Despite publishing the monthly economic report last week, I'm returning to an old subject I first became known for: real money trading. To make the situation worse, the offender has a history of working with Fenris, from hosting Fanfest streams to receiving an award. Of course, once reaching the pinnacle of EVE content creation, he fell down to earth. I'll briefly cover exactly what happened.

First, though, a little news related to July's data. Last week the average concurrent user line on EVE-Offline.net rose from the previous week's 22,000 to 23,000, plus or minus 500 accounts. Hopefully we have reached the bottom of the summer slump. If so a yearly ACU of 24,000 is well within reach.

Jester's five year graph still shows the 30-day rolling average of logged in accounts up by 2000 over both 2024 and 2025. Perhaps more impressive is the 30-day rolling average is still up over 6000 over its low point in October 2022.

In the global PLEX market volumes are down and the price is slowly inching up. Last week the average price of a PLEX went up 10,000 ISK. The current sale -- 20% off Omega time in the cash shop -- isn't having a visible impact on the market.

Now for the news on real money trading. I don't think even the most obtuse observer can now say a content creator did not do so after FC Swift made a couple of posts on Reddit. The case involves a streamer/creator called Loru, who won Video Creator of the Year at this year's Fanfest. 

For those who want to defend him, the violation of the rules about RMT were just too great. As FC Swift posted on Reddit.

Hey hey!

Thanks for the flag - this is an issue that we were made aware of last week. This type of giveaway falls outside of our policy and isn't supported.

Players are allowed to raffle off in-game items or hold giveaways, but entry into the giveaway cannot be gated behind a paywall (even if it's a donation-wall), and there needs to be parity between subscribing and free viewers.

The content creator policy, which applies to everyone, is here: https://support.eveonline.com/hc/en-us/articles/8563917741084-EVE-Online-Content-Creation-Terms-of-Use

These went into effect after the big kerfluffle back in 2015. I'm seeing the same white knighting for Loru as I did for people's favorite content creators 11 years ago. And at least the content creators back then tried to stay within the posted rules as were commonly understood. Loru just ran right over them. The fact Loru is reportedly only received a 7 day ban. Here is another post from FC Swift.

Hey all,

We don't usually comment on infractions involving other players, but I also don't want to hide behind policy either. So let me be upfront and explain the situation and how we got here.

Last week during Loru's stream there were a few giveaways that violated our policy. I talked about it in a different thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/1vjobxu/did_this_streamer_just_commit_rmt/p2ofm6o/)

This was reported to us on the day of, and we immediately began our investigation. This involved looking at where the ships and items originated, looking at the context of the giveaways, looking at where the ships ended up, watching the stream as a whole (all 12 hours of it), reviewing recent streams, and just turning over every leaf as possible. Because we want to make informed decisions, this is a multi-team effort.

During the investigation it became clear to us that Loru is not an RMT broker selling ships as a side hustle. He absolutely violated our giveaway policy, though, and he absolutely exchanged spaceships for money. It feels like we're splitting hairs here, but intentions play a role. The GM teams also look to Community to add additional context to situations when they involve areas we are very involved in like content creation.

So while it's true that Loru's giveaways weren't an organized attempt to create a black market for trading ISK, it's also our opinion that this wasn't a minor transgression, either. Further, and something we are very conscious of in all of our decisions, it'd be a disservice to every other content creator who stays within the guidelines to not take this seriously.

And this is where I fucked up.

I didn't communicate to the teams handling the situation that additional level of context from our team to make an informed ruling. So they sent out a punishment that only dealt with the items, and not the full situation. To that end, we'll be issuing a temporary ban on Loru's account to go along with the punishment already levied.

I understand that it looks like we're reacting to pressure and outrage after fumbling a situation, and I can see how you'd come to that conclusion. It does look that way. But we value the open and earnest relationship we have built with the players too much to let a bad decision stand because of optics or worrying about how we look. Simply put: nothing should stand in the way of making the right decision.

So apologies for fucking up, and I hope the above explanation adds the clarity and context that you all were looking for.

I have to admit this was not a very good post. Selling ISK or in-game assets for money is usually a permanent ban for a first offense. Or, at least at one time it was. I even remember stories of players from Ukraine who sold assets during the first Russian invasion back in 2014 in order to live who were banned. Now, I have heard of players getting their accounts back after some time, but receiving a 7-day ban at the get-go? Either a change in policy or some major favoritism is going on. If I had to guess, I'd go with the latter choice.

Looks like I need to do some research, because everything I know says Loru should have won EVE, with Fenris making sure he didn't start losing again.

Fenris Creations Hires A Senior Director Of AI Partnerships

Back when the managerial buyout of Fenris Creations from Pearl Abyss finalized in early May the presence of Google DeepMind in the situation somewhat surprised me. At the time I think people thought the hire-ups at Google were interested in EVE Online. A view that the PR machine in Fenris HQ did nothing to dispel. But now that the time to staff up the relationship is here, the fact that Fenris is reaching once again into the public sector for talent.

REYKJAVÍK, Iceland – August 7, 2026 – Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir, Iceland’s former Minister of Justice and former Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, has joined Fenris Creations, formerly CCP Games, as Senior Director, AI Partnerships. In the role, she will lead the company's work with AI laboratories, universities, policymakers and strategic partners on a new research initiative involving EVE Frontier.

The Iceland Monitor summed up her political career:

Sigurbjörnsdóttir was first elected to Parliament for the Independence Party in Reykjavík North in 2016 and has represented Reykjavík South since 2021.

At the age of 28, she became Minister of Justice, serving from 2019 to 2021. She later served as Minister of Science, Industry and Innovation from 2021 to 2022 and as Minister of Higher Education, Industry and Innovation from 2022 to 2024.

Now 35 years old and trained as a lawyer, she took a leave of absence from Parliament last year to attend Columbia University in New York, where she pursued a Master of Public Administration degree focused on international leadership and public administration. She graduated less than two weeks ago.

She accepted the opportunity to study at Columbia after narrowly losing the Independence Party leadership election at the party’s national convention in March 2025, when Guðrún Hafsteinsdóttir emerged victorious.

Her resignation from Parliament occurred on 3 June 2026, two months before the announcement of her hiring by Fenris.

I'm going to chop up the press release because I'm interested in how Áslaug views the position.

“Having seen firsthand how policy is developed and implemented, I am excited to bring my political experience to this new role. There is no greater opportunity to help shape the future of AI innovation than being part of a testing ground that empowers our partners to make meaningful inroads with regulators, helping ensure safe, practical and reliable AI standards. I look forward to helping Fenris take this work forward responsibly.” - Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir, Senior Director, AI Partnerships

Áslaug may have the resume to go with the position. Among the international relations highlights of her career she participated in the following:

• Member of the Icelandic delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly 2017 (Chair 2017)
• Member of the Icelandic delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) 2017–2019 (Chair 2017–2019)
• Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee 2017–2019 (Chair 2017–2019)
• Member of the Icelandic delegation to the Nordic Council 2025

Add in her ministerial service and she probably has the background needed to deal with some of the issues that will arise working for a company with players located across the world.

Now that the organizational part of my brain is satisfied, how is Áslaug related to EVE Frontier? Going back to the press release:

Fenris Creations has spent the last several months developing the initiative to test a bold hypothesis: that persistent virtual worlds like EVE Frontier, underpinned by real social and economic systems, can offer a live proving ground for advanced AI before it becomes a greater part of our everyday lives.

Rather than relying solely on short-lived simulations that end and reset, the aim is to create a place where autonomous agents can be observed in a real, open and evolving economy, alongside real people, with real consequences, within the kind of dynamic system the company's games are uniquely able to provide.

The EVE Universe is particularly well-suited to this work. For more than two decades, it has developed as a living virtual economy, encompassing trade, production chains, currencies, commodity markets, alliances, conflict, cooperation, betrayal and loss, shaped by hundreds of thousands of real participants and all the unpredictable behavior that comes with them. Unlike chess or Go, the world has no end state: mistakes stay made, debts stay owed, relationships persist, and reputation follows you. That makes it one of the very few places where the behavior of autonomous systems can be studied under conditions that resemble a real society and a real economy, with all the irrational, emotional and unpredictable reactions that real people bring.

In EVE Frontier, the new chapter of the EVE universe, autonomous AI systems will be studied within EVE Frontier’s live, open-ended world as they set goals, respond to change, and make coherent sequences of decisions over extended periods. This enables researchers to better assess model behavior in genuinely complex environments and inform the responsible development of future AI systems. The initiative is intended to support Fenris Creations as it continues to explore ways to make EVE Frontier a more engaging and immersive world for its inhabitants, from richer NPC behavior and better onboarding to faster testing and iteration, with more detailed outcomes to be shared with players in due course.

If the initiative succeeds, it opens an entirely new role for Fenris Creations and EVE Frontier, potentially making important contributions to research on intelligent agents, complex systems, and AI alignment, while also creating compelling new possibilities for the experience EVE Frontier can offer its playerbase.

What makes the work possible is the scale and longevity of what already exists. Fenris brings its experience in creating and operating a persistent virtual world, together with the engineering, design, and community expertise required to explore how autonomous AI behaves in a live, player-driven setting. Few virtual environments offer the same combination of persistence, complexity and sustained human participation.

I have to say, using Frontier as a testbed for AI isn't the dumbest idea. The same people who the move will upset already hate the new game for implementing blockchain technology. At a certain point, people can't get any more angry, can they?

I'll conclude with the word that Fenris and their Google DeepMind partners hit the ground running, considering the MBO only occurred three months ago.

Earlier this year, Fenris Creations announced a research partnership with Google DeepMind focused on exploring intelligence in complex, dynamic systems. That collaboration is already active, with teams from both organizations completing a two-day workshop this week to exchange ideas and identify practical areas for further work. The sessions reflected a strong alignment in approach and a shared interest in how persistent virtual worlds can support meaningful research and new forms of interactive experience. Áslaug’s appointment will broaden this work by helping Fenris Creations build relationships across the wider AI research, academic, policy and strategic landscape, bringing new institutions, perspectives and opportunities into the initiative as it develops internationally.

The Added Stepping Stones To Leveling Alt Jobs In FFXIV

 

Sometimes I get a little weird. Final Fantasy XIV's patch 7.55 dropped last Tuesday, providing a lot of content. A few days prior to that Square Enix held its European Fanfest for 2026 in Berlin. And what has me excited? Leveling my bard job. I blame Yoshi-P for that. Between the introduction of the new Bastion tanking job and the upcoming Evolved Mode reducing the button bloat that accumulated over the past 10+ years, I was inspired to start leveling a new job. Or, I should say, a job I abandoned leveling a few years ago.

My bard was level 51, which back in the day meant laboring to reach level 53 to reach Sohm Al. But with patch 7.5 that launched in April, I now had access to The Dusk Vigil, a level 51 dungeon, in Duty Support. So I ran The Dusk Vigil up to level 53 to where the MSQ provided dungeons every 2 levels until I reached level 60. As of the writing of this post, I've completed the bard questline and just need to get to level 61 to begin grinding The Sirensong Sea.

In the past leveling a job between levels 61 and 65 was a pain. That's where the second dungeon added to Duty Support in patch 7.5, Shisui of the Violet Tides, comes in. A level 63 dungeon, running a dungeon four or five times helps gear up a job for the next dungeon.

The gearing while leveling is still a big deal. But with new dungeons I really only need to go out and get new gear when I start running dungeons for the next expansion. So far I'm only spending 150,000 - 250,000 gil per expansion for gear. But between my Island Sanctuary and Cosmic Exploration, just selling advanced dyes easily pays for new leveling gear. 

Not a big deal, but something I didn't realize Square Enix did until I began leveling my bard job. Evercold promises to change things up and make life easier. I'm glad I found something introduced to the game a couple of months ago that does the same thing.

Cloud Imperium Cash Shop Records $8.1 Million In Sales In July 2026

Cloud Imperium Games received good financial news from its online cash shop to begin the second half of 2026. According to the CCU Game dashboard, revenue from the cash shop grew year-over-year by 25.3% up to $8.1 million in July. Last month beat the previous highest cash shop revenue total in July of  $6.5 million recorded in 2025. Through the first 7 months of 2026 Cloud Imperium sold virtual goods and services, along with some physical goods, worth $103.2 million dollars. Just for comparison, Pearl Abyss sold off CCP Games (now Fenris Creations) for $120 million in cash and assets in May.

The $1032.3 million ($1.03 billion) displayed on the Roberts Space Industries funding page at the end of May was not a comprehensive accounting for all of CIG's revenue since the project's Kickstarter in October 2012. Overall, the company has recorded $1,187.4 million ($1.19 billion) in confirmed revenue (the funding page & the 2024 financial report).

• Sales/Pledges: $1032.3 million ($1.03 billion) (through 31 July 2026)
• Other cash shop revenue: $2.7 million (through 31 December 2024)
• Subscriptions: $46.8 million (through 31 December 2024)
• All other sources: $105.6 million (through 31 December 2024)

In addition, the company has received a total of $68.25 million in outside investment. According to the 2023 financial report, $4.8 million of the amount was returned to investors in 2020 and another $3.1 million in 2023-2024. Including the outside investment money, the total amount raised by CIG to create Squadron 42 and Star Citizen is $1,255.6 million ($1.26 billion), or $1.247.8 million ($1.25 billion) when excluding the returned funds. An additional $12.6 million in loans issued in March 2025 and due for repayment on 31 December 2027 are not included in the total.

In the latest example that revenue and new account creation are unrelated, the number of accounts created in July 2026 was down 26.1% compared to July 2025. I think the main reason is simple. In July 2025 CIG debuted a new referral system and saw a big jump in account creation. I think last month was a return to the norm.

What to watch for: With the big Squadron 42 event 10 weeks away I don't expect any big news in August. Instead, look to see if sales exceed $10 million. If so, then July will be the last month with sub-$10 million sales for quite some time. The only negative I can see is if CIG begins a big money push. Then something definitely is going wrong.

Cosmic Exploration: An Anti-Bot Measure Or Bad Luck?

When I started playing Final Fantasy XIV I was told Square Enix included some "features" designed to discourage players from doing one thing in the game for extended periods of time. Gathering itself wasn't affected but farming mobs for drops? I noticed that after 10 or 15 minutes the drop rate really diminished. Perhaps a good thing for other players who might need to kill a particular type of critter but not if the recipe required a lot of leather.

Last night I may have encountered another measure. I was on Auxesia trying to craft my way to 500,000 tool mastery points and another title as a Carpenter. I was having the worst luck with the tool mastery missions. Almost every time for 15 minutes I couldn't buy a good condition to get max progress on a craft. About halfway through the period I had an item reach 100% spirit bond. I took a quick look and every piece of crafting gear I was wearing was at 100% spirit bond.

Yikes! Then I remembered that the last time I had played I ended the night with most of my gear at 100% spirit bond and I just planned to extract the materia the next time I logged in. Which was last night. Oops!

Once I extracted all the materia and resumed crafting something unusual happened. The RNG gods looked favorably on me once again and I started recording max scores on each item I crafted. Then I considered an explanation. If someone were running a bot or some other automation, they'd probably not bother extracting their materia. Which means their points output would be subpar compared to pressing each macro manually and watching the character's gear to make sure it doesn't break or, in this case, fill up with spirit bond.

I know the sample size of 10 items created in those 15 minutes was small, but I think large enough to make a judgement. Then again, making sure to keep your equipment repaired and with spirit bond less than 100% isn't hard to do. But I am going to keep track of things like that from now on, especially if the consequences for doing so is losing more than a few crafting materia.

Flying Solo In EVE: Don't Be Afraid To Spend ISK On Ammo

 

I didn't play much -- or write much -- over the past week or so. In EVE I was in a holding pattern. I had two characters reach the end of the Daily AIR track and get the bundles of skill points. I'm not actively training one of them so the points came in handy. I did manage to build a Talwar Fleet Issue for my new character to run the level 1 epic arc "Blood Stained Stars." My new character will have the skills to fly the ship up to Mastery level 2 by the weekend. 

The week of July 20-26

I wasn't the only one not rushing to spend a lot of time in New Eden. Last week was the lowest average user concurrency in 2026, finally dipping down to 23,000 accounts, plus or minus 500. The PCU for the week was only 31,567, which is the low for a week in 2026 as well. The next five weeks until Labor Day in the U.S. will probably be the low point for activity on Tranquility for the year.

A steady market

Apparently the marketing department is also taking a break. The volumes and prices stayed steady for another week with no new sales launching. Not surprising to the old timers who know Fenris usually takes a big chunk of August off. I have the feeling activity will be light until everyone returns to Iceland.

Now for my shopping list for my upcoming adventure running around empire high sec. The Blood-stained Stars is a 50 mission set that traditionally is the last scripted content players engage in before going out and exploring the universe. The only thing I really have to worry about is the ammo. The Talwar Fleet Issue is a missile boat and the fitting Gemini is recommending involves light missiles. Back for the first few years of playing EVE I would always use basic ammunition in order to save money. I've moved onto faction or tech 2 ammo recently to get missions done faster. But what about for a brand new player with only 6 million ISK in the wallet? Here's what Gemini told me.

Yes, running faction missiles for the whole arc is easily within her budget.

Caldari Navy Light Missiles usually hover around 800 to 1,000 ISK per shot in trade hubs like Jita. While that sounds like a lot when starting with 6 million ISK, the overall math works out well in her favor.

1. The Numbers Breakdown

Ammo Type	Avg. Price / Unit	5,000 Rounds (Full Arc Supply)
Standard T1 Missiles	~70–100 ISK	~400,000 ISK
Caldari Navy Missiles	~800–1,000 ISK	~4.0 to 4.5 Million ISK

5,000 rounds of faction ammo is typically enough to clear all 50 missions in the Blood-Stained Stars. If she starts with 6M ISK, buying a full stock of Caldari Navy missiles will leave her with ~1.5M to 2M ISK for initial insurance or fitting adjustments—and bumping her wallet to 10M ISK by the weekend gives her plenty of breathing room.

2. The Arc Pays for Itself as She Goes

She won't just be spending ISK; The Blood-Stained Stars is designed to hand out significant liquid ISK rewards as a new player progresses:

• Mission Rewards & Bonuses: Running the arc generates roughly 10 to 15 million ISK in direct mission payouts and completion bonuses.
• Bounties: Target pirate frigates and cruisers will yield a few million ISK in bounties along the way.
• The Final Reward: Completing the 50th mission awards a massive standing boost and a bonus reward worth roughly 5+ million ISK.
• By Chapter 2 or 3, the mission rewards will easily cover the cost of her ammo replenishment.

3. Recommended Strategy

To stretch her starting ISK as efficiently as possible:

• Use Standard T1 Ammo for Trash Mobs: Standard T1 light missiles (Scourge, Inferno, Nova, Mjolnir) cost a fraction of faction ammo (~80 ISK). She can use standard T1 for fast-clearing easy frigate waves in the early chapters.
• Save Faction Ammo for Cruisers & Bosses: Switch to Caldari Navy when facing tougher cruiser targets, mission commanders, or heavy structures to melt them down quickly.
• Load Full Faction for Dagan: For the final boss fight against Dagan in Chapter 7, load pure Caldari Navy Inferno or Scourge to ensure maximum DPS.

Now, I have to say I'm glad the AI provided the recommended strategy to make the ISK stretch out until the epic arc provided enough money. One of the first things players learn is to not fly what you can't afford to lose. The extra damage from the special ammo makes survival a lot easier, but when just entering the game for the first time the advice does sound a little hollow. After all, players have so much to spend on when first starting out. Skimping on the ammunition seems like a good choice. My advice is, sometimes you have to spend money to make money. Don't hold onto the ISK too tightly.

Flying Solo In EVE: Okami WIDOTs The Game?

The World Cup and the international frenzy around the world's most popular sporting event is gone, but heatwaves still remain. My excuse for not playing much is work has screwed up my sleep schedule. Europeans, on the other hand, are facing massive heat waves. Not so massive to those of us in the United States, but we have air conditioning and quality home insulation for the most part. Apparently Europe finds itself without the comforts Americans take for granted. Between Net Zero programs and energy disruptions caused by war, sitting in front of a computer playing EVE sounds like a hardship when viewed from this side of the pond. Hopefully things get better in September.

Last week average concurrency still remained at 24,000 accounts logged in at any one time, plus or minus 500 accounts. The peak concurrency also remained below 33,000 accounts for the third consecutive week and under 34,000 for the past month.

Jester's graphs were a little late running this month, so the above data is dated by a couple of weeks. The 30 day rolling average of players logged in was still over a thousand greater than last June. In both 2024 and 2025 the average dipped down to 21,000. I'm interested to see just how far the dip goes. If concurrency only goes down to 23,000 then a yearly average over 24,000 is definitely possible.

The summer doldrums extend to the global PLEX market. The average price of PLEX remained almost flat, closing at 4,510,000 ISK per PLEX on Sunday. The running of a 20% off PLEX sale doesn't seem to have moved the needle on PLEX prices one way of the other. Neither did a skill boost training bundle sale in the New Eden Store which ended yesterday. I don't know if Fenris accountants consider the price stability a good or bad thing.

When I started composing this article I had only read the first of Wilhelm's two posts on the upcoming player-build jump network nerfs. Which seems fair as FC Okami issued a follow-up post on Tuesday with more details. As someone who doesn't live in null sec I'm really hoping that Wilhelm's wrong, because then we are looking at an event bigger than Hurricane Hilmar which struck New Eden back in 2019. But even from my vantage point in Heimatar occasionally dipping into low sec I can see the potential for players to mass adapt a very old practice: to WIDOT alliances into one of the great alliances in EVE Online.

For those whose memories don't stretch back 15 years, I've cleaned up an explanation of what WIDOT actually means.

In EVE Online, "WIDOTing" (or WIDOTed) is a verb that refers to an entire alliance (or multiple active corporations within an alliance) dissolving its existing structure, consolidating all remaining members into a single corporation, and merging into a larger partner alliance.  

The Origin: Wildly Inappropriate

1. The term originates from Wildly Inappropriate, a major alliance during the classic "Northern Coalition" (NC) era in the late 2000s and early 2010s.  The Fall of the Old NC (2011): When the original Northern Coalition collapsed under the pressure of the Drone Region Federation (DRF) and its allies in mid-2011, Wildly Inappropriate found itself facing organizational collapse, declining activity, and loss of territory. 
   
   
2. The Merger: Rather than letting the alliance completely disintegrate or disperse into separate groups, the leadership of WI. consolidated their active player base from various member corps into a single corporation under the name Wildly Inappropriate. (with a dot at the end).  
   
   
3. Joining Goonswarm: This newly consolidated single corporation then folded into Goonswarm Federation in June 2011.  

How the Term Is Used Today

Because Wildly Inappropriate was one of the earliest and most high-profile examples of a multi-corp alliance stripping away its corporate structure to survive inside a larger bloc, EVE players turned the alliance tag into a verb.  

In EVE slang:

"They are going to WIDOT" = A failing or downsizing alliance is about to collapse into a single corporation to join a larger mega-coalition or bloc. 

"WIDOTed" = An alliance/corp that was absorbed/assimilated into a bigger entity, often losing its independent alliance identity in the process.  

Even after reading FC Okami's words I'm not sure exactly what he is trying to accomplish with these changes. I remember the days before the Phoebe jump fatigue days and force projection was all about zipping around the game beyond your own alliance's or coalition's borders. These changes only affect the territory inside an alliance's borders.

I also wonder about the effect on alliances. With coalitions no longer able to share travel infrastructure between member alliances, I imagine the member corporations of smaller alliances will have an incentive to join the largest alliances. Some of those smaller alliances may choose to WIDOT themselves and break up longstanding relationships. Game designers in the MMORPG genre usually try to build cohesion and social bonds between players in order to increase player retention. I see this change as potentially introducing a mass shakeup of such bonds.

Finally I have to wonder about the logistics pilots out there. No, not the players flying the magic healing ships. The ones who do the day-to-day transporting of goods and perform other services to keep an alliance running. The last I heard running an alliance's logistics department isn't exciting at the best of times. Making their lives miserable sounds more like a horrible experiment rather than promoting sustainable game play.

But, what do I know? I don't live in null sec. I'm sure I'm just ignorant on how everything will play out. At least, I really hope that is the case.

More Leadership Departures At Cloud Imperium Games

Just a quick post about Cloud Imperium Games. With the company's online cash shop reaching $100 million so far in 2026 I wasn't too concerned about any further shakeups amongst the company's leadership. That is, until I received an automated email from Reddit informing me of a post about two more people removed from the company's about page sometime over the past two months.

The first individual missing, in alphabetical order, is Claire Buffet. A 15 year veteran of Turbulent, Buffet became the Vice President of Operations in April 2025. With the reorganization of Cloud Imperium and the shift of the workforce outside the U.S. I thought Buffet was a great person to place in charge of North America.

The other individual is more noteworthy considering some of the server problems I've heard have afflicted the Persistent Universe over the past couple of patches. Mike Jones was listed as the Vice President of Corporate & Publishing Technology at CIG. Publishing doesn't mean selling copies of Squadron 42. Jones' position provides single-point accountability for all non-game-engine IT operations and technology management across the entire company. If Jones really is gone, that helps explain why Benoit Beausejour, CIG's Chief Technology Officer, was up all night as server issues were addressed on occasion.

I did check LinkedIn and social media and I don't see an indication the two are gone from the company. But that About page on the corporate website is getting rather sparse. Apart from Tony Zurovec who apparently is left on the page as a matter of respect, the leadership section is now down to 9 people including Chris Roberts.

A Preview Of EVE Online's September 2026 Major Update

Over the weekend I didn't have much time to play video games. As a result I didn't see FC Okami's dev blog on the future of force projection until yesterday. My first clue something was up was when a video from Pando showed up in my YouTube queue. A lot of the time I disregard YouTube creators about null sec issues. But Pando is a top coalition level fleet commander. Players should take what he has to say seriously.

My first thought was, "Here we go again." Once again the developers want to make space for smaller groups in null sec. Adding space isn't really an option. EVE Frontier can get away with having 120,000 systems because the game is still in development. EVE Online? I think except for special cases the existing jump gate system will not expand any further.

That only leaves making the existing space feel bigger. How? By nerfing alliance infrastructure in null sec. At least, that's the impression I got from briefly reading the dev blog. Hopefully I haven't contributed to Fenris' comfort in doing so by pointing out the average number of players logged in at any one time this year is on pace to be the highest amount since 2014.

Average user accounts logged in by year

Why now?

EVE is in one of the best states it’s been in, in a while. We’re getting regular balance updates with inputs from our players and the CSM. We’re hitting a confident stride in our ability to deliver regular, interesting expansions and new ships. We’re seeing the community thrive.

And while a number of issues persist that we will begin to knock off one-by-one, Force Projection continues to rise to the top and it’s clear that we can’t keep only making small tuning adjustments. It’s time for us to commit to a bigger change.

It’s also time for us to be bold and we’re ready to commit to a bold solution. If we wait to try and solve every item on the Force Projection checklist all at once, then nothing will ever happen. We have a cool idea that we back and we’re ready to iterate on - and now’s the time to do it.

We’re eager to commit to something that will have an impact on the topology of New Eden, test organizational logistics, and put some new tension on the overall layout of the universe leading to new opportunities, shake ups, wars, and alliances.

Here is what we have waiting for us when everyone comes back from our summer vacations, courtesy of Gemini:

The core thesis is clear: powerful mega-alliances can currently zip across the universe too quickly to crush smaller groups. To fix this, CCP is shifting away from punishing individual players (like the old Phoebe-era Jump Fatigue system) and is instead placing the mechanical limitations onto the infrastructure itself.

Here is a breakdown of the structural and mechanical changes announced for the September 2026 Major Update.

1. The Core Mechanic: Ansiblex Capacitor

Instead of imposing jump fatigue on individual pilots, Ansiblex Jump Gates will now have their own Capacitor pools.

• The Brake: Every time a ship jumps through, it drains a portion of the gate's capacitor. Heavy ships will drain more. If the capacitor hits 0, the gate shuts down until it naturally regenerates.
• The Goal: This creates a strict "traffic limit" for sudden fleet movements. Empires can no longer seamlessly teleport massive subcapital fleets across the map instantly.
• Strategic Play: This opens up new meta opportunities, such as players using energy-neutralizing ships or weapons to intentionally drain an enemy gate's capacitor rather than shooting the structure down.

2. Economic & Distance Zoning

To ensure that day-to-day regional logistics aren't ruined for regular line members, the blog introduces distance-based pricing "zones" measured from the alliance's Sovereignty Capital.

• Zone 1 (0–5 Light Years): The "fare" cost to the gate's capacitor is 0. Movement within an alliance’s core home territory remains completely free and unrestricted.
• Zones 2–5: As gates get further away from the alliance's capital, the capacitor cost per jump scales up significantly. Long-range projection becomes incredibly "expensive" for the network.

3. Separation of Travel Networks

Capitals and Supercapitals are being entirely removed from the Ansiblex ecosystem. They will no longer be allowed to use jump bridges at all (with the sole exception of the Rorqual for industrial purposes).

To balance the fact that capitals must now rely purely on their own jump drives and Cynosural fields, CCP is tackling the defender's advantage:

• Cyno Jammer Nerf: The maximum number of anchorable Cyno Jammers in a system is being slashed from 3 down to 1.
• The Impact: It will be significantly easier for attackers to force open a system's cyno window, elevating the strategic importance of capital ship drop logistics in active warfare.

4. Alliance-Only Access Control (ACLs)

Ansiblex Access Control Lists are being strictly locked to Alliance-only.

• The End of Blue Donuts: Massive multi-alliance coalitions can no longer share their jump bridge networks with their neighbors or "renter" alliances. If you aren't in the specific alliance that owns the gate, you cannot use it.

What this means for the Meta

The dev blog explicitly states that this is a forced paradigm shift in organizational scale. CCP wants to pressure sprawling mega-empires by introducing logistical friction.

By making space highly regionalized, smaller groups should have breathing room to establish a foothold without fearing that a 500-man bloc fleet will teleport from across the galaxy to wipe them out in 5 minutes.

What's next? FC Okami noted that because this will heavily alter how alliances value their space, a complete overhaul of Sov Resources will follow shortly after. Alliances are being promised at least a 1-month heads-up and "rig amnesty" so they can relocate their infrastructure if they need to adjust to the new geography. 

Post 3000

Back in middle school my English teacher gave out an assignment. We had to keep a journal and write an entry every day for a month. The purpose, I learned when I became an adult, is that keeping a journal helps improve one's writing.  At the time I just thought the assignment was dumb. I'd never want to write about something every day or every other day.

Fast forward 50 years. I published my first post on The Nosy Gamer 16 February 2009, or 6360 days ago. Today I'm publishing my 3000th post. I'm averaging over that time one post for every 2.12 days. I think 12-year-old me would find that record amazing.

I think the subject of the blog would also amaze middle-school me. Back then video games were something I saw in bowling alleys. The Atari 2600, the first video game console my family would own, didn't come out for another year.

The first PC video games I played after getting out of the Army in 1987. I had a Commodore 64 which was my introduction to fantasy computer role-playing games. I started off the Pools of Radiance saga on the Commodore 64 and finished on a Macintosh which I won in a drawing. But I used that Macintosh more for typing out other people's research papers at college for money than playing video games. And after graduating I also ran fantasy baseball leagues.

I didn't really fall into video games as a serious hobby until a friend at work told me about a new game called World of Warcraft. The game was fun but I was kicked from my guild for non-participation in raids. Turns out the 55-60 hours a week I worked back then wasn't contusive to raiding. Imagine that.

After a month break I found myself playing Everquest II. I spent 2006-2009 playing that game which I found was more fun than WoW. But I left that game after more guild drama wound up destroying the small guild I belonged to.

During my time in EQ2 I became fascinated with an online radio station known as Online Gaming Radio. I then discovered podcasts and a website called Virgin Worlds. I also heard about a game called EVE Online, something called BoB and Goonswarm, and players known as Dianabolic and The Mittani. I wound up making EVE my main game in the fall of 2009 and have remained ever since. I have to credit the lack of guild or corp drama as helping keep me around so long.

I think 12-year-old me would have also not believed that keeping a weblog and playing a video game would lead to something pretty remarkable: air travel. Back then air travel was something for the rich, or at least the very well off. I did fly commercial when I was in the Army but that was about it. But EVE Online had a player convention held in Reykjavik that I wanted to attend one day.

My first Fanfest was in 2012. Since then I've travelled to Iceland for 7 other Fanfests as well as attended four EVE Vegas events and an event in Toronto. Looking back I still can't believe I've visited two foreign countries and a city I never had a desire to go to just because I played video games and owned a blog.

I am bad about remembering things like blog anniversaries. But I thought I'd take the occasion of this 3000th blog post to reminiscence about the journey that got me to this place. I might get to 4000 posts but I very much doubt I'll reach 5000. But that's okay. I've definitely had quite the journey so far.