The End Of EVE Vegas

Last week I finally decided to go to EVE Vegas and picked up a ticket. Between buying the ticket for the event and booking my hotel and flight reservations, CCP announced the move of the event to San Diego in 2020.

One of the largest changes we’ll be making to the events roster in 2020 will be how we choose to focus on North American events.

Visiting Toronto for EVE North was incredible, and there are a whole myriad of events in the United States that are springing up in support of internet spaceships.

We want to visit more of North America so that we can reach out to more of our US and Canadian player base, so for 2020 we’ll be transitioning away from Las Vegas and heading to another city in the US.

EVE Vegas has been an incredible ride. It kicked off more than a decade ago as a fantastic player created and hosted event which saw developers arrive on the scene and start attending in 2013 – more than a dozen of us in fact!

Since then, it’s grown year on year consistently and we’re confident that EVE Vegas 2019 is going to be the biggest and best yet!

That said, what we’ve seen with the World Tour is that we’re able to meet much more players by visiting more locations. We’ve been bringing the beauty of an EVE event to more players than ever, and we’ve also had the opportunity to gain a better understanding of various EVE communities. We want to keep that theme going, so it’s time to switch things up, and we’ve decided to make a hop right over to the west coast and host in San Diego for our 2020 North American event.

We’ll be going for a different vibe of course, given that we’re going to the south west of the US. There’s a heavy density of EVE players in the area, so we’re expecting something awesome.

Mine is possibly a minority opinion, but I find Las Vegas a very depressing city. I imagine out in the Gallente Federation is a planet (or fifty) similar to Vegas. Places with a thin veneer of flash covering a pretty seedy reality. If I can give a pro tip, don't go out onto the strip before 10 am. Give the locals time to clean up the mess. Walking around at 6 am is not pretty.

Knowing this year's event is possibly the last hosted by CCP in the Mojave Desert, I might enjoy the experience more. While I will probably skip the pub crawl, I'll have to go to the event held at Caesar's Palace in Omnia. I mean, how can I pass up what may be Permaband's final North American concert? The band is coming back together, with CCP Guard making an appearance on stage.

Of course, my enjoyment may increase because I'm staying at the Flamingo this year instead of The Linq. Friends don't let friends stay at The Linq. Honestly, the worst hotel I've ever stayed at. Even worse than the Motel 6 outside Columbus, Ohio. Then again, I liked staying at that motel when I would go to Origins.

I mentioned that 2019 is the last CCP-sponsored EVE Vegas. But the event was created by Goons, and they have no intention of letting EVE's presence disappear. I couldn't image Goons not going to Vegas at least once a year.

eve vegas began as a GSF-run event thanks to Zapawork and after a few years CCP ended up taking it over

after they moved it to the linq we began testing entirely parallel goon vegases which have scaled up each year

ensuring eve vegas happens is a sacred responsibility

— The Mittani (@TheMittani) August 29, 2019

Now, I can't end this post without mentioning a very good conspiracy theory laid out by Wilhelm Arcturus from The Ancient Gaming Noob.

.@wilhelm2451 just dreamed up the most epic conspiracy theory between the EVE San Diego & PlanetSide Arena news today and all the studio filings: rhat Pearl Abyss is buying Daybreak. This is super plausible, right? I dunno how serious you are in pitching it, but I'm here for it. pic.twitter.com/aUNrczpOcR

— breetoplay (@nbrianna) August 29, 2019

I have to admit, when I heard the news the event was moving to San Diego, my first reaction was to look up Pearl Abyss' SoCal office. But I don't think Pearl Abyss would purchase Daybreak. Pearl Abyss is into fully exploiting the intellectual properties it owns. I'm not sure how the IPs owned by Daybreak would fit in with PA's plans, especially as the game company is developing new IPs. Planetside 2 would conflict with Project K, while the Everquest franchise would compete directly with Black Desert Online. Still, the only reason I can see for holding the convention in San Diego is so everyone can visit the USS Midway museum and the attendees can boast of boarding a real carrier.

Still, I have to admit that Wilhelm is much better with his predictions than I am, so who knows? Pearl Abyss did mention player meets as a way of improving player engagement on the latest investor call. However, I think the real reason is sticking a bunch of techo-vikings in the middle of a desert just isn't natural. Except for next year's event in Moscow, I think every event will occur in a city with a major port.

I think I can say this is my last visit to Las Vegas. I've attended every EVE Vegas CCP has run. The reason for going is the people I know and meet at the events. If it was only for the city? Wouldn't do it.