EVE Vegas Final Thoughts

My traveling vacations are over for the year. I spend far more traveling to EVE-related events than I do paying for three subscriptions. I still don't want to think about how much I spent on food, though. Vegas is much more expensive than Reykjavik.

I'm still not a big fan of Las Vegas. Perhapse the Minmatar in me is just too unsophisticated to appreciate the Gallente-style decadence along the Vegas Strip. The more likely explanation is that the glitz and the noise failed to totally cover up the grit and despair I sensed while walking around. I know that Chicago has some of the same issues, but like an ISK doubler in Jita, Las Vegas lies about its nature in an attempt to make the unsuspecting tourists' wallet as light as possible.

Fortunately, the event is a lot more about EVE and a lot less about Vegas. If one could ignore the constant glare and noise emanating from the casino floor, one could almost imagine the convention was hosted in a large hotel. And once the sessions began, I could ignore the city around me and concentrate on serious matters, like internet spaceships.

More importantly than the devs, what made EVE Vegas great was the players. I started off running into Sugar Kyle and Dire Necessity on the way to finding Dirk MacGirk and Dreydan broadcast the Open Comms Show live on site Thursday night. On Friday, I finally got to meet Mynxee, Johnny Splunk, and Gabby (Zoe Schereau in-game) from Signal Cartel/Eve-Scout Enclave in the registration line. I also ran into Dunk Dinkle from Brave and Crossing Zebras.

I do have to say while the meals were a bit expensive, the company was great. I had a lot more fun talking around the table than hanging out at bars. I know I'm going to leave people out, but I'll try to recount those with whom I broke bread. In addition to Sugar Kyle introducing me to vodka-laced pumpkin milkshakes at Holstein's at the Cosmopolitan, I ate with Dire Necessity, Mynxee, Johnny Splunk and his wife, Wilhelm Arcturus of The Ancient Gaming Noob and his wife, Gabby, Markus Vulpine, Erika Mizune (aka DJ Yumene from EVE Radio),  Makoto Priano (CEO of IKAME), Mark726 of EVE Travel fame, Eve News 24 writer Matterall, and Hydrostatic Podcast host Ashterothi and his $13 White Russians.

The group at Lotus of Siam

Name dropping aside, Dirk MacGirk is right. EVE Vegas isn't a hit with players because of the news about internet spaceships CCP drops on us. Nor is the event a success because of the location. The reason the event shines is the people who come together to talk about this crazy hobby of ours.

I'll probably blog about some of the news that came out of Vegas over the next few days or even weeks. Just as the world continues to turn, New Eden may ebb and flow, but the action never fully stops. Despite what I posted about the keynote, I found some rather interesting news that will take a few days to research before I can write a coherent post. I collect a lot of information and, as some of those who met me can confirm, I have a different way of looking at things and connecting the pieces of the puzzle.

But as for the event itself, I'll keep the memories stored away for the next time I begin to despair about the antics of some EVE players. Players tend to make or break MMORPGs and I'm glad I just experienced more evidence that EVE has a lot more good people flying around New Eden than the the haters will ever acknowledge.

Just Saved Some Money

I was a little uncertain about buying the Oculus Rift when the new virtual reality device hits the market early next year. So one of the reasons for coming out to EVE Vegas was to try out Valkyrie and whether I can even play the game.

I am horrible at two types of games, first person shooters and flight simulators. I knew that Valkyrie is a combat flight simulator, but I figured that since the scenario at EVE Vegas consisted of shooting NPCs that I couldn't do too badly, right? Wrong.

I played a version of Valkyrie two years ago at Fanfest, so I had some clue about the experience. The first surprise was that the version of the Oculus Rift I used yesterday felt much clunkier than what I remembered. I don't think I could put it on unassisted, which would really make me not want to buy one.

The next was the controls. An Xbox One controller? I knew I was in trouble, but the first time I played I could at least fly around. Given that the scenario was the one shown in the trailer at Fanfest, that was enough for me even if I didn't succeed in shooting anything.

Needless to say, I didn't succeed in coming close to shooting anything. I experimented with trying to lock a target for my missiles, but gave that up fairly quickly when I couldn't figure out how to do so. So from then on, I just concentrated on trying to steer my ship. I failed miserably at that as well. The controls were extremely sensitive and my view bounced around very rapidly. As for trying to control my speed, I gave that up as a lost cause because ... Xbox One controller. I had too many buttons to try to remember that the button even existed much less where the button was on the pad (which I couldn't see).

When my ship finally blew up, CCP Leeloo was present to ask me questions. She pointed out that I needed to move my head around to lock things.  I just wanted to leave, so I didn't tell her the only targeting reticle I saw was for the guns and I never saw anything for the missiles. Also, I didn't really care about the advice about moving my head around because I couldn't even get my ship pointed where I wanted to go.

Overall, a much more frustrating experience than the one I had at Fanfest 2014. But don't take this post as advice not to get an Oculus Rift. The gear is an amazing technology. What I will say is that the tech will not make you like flight simulators if you don't like them in the first place. So for me, I won't rush out and pick up a unit when they come out next year.

Thoughts From The EVE Vegas Keynote

What you are about to read will come as a shock. I am part of a small minority at the event. Perhaps even a minority of one. But I didn't walk away from CCP's EVE keynote presentation with a heightened sense of excitement of the game's future.

I can think of a few reasons. First, I am not the target audience. These changes are designed with null sec in mind. Other areas of the game, especially wormholes, are affected. Players like me? Not so much.

Next, I probably follow the game too closely. I didn't see any major surprises. CCP Larrikin provided some surprising details, but the general outlines of the capital and supercapital changes were already known. In fact, a good summary of the presentation is that everything on the roadmap is proceeding according to plan.

Because I avoid null sec like the plague, I don't understand the full impact of the changes. Fleet hangars for dreadnaughts perhaps takes away the reasons players prefer carriers if they have a capital at all. Then again, with the jump fatigue changes brought about in Phoebe, I thought the suitcase carrier was a dead concept anyway.

In the same vein, the shift of carriers away from the "space healer" mode combined with the newly announced nerf to refitting while having a weapons timer probably impacts null sec and wormhole combat greatly. I imagine the Slowcat doctrine will need to change drastically, although the new class of capital logistics ships means capital level remote repair capabilities are not going away.

Some of the changes do affect low sec. Supercapitals are losing their total immunity to electronic warfare. Tackling a titan with a Rifter? New players can definitely have an impact on large scale fleet fights now. I'll wager that people stop throwing titans and supercarriers around like they have recently. But as I don't engage in combat, the possibility I am wrong is high.

I am probably in a tiny minority that wasn't impressed by the new doomsday mechanics. The Sickle-class doomsday seems like a gimmick more than anything else. But even gimmicks can have consequences. I imagine that the doomsday will have the ability to wreck great havoc on balls of ships orbiting an anchor. Combine that with the ability of supercapitals to fling their opponents involuntarily across the battlefield and I wonder if the era of tightly formed balls of ships is over.

Some of the other news was just providing details. We knew CCP planned on releasing "Brain In A Box" soon. Soon turns has a date: next Tuesday. Yes, an author, Jeff Edwards, plans on writing a book about the Fountain war. But we knew he was working with The Mittani on a project last month.
Finally, CCP announced more details of plans to introduce crowd science into EVE. But that initiative was announced during Fanfest, so the only thing new was the connection to the Sisters of EVE.

I do have to add a feature that will seem small to people who don't play EVE: new camera views. The ability to view ships and objects from beyond lock range is huge. Hopefully the change will also allow cloaked ships to observe fights with good camera angles while streaming. And from the distant to the up-close-and-personal. First person view is coming to EVE. I imagine that is necessary because CCP believes that many players will want to try EVE after Valkyrie introduces a new generation of players to the New Eden universe. Catering to people used to playing in first person view seems, in retrospect, an obvious move.

I should add one other reason why I am not filled with excitement. The venue of the site, Las Vegas. The city, or at least the part I see, is pretty depressing. Given the lore surrounding New Eden, Las Vegas is an appropriate place to hold an EVE convention. But once that glitzy exterior is stripped away, I think the dark undertones of the city affect one's emotions in a negative way. Perhaps once I get back home I'll feel differently about what I've heard so far.

I Went There

Sometimes I have to make tough choices concerning The Nosy Gamer. What subjects do I want to cover? Where do I put in the effort? So at the last minute I decided to drop my coverage of Guild Wars 2's Heart of Thorns expansion and traveled to Las Vegas to attend EVE Vegas. Oh, I bought the expansion so I will eventually write something abut the experience. Just not in the near future.

So far I'm having fun. I watched Dirk and Dreydan broadcast The Open Comms show live and then afterward went out to catch a bite to eat with Sugar Kyle and Dire Necessity. But Las Vegas itself? Meh. I took a walk and looking at Caesar's Palace I was struck by the similarities that reminded be of some of the buildings in government section of Sofia. I guess I had that comparison sitting in the back of my head because while my room at Planet Hollywood is nice, the hotels I stayed at in Sofia were nicer.

As garish as parts of Sofia are, Las Vegas is, quite frankly, worse. But's that's okay. One doesn't go to EVE Vegas for the location. The real reason is to meet up with a bunch of other internet spaceship nerds, hang out, and have a good time.

I should add, for those looking for live coverage of EVE Vegas, TMC is trying to put something together on its Twitch channel. I don't know how well that will work, because of the short planning window. But who knows? For now, I'll just try to keep good notes. With luck, CCP will have the most important sessions up on YouTube before I even get home to write up a summary.