Oz’s House of the Evil Dead

Day 0, the day of info sessions. Today’s agenda:

1. A discussion with Torfifrans on how features go from design to production to implementation in the game.
2. A discussion about the New Player Experience with Eris Discordia
3. A discussion with Abathur and Whisper about new sov mechanics
4. A discussion with CCP Fear about the new ingame browser
5. A discussion with the lead GM’s (all of them) about Unholy Rage and the competence of the GM department.

Today was all about the CSM getting info and CCP getting feedback, I can’t tell you exactly what was talked about (NDA restrictions & all), but I’ll try and give an overview of what went down.

1. Torfi talked about how things happened in eve. We went through from initial idea stage, to refinement of that idea, creation of it’s assets (code, art, etc.) and then it’s testing. Scrum’s were explained, and we also learnt about the breakdown between developing new features and updating existing ones. A brief look at how CCP’s backlog worked was also done.

2. Eris and Stoffer (I have no idea what his CCP name is, but everyone calls him Stoffer anyway) came in to discuss how the New Player Experience has continued to evolve over time and explain how some of their new tools allowed them to refine the way they present the game to new players. We also had a quick discussion (and a sneak peak) about some future plans for tutorials and a new system which will help everyone, not just new players.

3. Abathur & Whisper came in to give us a high-level overview of what would be happening with the new sov system. I can’t say anything more than that as pretty much anything I say would breach the NDA on this one. All I can say is that the concept is epic win and it should be out on Sisi for testing somewhere around fanfest (just before or just after, I can’t remember

4. We then had a discussion with CCP Fear (and some of his team Slartibartfast) about the new ingame browser. We discussed what it was capable of, what it’s constraints were, it’s security and things like that. I know most people are thinking “oh, a new browser, not very exciting” which is one thing I did point out to them, but the excitement for this is what will be possible to do once a fully fledged browser is built into the game. Can’t say more than that I’m afraid.

5. Grimi & Nova came in to discuss some more detailed aspects of the Unholy Rage effort to ban RMT use in eve. All I can say is holy shit. These guys are causing some serious damage to the businesses of RMTers, and the fight is ongoing. The didn’t get into any specifics of how they are combating the problems, but they did show a whole lot of data about the number of accoutns being banned, it’s effects on the server loads and markets and things like that. We also got given a published version of the last 2 QEN’s. I think CCP may be producing them for sale at fanfest. If you are going, they are pretty awesome little things and well worth picking up.

6. The Cage Fight. In the left corner from Serbia: Vuk “Vik Luk” Lau, in the right corner “Every Lead GM working at CCP including 2 of them conferenced in over the speaker system”
This was the most contentious issue on our agenda, it was also the one I expected to end with blood on the floors and walls and chairs going through windows. It started slow and calm, it stayed calm, it ended in smiles and even more calm. I felt cheated. I wanted to see the GM’s physically assault Vuk (not because I don’t like him or anything, it just would’ve been awesome). Basically, the GM’s explained exactly what they did, what their training methods were for new GM’s and updating that training on the job. They also explained that for each Scrum team, there was now a GM involved to help the design be as simple for players as possible as well as informing the GM team of any possible new issue or mechanics that they may have to deal with. Arkanon (Internal Affairs) explained the auditing procedure of all CCP accounts, and GM’s specifically being audited far more than anyone else.

After that long day, we enjoyed some dinner at CCP, and spent the night chatting and drinking at some weird viking pub which had pictures of KKK members on the walls. Zastrow has also decided to nickname me “Thunder from Downunder” and Erik as Bruno. We (and by we, I mean mostly the goons) managed to deface CCP’s new “Excellence” posters with a zor chain and awesome smiley faces. I have to admit I did laugh a lot.

Tomorrow, the CSM issues start and hopefully the jetlag stops…