A New World Dawns

The day has come at last.  After changes and postponements and what not, New World goes live today.

Just how new and how worldly?

I received an email yesterday morning from Amazon with the Steam key that was the fulfillment of my pre-order.  I launched Steam and plugged that in and downloaded the client, which weighed in at about 39GB, putting it about on par with the Diablo II Resurrected client I downloaded last week.

After that all there was left to do was wait.  And even the wait wasn’t that long.  The various server regions were all set to start up at 8am local time… except Australia for some reason.

It is 8am somewhere

That means pretty much everything is live now.  But I won’t bother to log in until later today, after work and the usual rest I need.  It is hard to sit at you desk at home all day working and then transition to games.  I need to be somewhere else for a while.

Amazon has provided a whole bunch of details about the launch in a post on their site, including the list of servers available.

Meanwhile, somebody has also put together a whole web site about which streamers will be on what servers for launch so you can avoid  the servers that are going to get slammed because somebody with 100K followers is going to swamp the server.

As for why I am playing, a legitimate question after my somewhat tepid summary of the latest beta relative to where the game stood a few years back, there are a few reasons.

First, I remain interested in how it turned out.  The change to a theme park stance has worn away any hype I might have had for the title, but that might be a good thing.  Hype knows no sense or logic, it only knows hype and it is very easy to let hype inflate your expectations.  Lower expectations mean a more appraising look at the title and less likelihood of real disappointment.

Second, it has been a bit of a ride getting here since the game was announced back in 2016.  Five years isn’t that long of a stretch… let me tell you about some Kickstarter backed MMOs that promised to ship more than five years ago that still aren’t even in beta… but given the gyrations and the delays and the change of course… again, I am interested to see where it ended up.

Third, it is a bit of an event in the genre, the first big studio launch of an MMORPG in a while.  How it goes will likely be read as a barometer for the genre as a whole.  Are MMORPGs a thing again?  Is the market ready for new blood?  And how long has it been since I was at an MMORPG launch?  Expansions don’t count and I cannot remember the last time I was there on day one for a new title.

Finally, it is kind of a low commitment.  New World is buy to play; grab the box for $40 and no subscription required.  I am down with that.  Not having a subscription cuts both ways of course.  While it makes it easy to buy in, I also have a tendency to prioritize the games I am paying a monthly fee for when it comes to play time.  But we’ll see.  I also want to see the day one cash shop versus what it looks like a year from now.

I have no idea where I will end up server-wise.  And the fact that companies (guilds) are capped at 100 people means I’ll likely not join one any time soon if only to avoid taking up a limited resource for some group.

And, of course, we’ll see if Amazon is really ready.  There is certainly a chance that there will be issues.  It would barely be an MMORPG launch without some problems.  I’ll be along for the ride.  Let’s see how it rolls.

Addendum: I peeked in this morning just to see how things were going and it is queues everywhere, rolling up into the 25K zone for some “cool name” servers, like Valhalla in US East.  I expect we might see some additional servers coming online before the weekend.

Twelve Weeks of World War Bee

The war made it through its twelfth week and shows no signs of abating.

At some point during the weekend before this past one the invaders, who had been calling themselves PAPI, an acronyms whose origin I hadn’t bothered to look up, decided to change their name to the Anaconda Coalition.  The name was announced on Talking in Stations, and the public response was not wholehearted in its support.  Even members of said coalition were mocking the name on Reddit.  The universal agreed upon symbol quickly became a variation of this internet meme based on the Gadsden Flag.

Anaconda, cha cha cha

The Anaconda Coalition name has since faded from use by our foes in most public forums, though the leadership still uses it in their safe space on Talking in Stations.

Querious Front

The action over the last week was largely concentrated in Querious, where the invaders have taken all of the ihubs in the region save for those in what is sometimes referred to a “fake Querious,” as those systems an an enclave within Delve, and that one ihub in NDII-Q, which somehow still belongs to United Earth Directorate.

Querious – Sept 27, 2020

Of course, action is a relative term.  The week did not start off with much action as the invaders stood down a few times, even when they outnumbered us.  That led to a new Fountain Frank video, featuring soundtrack made up of samples from their comms.

Things livened up a bit on Tuesday night when a battle over the armor timer for a Tatara in NDII-Q escalated into a dreadnought fight that found us outnumbered 2 to 1.  The objective went to the invaders as did the ISK war according to the battle report.

NDII-Q Battle Report Header

I actually missed that battle as the enemy had stood down over another objective shortly before there was a ping and a form up for the Tatara.

The next night came the battle over the armor timer of a Fortizar of ours in 49-U6U, about which I have written already.  This is where the war really began in earnest as the first big capital fight, with both sides escalating up to super carriers and over a trillion ISK destroyed.

On the Fortizar in 49-U6U

We were, once again, out numbered by a ratio of 2 to 1 and the losses lined up to that ratio.  The enemy also won the objective.

The fight ran just four hours, which isn’t bad for a tidi slug fest where capitals are dropped, but the servers, struggling to keep up even at 10% tidi, acted up, causing more problems for us than our foes.  The server issues led both sides to decline to drop titans and even the super carriers were pulled back when it was possible.

This sort of battle is going to become more and more common as the invaders move closer to Delve and within range of our capital fleet.

After the clash at 49-U6U things settled down a bit, with no further large scale fights for the rest of the week.

Other Fronts

When things were quiet early on in the week a group from the Imperium slipped into Detroid and reinforced then took out some TEST ihubs.

A little corner of Detroid made empty

They were replaced after not too long, but it was a nice harassment operation behind the front lines.

Later in the week the invaders managed to drop a Fortizar in SVM-3K, which is their first attempt at a big structure within the bounds of Delve, at least that I have seen.

Hostile Fortizar deploying

As a potential foothold, that system would put a lot of southern Delve in capital jump range while being just beyond the single jump radius of our own capital staging.  But it is withing range of 1DQ1-A, where we keep everything else.

Being in our space, it is taking some time for the Fortizar to anchor.  It should finish its cycle tomorrow, if I counted on my fingers successfully.  I imagine we will be looking to destroy it as it anchors, which could lead to another big fight.

My Participation

I went on a number of fleets over the course of the week, but about half of them ended up with no fight as the enemy stood down or ran off on our approach.  Of course, the 49-U6U fight made up for that.

I also did not lose any ships during the week, so my tally of losses still stands as follows:

• Ares interceptor – 9
• Atron entosis frigate – 5
• Ferox battle cruiser – 3
• Drake entosis battle cruiser – 3
• Guardian logi – 2
• Malediction interceptor – 2
• Scalpel logi frigate – 2
• Scimitar logi – 1
• Bifrost entosis command destroyer – 1
• Cormorant destroyer – 1
• Purifier stealth bomber – 1
• Hurricane battle cruiser – 1
• Sigil entosis industrial – 1

Other Items

As noted above, I expect we will come to blows over the hostile Fortizar in SVM-3K.

More interesting will be what the enemy plans to do about the Keepstar we still have in 49-U6U.  They have said they don’t want to fight on our Keepstars, but since that is where we keep most of our stuff it won’t be much of an extermination if they don’t attack them.

And, since I have been tracking this sporadically in posts, I might as well keep it up.  The weekly peak concurrent users ongoing tally:

• Day 1 – 38,838
• Week 1 – 37,034
• Week 2 – 34,799
• Week 3 – 34,692
• Week 4 – 35,583
• Week 5 – 35,479
• Week 6 – 34,974
• Week 7 – 38,299
• Week 8 – 35,650
• Week 9 – 35,075
• Week 10 – 35,812
• Week 11 – 35,165
• Week 12 – 36,671

We were up a bit for the week, though that probably has less to do with the war than with the threat to the economy from CCP’s plan to nerf mining even harder next month, but I’ll get to that in another post.

Other articles about this week in the war:

• TAGN – The 49-U6U Fight Foreshadows Battles to Come
• INN – WWB is a Question: “How should EVE be played?”
• INN – World War Bee: Week 12

Pokemon Go Crowds in the Unova Region Pokemon

The latest big update to Pokemon Go was the release of the first Pokemon from the Unova region into the game.  That was the region that served as the setting for Pokemon Black & White and was the first setting for the game not based on a Japanese locale.  But location doesn’t mean the same thing in Pokemon Go, at least not in the sense it does in the core RPG series.

What it does mean is that players get new Pokemon to catch.

Including Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott

If you have caught them all, then having more to catch can be enough motivation to get out in the world again.  But what if you haven’t caught them all yet?

It has been about a year since Niantic started putting the fourth generation Pokemon, from the Sinnoh region, into the game.  Doubtless with an eye towards slowing down their release, lest they run out of official Pokemon to put in the game, staggered the release of those Pokemon.  They also put in a bottleneck in the form of the Sinnoh Stone mechanic, which I mentioned previously.

The elusive Sinnoh stone

That has left me with a backlog of Pokemon waiting to be evolved.  But at least I have those Pokemon and it is only a matter of time before the weekly task lottery finally delivers the required item enough times to wrap that up.  But I am still quite a ways from the gold medal for the Sinnoh region, much less catching them all.  After a year that seems a bit odd.

Meanwhile, the new Unova Pokemon are not exactly easy finds.  In seeing that, the problem seems to be how Pokemon Go is structured.

The core RPG Pokemon titles all have a base number of Pokemon in each game, usually around 150.  That gets you the regional Pokedex completion.  After that there is the National Pokedex, where you have to catch all known Pokemon, but that is really an end-game task.  There are usually special mechanics and the ability to trade in the online Pokemon auction house to get what you are looking for.

Pokemon Go, on the other hand, is a single game.  It now has to contain five generations of Pokemon within a single game.  After all, if you’re a new player who just downloaded the game, you want to be able to catch up.  And so if you look around you’ll still find Bulbasaur and Charmander and Squirtle roaming about with their first generation companions.  You will also see second and third generation Pokemon out as well.  And then the Sinnoh region Pokemon.  And finally, somewhere in the mix, the new Unova Pokemon.

In my experience seeing half a dozen wild Pokemon on you phone screen at the same time constitutes a “crowd” as far as Pokemon Go is concerned.  In that situation, where the new Pokemon represent less than one in five of the total Pokemon population, seeing something from Unova can be a bit of a challenge.

Which, I guess can be good from some angles.  It does make you pay more attention to the hunt.  But it also makes catching them all somewhat less likely.  If I am still behind on Sinnoh Pokemon a year later, the prospect for Unova doesn’t seem all that great.

And don’t get me started on the egg situation.  The 7km eggs you get from friends as gifts still seem oriented on the Alola Pokemon, which are just graphical variations of first generation Pokemon that don’t even have their own spots in the Pokedex.

Anyway, so it goes.  Pokemon Go remains popular and profitable and a lot of the changes made to the game over the first three years have been pretty good.  But there are three more generations of Pokemon still out there, so the crowding looks like it will only get worse as time goes on.

 

The Lesson of Club Penguin Island

If you assume your customers are loyal to your product and choose to test this you may be disappointed.

Back in the early 2000s the cable company sent me a letter.

When we moved into our house it had the old dual-coax A/B cable connection that had be installed back in the 70s.  It was a bit annoying, but HD wasn’t a thing for TVs yet so it didn’t really matter.  The TV worked, I had our ReplayTV DVR running with it just fine, I didn’t really think about it much.

The letter said that they would no longer be supporting the old network and we needed to call them in order to arrange new service.

Now I had to think about our TV service.  So I went out and compared deals and ended up calling DirecTV to get their package that included the receiver with Tivo integrated. (Based upon the recommendation of a friend who worked at ReplayTV no less.)

When I had that set I called up the cable company to cancel my service.  The agent wanted to know why I was cancelling and I explained that their letter said I couldn’t keep my current service so I went shopping for a replacement.  The agent said that I actually had almost five years until my current service would be discontinued, something not mentioned in the letter.  I told the agent that it was too late, I already had the new service installed.  And that was that.

Most people are happy enough with what they have in a lot of areas of their life.  But if you make them focus on a particular area, especially if you threaten to take away their happy situation, they may decide that there are better options out there.

And so it went with Club Pengiun Island.

Penguins go mobile

Back in March of last year Disney closed down the long-running web MMO Club Penguin, a game that had over 200 million registered users over the course of its twelve years online.  It was past its prime for sure, and was looking a little long in the tooth, but it had an audience that was still committed to it and could have carried on for years based on the groundwork that had been laid.

But for Disney, MMOs and web games were apparently yesterday’s news.  Mobile games were the new frontier.  And so they developed Club Penguin Life, a mobile game using the Club Penguin IP.

And, to be sure that it was a success, Disney closed Club Penguin the day before Club Penguin Island launched.

This actually worked out worse than I predicted.  I thought Disney had enough muscled to force Club Penguin Island to be a success.  I was wrong.

Of course the Club Penguin players were angry and in no mood to favor Disney with their presence.  Plus, the new game was on a different platform, so if you were playing on the PC you were probably more likely to just move to another PC game.

Reports said the game wasn’t ready for prime time.  Club Penguin Island had server issues and a host of bugs to address over time.  Meanwhile, even those fans of the old game who were willing to come over found Club Penguin Island unable to compare to the original.  An MMO that has been able to grow for a dozen years has more content than you can reproduce on a new platform in a short time.

Things were off to a rocky enough start that by the eight month mark Disney had a beta out for a PC version of the game, no doubt in hope of finding some of the users they lost when they skipped platforms.

Basically Disney betrayed their installed base, switched platforms, and offered an inferior experience, but thought it would all work out just fine.

It did not and yesterday the company officially announced that Club Penguin Island would be shutting down.  Text of the announcement quoted for posterity:

To our Club Penguin Fans and Family:

There’s no easy way to say this but after 13 incredible years, Club Penguin will be sunsetting at the end of this year. We’ll be providing players with all the necessary information in the coming weeks via in-game messages and updates here on Island News.

Thanks to you, Club Penguin has been more than a game; it’s been a global community where you have gathered to socialize and express yourselves. In a time when games come and go within months, it was one of the longest-running kids’ games of all time and at its height, had over 200 million accounts. Players from countries around the world showed their commitment to the game by adopting 25 million Puffles and creating over 200,000 videos.

When we replaced the original Club Penguin game a year and a half ago, we always strived to make Club Penguin Island the best mobile successor to the original game. From day one of development, Club Penguin Island has been a true passion project for everyone here at Disney but, the time has come for the party to end.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your continued dedication to the Club Penguin and Club Penguin Island games and for being a member of our family. We are so grateful to have shared in this journey with you. We’re excited to bring you more new experiences around all of Disney’s beloved characters and stories across all platforms.

Please look out for more information soon and as always, waddle on.

– Club Penguin Team

I find that message to be somewhat disingenuous as for a lot of Club Penguin fans, the actual game was shut down back in March of 2017 and the stats they are quoting are heavily weighted towards it.

Still, I am sure that the fans of Club Penguin Island will be disappointed all the same.  And those working on the game found themselves facing unemployment as well.

The actual shut down date hasn’t been announced, but I imagine Club Penguin Island won’t be around to ring in the new year.

Coverage:

• Kotaku – initial news break
• Polygon
• Massively OP

And What of the EVE Online Store?

Since the announcement of the acquisition of CCP by Black Desert Online creator Pearl Abyss a few weeks back there has been a stream of speculation as to what this will mean for EVE Online, good or bad.

The two logos together in space

There has been more than a fair share of panic that New Eden is going to become some sort of pay to win hellhole like Black Desert Online with special cash shop ships or gold ammo or whatever.  I am dubious that Pearl Abyss would jump right on that, and not just because CCP spent most of their AMA forum thread repeating that there were no drastic changes planned.  It would simply be dumb to to make that sort of changes to the game as it would be a quick way to kill it.  Unless CCP has something else worth $425 million, that would be a very bad way to treat their investment.

But if the panic over the downside has been overstated, it is in part because the possible upside of the acquisition lacks a direct, tangible win.  How will things be better if CCP’s primary message is that things are not changing?

My own take has been that the acquisition should/could allow CCP to focus more on EVE Online, the most valuable asset the company owns.  Without having to worry about making that next product they won’t have to keep diverting time and resources into what has largely been a waste of money sine they bought White Wolf back in 2006.

Being part of Pearl Abyss puts CCP in an ecosystem where EVE Online doesn’t have to pay all the bills and gives them the support to develop the IP of New Eden for other games.  Players win by virtue of EVE Online getting more of CCP’s attention.

Again, while positive sounding, that is a pretty nebulous stance.

Others have take this a step further and started pointing at things on which they feel CCP ought to focus.  More than 15 years in EVE Online is a big game with a lot of neglected features.

Over at Massively OP their EVE Evolved column decided to pick a couple of items that CCP ought to work on and I couldn’t disagree more with the proposed focus, and all the more so because the article’s alleged point is monetization.  Neither ideas is a money maker.

One was walking in stations, a feature I’ve beaten to death here.  The problem the feature has now is the same problem it has always had, which is that if you bring in avatars you then have to create game play to justify them.  Otherwise it is just a huge waste of time and money that would cost much more than even the most optimistic revenue estimates you could make while keeping a straight face.  If you’re going to build what would essentially be a new game you might as well go all out and actually build a new game rather than trying to stick it in New Eden.  Fortunately CCP has learned its lesson on that and said in that AMA that walking in stations was not going to return.

Me, only you can’t change my mind

The other was a bit more subtle, an idea that superficially seems to have merit, but which falls apart if explored.  That is improving or expanding the EVE Online store.  I’m not talking about the in-game store, but the web storefront that sells real world items.

The EVE Online store has long been a bone of contention and has gone through many iterations over the years, with significant gaps where there wasn’t a store at all.  But the long running consistent complaint has been pretty simple; why the hell can’t I buy some decent EVE Online merchandise?

Right now it is a semi-generic store, but you can at least buy a black EVE Online logo T-shirt or hoodie or a coffee mug along with a few other items.

The Current EVE Gear Shop

But the article over at Massively envisions a grand expansion.  It calls for better apparel, posters, ship models, and whatever.  It is a refrain we have heard over the years.  We want to buy cool stuff about EVE Online.

Except, not really.

Sure, our theoretical selves, enthusiastic about the game, are keen to throw money at EVE Online stuff.  But the real, practical, looking at the prices and having to open the wallet and get out the credit card selves?  Not so much.  Yes, there is always somebody willing to shell out for a thousand dollar floating Nyx model, but there aren’t enough people for CCP to ramp up production and keep some in stock to ship.  Those battleship models CCP made back in the day?

Everybody loved them, but not many people loved them enough to drop $125 on them.  I am pretty sure CCP took a bath on those and I seem to recall them giving them away for various events down the road. (Though now I see a few on eBay for $300 each, so maybe I should have invested.)

The reality is that for a company the size of CCP, the gear store is marketing and not a business.  I cringe every time I hear somebody say, “CCP could make so much money if they only sold…” about the online store.  No, they won’t make money.  They’ll be lucky if they break even.  The quantities are simply too small relative to the prices we’re willing to pay.

Yes, if you’re Blizzard or Riot or even Valve and have a super popular game companies like Jinx will pay you for the license to print shirts and such.  The market for some properties is big enough that third parties can pay to use the IP, do the work, and make money at it.

But EVE Online is not one of those properties.  Jinx worked with CCP in 2009, back when EVE Online was still a bit of a rising star, then declined to renew after 2011.  When pros like Jinx drop you, that is a pretty big hint that you aren’t in a league to make money on T-shirts with your IP.

I realize that this is mostly opinion on my part, but I think it is opinion backed up by some reasonable evidence.  And I’ll throw some more on top of that.

Find a game of comparable size/player base/popularity as EVE Online that has a better online merchandise store.

As I said, the big dogs are covered.  Blizzard licenses out to Jinx and others, while Riot and Valve have their own store.  But down at the CCP level things get kind of thin.

SOE used to have a store with some dubious merch.

It’s like they never saw Beavis & Butt-head

But since the dawn of the Daybreak era that has all fallen by the wayside.

Back about when EVE Online was working with Jinx Turbine managed to get a LOTRO coffee mug and mouse pad in the WB online store, but that seemed to be about their peak.

And then… hrmm… in digging around, that was about all I could find.  Barring unlicensed third parties at places like Red Bubble, there isn’t a lot of merch available from game companies like CCP.  We might, in this as in many things, be holding CCP to an unreasonable standard when we’re actually better off than other games.

Anyway, if you have any evidence to the contrary I’d be glad to hear it, but I think we might have the best EVE Online store we’re likely to get… and it is never going to be a profit center for CCP.

SuperData Research says PUBG Passed WoW for August

As the month of September rolls to a close it is time to see what has changed on SuperData Research’s digital revenue charts for August.

SuperData Research Top 10 – August 2017

On the PC side of the house League of Legends remains nailed to the top of the chart while Dungeon Fighter Online and Fantasy Westward Journey Online II swapped spots since last month and Crossfire remained in its 4th place position.

New to fifth place this month is the ever exploding PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, which passed World of Warcraft, pushing it down into sixth place.

After that World of Tanks stayed in place, Overwatch moved up a spot, DOTA 2 fell from eighth to tenth, and CS:GO climbed back onto the chart, pushing ROBLOX back off the list.

At the other end of the chart the only mobile games I pay attention to remained solid, with Candy Crush Saga holding onto ninth place again while Pokemon Go jumped up from seventh to fifth position.

Other notes from the SuperData blog post, consolidated to reduce redundancy:

• The worldwide digital video games market grew 11% year-over-year in August to $7.9B. The premium PC segment shrank 10% year-over-year, despite PUBG’s breakout success, due to tough comparisons against No Man’s Sky release, World of Warcraft: Legion expansion launch, and Overwatch’s first event and new map last year. Social and pay-to-play MMO segments continue to decline at a rate of 4% and 25% respectively. Console and mobile grew 11% and 13%, respectively. The free-to-play MMO market was the big winner this month, growing 28% year-over-year, as more publishers and developers adopt this business model.
• PLAYERUNKNOWN’s Battlegrounds continues to dominate PC game sales, despite still being in Steam Early Access. PUBG is the number 1 premium PC game for the 3rd month in a row and has overtaken World of Warcraft on the total PC games list for the first time. Total life-to-date sales close to 9 million units through August
• Hearthstone hits all-time revenue peak with Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion. Blizzard’s CCG reached a new high this month. This marks a 15% increase over their previous peak.
• Overwatch PC monthly active users reach new highs due to successive updates. On the back of a string of updates that introduced a new character, two new game modes, and the return of the “Summer Games” event, Overwatch recorded its highest MAU yet.
• Madden NFL 18 sells over 220,000 digital units at launch. Sales were up compared to last year’s launch month units for Madden NFL 17. We also estimate modest additional content growth on the back of new in-game DLC packs available this year.

Spaceship Pageantry in Amarr

Yesterday say the ascension of Caitiz of House Tash-Murkon, chosen through the Imperial succession trials after Empress Jamyl Sarum I was slain by drifters. to lead Amarr.  At the end of the coronation she was Her Majesty Empress Catiz I of Holy Amarr, First Apostle of the True Faith, and Sovereign Defender of the Imperial Rite.

After the ceremony, the Empress addressed assembled capsuleers and the assembled Fleet of the Imperial Guard.

The Fleet of the Imperial Guard

There were attempts to interrupt the address, but it went ahead as planned.  The text of the formal address:

Esteemed Officers of the Imperial Guard, defenders of the faith, protectors of the sovereignty of Holy Amarr. It is an honor that my first address as Head of State is made before servicemen and women from the Imperial Armed Forces who have served the Empire with such courage and devotion over the course of their careers.

Capsuleers, both loyalist and independent, who have served the Empire in a time of need, successfully thwarting the attacks of a heretical enemy naming themselves ‘Purity of the Throne’.

My Imperial Guard escort wears their colors in defiance, as a tribute to your tenacity on the field of battle. It is a privilege to address each and every one of you.

I find myself humbled to see the familiar colors of so many loyalist organizations I have come to know and respect during my short tenure as heiress to the estate of my family.

Today, I leave behind that legacy and my family name, humbled under the watchful gaze of the Lord, as his servant, chosen by divine rite. I see that my champion, Lord Kelon Darkight is present. May the Lord bless him for his prowess in combat.

Today, I step forward to lead the people of Amarr into a new era.

An era of prosperity, an era of growth. An era of change, and progress.

For too long our course has been unsteady, our path uneven and unsure, rocky and infirm.

The loss of two great leaders in a little over a decade, the noble and wise Doriam II, the fierce and devoted Jamyl I, has left our people reeling in a storm of uncertainty, our future clouded and unclear.

Today, that lack of clarity ends. Today, our future is in our hands, and His light shines down upon us.

Today, together, we stand firm at the beginning of a new path. A path that takes us on a journey paved with prosperity for loyal subjects of the faith.

A journey, the first fleeting steps of which we take today, that marks a turning point for this great Empire and sets us on a course to stability, security and opportunity.

To ensure an end to the atrocities we have borne witness to and experienced at the hands of those who would defy the word of God.

However, with great military power comes great responsibility. The might and the honor of the Imperial Armed Forces will be restored, and with it we will usher in a new generation of capsuleers to support the Golden Fleet.

Tens of thousands more capsuleers will graduate from the Imperial Academy to join our already established and prized loyalist forces, in the largest expansion to our pod pilot training program ever conceived.

To support this growth, our administration will work to make the Imperial economy a powerhouse of activity, with new foreign policy and trade legislation that opens up our markets to the cluster like never before.

The future of this glorious Empire is in our hands. In your hands, and with the Empire’s might at your backs, this will be a defining moment in the history of Holy Amarr, and the legacy of the capsuleer.

This will be your Ascension!

Amarr Victor!

This all took place during the EUTZ evening and the middle of the day in the US.  Those who could attend got there, including Chribba.  The rest of us had to roll in to see the spectacle when we could manage it.  I popped in with an alt last night to see the Fleet of the Imperial Guard arrayed before Amarr Prime.  I happened to get there in time to see a Paladin class Marauder circling the event station and launching fireworks.

A celebratory Paladin

It was none other than Max Singularity.

Space Pope in flight

Though I met him in person at EVE Vegas last year, and heard him on coms during fleets when we went to purge heretic in Providence, I don’t think I had actually seen him in space until last night.

Who puts a bounty on a pope? Heretics do!

All of which was a bit of New Eden lore put on display for people, and which got quite a turnout, with Amarr local reported to have passed 2K players in system during the ceremony.  I generally follow the lore loosely.  I am not immersed in it, but I keep an eye on it and run through some of the events that come up now and again, like the recent Purity of the Throne.

Of course, it was expected that something might happen… drifter attacker, purist incursion, or some other distraction… but nothing happened save for some player activity, which was dealt with but which itself becomes part of the lore.

Which is about the best you can expect in a sandbox, where the players are supposed to… and in this case largely do… run off and create their own content.  New Eden is already a tapestry of individual and group tales, so CCP generated game lore has to weave its own path, careful not to step on our own stories.

For a while now Amarr has been a place to see things you do not normally see in high sec.  Leaving aside Chribba and the only high sec dreadnought, there have been a group of titans parked off the station for a while and now the Fleet of the Imperial Guard is arrayed in the system for people to see… for a while.

Related items:

• A fly through video of the fleet
• A Narrated fly through video
• The Scope pre-ceremony news cast
• Video during the event
• A Year of Sorrow at TMC

And then more screen shots.  You’ll never see a player fleet so arrayed.  We travel in blobs that get stretched out as we move. (An epic travel blob here.)  I think you need dev tools to get ships lined up so nicely.