NYCC 2013: EVE: True Stories Tells GoonSwarm's Tale

Encaen

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NYCC 2013: EVE: True Stories Tells GoonSwarm's Tale



EVE: True Stories is bringing in-game stories to a four-part graphic novel series.

At NYCC 2013, I got a chance to speak to CCP's Torfi Frans Olafsson, who has been working on EVE since 1999. With 14 years of EVE under his belt, there are few people out there who can talk about the game quite so passionately. As Creative Director - EVE Universe IP Development, he is responsible for bringing the entirety of the EVE universe to a variety of new media. The most fascinating of these adaptations, at least from where I stand, is the new Dark Horse Comics cooperative endeavor, EVE: True Stories, which is slated for a four part release starting in February 2014.

If you haven't heard of True Stories, the basic premise is that no NPC in the EVE universe can come close to comparing to the fame and infamy of the players in game. Olafsson made it clear that the players in game are the "rockstars" of the universe, so it is only reasonable to make them the center of their graphic novel collaboration. To that end, CCP created a website where players could submit their in-game stories, told from the players' own perspective, and they chose what will likely be the most powerful and controversial story: The appearance of GoonSwarm and its role in the downfall of Band of Brothers. "We are only the messengers," said Olafsson of CCP, further solidifying the idea that players, not NPCs, are truly at the center of the EVE universe.

A little backstory: Band of Brothers was the dominant alliance in the EVE universe for some time. At the height of their power, however, Something Awful entered the picture, with their upstart alliance, GoonSwarm. If you've ever encountered a Something Awful guild in an MMO of any sort, you probably have some interesting stories to tell. Whether you praise them or condemn them for their often controversial behavior, it is undeniable that they always bring something novel to the table. In this case, the leader of GoonSwarm convinced a Lieutenant from Band of Brothers to defect. With the Lieutenant working to bring down Band of Brothers from the inside, GoonSwarm created its own lasting place in the EVE universe.

GoonSwarm's leader actually submitted the story to True Stories, so the series will be told largely from his perspective. Olafsson is expecting a lot of blowback, given the controversial nature of the story, but CCP thinks that it will be well worth it, just to bring one of the most epic tales of subterfuge from the EVE universe to a wider audience through a new medium.

Another particularly compelling aspect of the True Stories series is that they have a different artist for each of the four parts, so you'll be getting a new perspective of the universe with every issue. EVE rigorously adheres to the art direction in the game, and Olafsson was visibly excited to get to see a handful of new artists taking the ships, races, and universe in their own creative direction.

EVE: True Stories will be showing you the rise of GoonSwarm and the downfall of Band of Brothers starting in February 2014, and will be available for free online. The second and third issues will be released in March, and the final issue will launch in April. If you really dig it, you'll even be able to get all four issues in print form later in 2014 as a compendium of sorts. If things go well, this won't be the end of True Stories, as they received hundreds of entries from players, and are eager to share more of the stories of EVE's rockstars with a wider comic-reading audience. There has even been talk of an EVE television show down the road sometime. Details were scant, but keep an eye out for more info on that in the coming months.

If you want to know more about EVE: True Stories or the disbanding of Band of Brothers, you can check out the True Stories website [https://truestories.eveonline.com/truestories/index.html].

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Seydaman

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That's pretty cool, EVE seems to produce a lot of those interesting stories.
 

Kyrdra

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Desert Punk said:
The fall of BoB took place LOOONG before the episode you are whining about. Plus a lot of people do incredibly stupid shit while they are drunk, this episode just happened to be televised.

OT: Damn this is cool. Its just such a shame that amazing battles and events like this dont happen terribly often, and the rest is rather slow going and plodding. And as much as the GS can be douchebags at time, they were always fun to fight against.
Just dont read the local if you want to hold on to your braincells. Granted Test is worse but at least both of those came to fight us in the small lowsec and we gave them while being strongly outnumbered a good fight
 

CUnk

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Hopefully they'll cover some of the older stories that inspired most SA members (including myself) to give EVE a go in the first place. Like GHSC's famous scam (maybe one of the first EVE stories to get the attention of the gaming press).

I'd also like to see the GoonSwarm stories begin with their origins as Goonfleet in Syndicate and their early expansion attempts. But I doubt there are many people still playing that can recount the details.
 

thiosk

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It would be something quite unexpected to see the roles of players (especially including players from an internet subculture forum called something awful) recreated as characters in live action television.

Id be astonished (and I suspect there would be more cries of I WAS THERE THIS ISN"T HOW IT WAS!11eleven! than i care to imagine)
 

Rufus Shinra

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We're seeing published comics about epic war and backstabbing stories that actually happened between players in a MMO. I can die happy.
 

james.sponge

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Isn't GoonSwarm the only corporation that receives compensation for ships lost because of lag? I heard a lot of its pilots are ccp employees so that could explain their rise to power :p. On the other hand I haven't played eve in three or four years, so if I'm talking nonsense feel free correct me.
 

Smooth Operator

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Celebration of the band ultimate trolls in gaming, whose sole community drive is to ruin everyone elses experience, well I for one believe this is exactly the sort of thing we should endorse...

Next up a full feature movie called Heroes of 4chan.
 

james.sponge

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Desert Punk said:
james.sponge said:
Isn't GoonSwarm the only corporation that receives compensation for ships lost because of lag? I heard a lot of its pilots are ccp employees so that could explain their rise to power :p. On the other hand I haven't played eve in three or four years, so if I'm talking nonsense feel free correct me.
People say that CCP compensates them more as an insult, the real deal with them is that they just have such an insane economy that they 100% reimburse their pilots out of the alliances bank accounts.

When Test and Goons went to war together in the north, one of their FCs was laughing at the idea of losing a fleet to something stupid, as they could pay for every player in the fleet to lose a thousand of the ships we were flying (battleships mind you) and it would just be written off.

Their rise to power has to do with that, the fact that players can actually play the game with no personal risk involved as the corp will pay for everything, and their fleet commanders making the fleets fun, all the BSing, jokes, stories ect that get thrown around can let you spend hours doing what would be a boring patrol laughing your ass off.

Like I said before, they can be douchebags, but the reason for their success in the game is due to them having fun and them having an economy run as efficiently as a lot of real world corporations.
Thanks for clarification this seems logical considering the fact trading and manufacturing are two most profitable jobs in Eve (also scams but let's leave those out :D). This makes me wonder whether they exploit their miners in any way, the idea of having GoonSwarm labor camps in null sec is amusing.
 

Karadalis

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Kringe worthy... especially since the personas will be represented by their ingame avatars no doubt and not who really sits behind the PC... so much for true stories.

I mean it would be much more hilarious if they showed that a large chunk of eve is controlled by basement dwelling neckbeards that need to ruin other peoples fun to feel good about themselves.

But sadly this is just CCP stroking this special group of players ego even more.. as if they havent done that enough.
 

Soviet Heavy

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I redact my above statement about Something Awful being mentioned a lot. It should read "lots of people bitter that Something Awful ruined their fun in a game run by player corporations".