Interview with EVE’s Noah “Hammerhead” Ward

With more than six years under their belt, CCP continues to move forward with their popular sci-fi MMO, EVE Online.

I sat down with Noah “Hammerhead” Ward, lead game designer, Friday afternoon at PAX to discuss the expansion to be released in early November, changes to the game and their new social networking Web site to further complement EVE Online.

Dominion is the eleventh expansion to be released since EVE Online was launched. All EVE expansions are free to players and can be downloaded online. CCP releases two expansions a year for free to its players. They recently released a box set in stores, which has helped to drive up subscribers.

They are currently sitting at 300k subscribers, a fact he said makes them proud because that is the same population as Iceland and they plan to exceed their country’s population when it comes to subscribers.

This expansion relates to the sovereign changes they are implementing in game. With the expansion, they are improving the sovereignty system to make it transparent to the user and less tedious to those shooting at each other. In addition, they are changing the mechanics on sovereignty so that players can upgrade the space they play in in various ways. This can include improving a mining field, improved exploration along with other things that will change the high level game play as well.

When asked if they would be introducing new ships or weapons he responded quickly with “We’re adding fighter bombers to the game, which will act as anti-capital fighter. They are small and fast.”

However, Noah wasn’t as fired up about talking about the expansion as he was about talking about COSMOS. COSMOS is the new social networking Web site they’re starting to roll out and encourage players to use. Players get to have a page for each of their characters. Corporations will have their own pages as will alliances. This will allow for easier communication as well as ways to e-mail and chat with players in their corporations when they are not playing the game. The network will update statuses of players in game as well. CCP has extensive plans to expand the network in the future to be able to be used on mobile devices as well as to incorporate a calendar application into it.

“Our goal with the Web site is for a lot of the in-game tools to move onto the Web so they can be viewed from anywhere,” he said.. “Corporation management will get much easier with this tool.”

Along side the social network, they are updating the in-game browser to make it modern standards compliant. The goal is to make it work just like Firefox, but in game.

“You will be able to play the game full screen, open up the Web browser in game, hit Google, search and visit any site you want while still in game,” Noah explained. “The browser will also have hooks that will allow people to be able to develop apps through the in-game browser.”

I inquired if there were any plans for new races in this expansion or upcoming ones. The answer was no. However, he did tell me they were updating the planets.

“Every planet in EVE is being redone and will be unique. Each one will look different from the others,” Noah said. “They look really nice so far.”

There will be no new ships, other than the fighter bombers. There will be some new structures with the expansion, but not much else.

The roleplay storyline will focus on the Pirate factions. This includes having speed boat missions that are designed for small, fast ships. So instead of having a big battle ship, you’ll need to have a small ship that you can fly around and maneuver for dog-fighting. The current missions planned are not conducive to the huge ships, but are very conducive for dog fights, which will add a new level of excitement to the game.

Much like a few others I interviewed at PAX, I asked Noah what does he think helped EVE to survive for six years, while other games have fallen to the wayside, such as Tabula Rasa or The Sims Online. His answer gave some interesting insight. He attributed it to the vision of the game.

“CCP is dedicated to constantly improving the game. We launched six years ago in a niche unlike other games out there on the market and we stuck around because we improve the game,” he said. “Most games launch and have a live team, but don’t really support the game or listen to their players. No one wants to invest time in a game they think will close down. When you show dedication, the players stay dedicated.”

When asked if he felt Black Prophecy or Jumpgate Evolution would pose a threat to EVE Online’s playerbase, he answered no.

“Those two games are more of a 3rd person shooter/joystick action games that are intended for quick fights and such. They aren’t about empire building and taking over regions like EVE is,” he concluded.

Finally, I asked him to explain to me about the player run government, as I wasn’t very familiar with this concept, being a new EVE player myself.

The government is one of the many ways CCP talks to their player base. Members of the player run government are elected by their fellow players to server on the council. The council then brings issues to CCP , telling them what they would like to have brought into game, what they would like to have fixed, what needs to be changed, etc. CCP flies the members of the council to Iceland every so often to sit down and talk with them. Players are only allowed to be a council member twice and server for six month terms. The council is currently in its third session.

When asked if there was every any suggestion made that was so out there that it couldn’t be done, he laughed, then answered. “Yes. Space Dragons. They keep asking for Space Dragons. There will not be Space Dragons. Please stop asking.”

More information on the expansion will be coming out at Fanfest in October. In addition to that information, they will be releasing more information on Dust 514 then as well. Sorry, no information was available on the last game mentioned at PAX. I did ask.

Noah had a great sense of humor and a visible love for the game he worked on, as was demonstrated by his willingness to explain to a relative newbie to the game the nuances, changes and upcoming excitement. I look forward to seeing this expansion and the changes to the browser and the growth of the social networking tool.

See you in New Eden.

by Kayhynn