Monday, September 3, 2012

The History of New Eden

One of my favourite podcasts is The History of Rome (available on iTunes). It consists of 189 episodes tracing the history of the Roman Empire from its founding to the demise of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE. (I'm currently at about the 102nd episode.)

I love Roman history. If you're a history buff, I recommend checking the podcast out.

For some time, though, I've toyed with the thought of doing something similar for EVE Online. To trace player history from the start of the game, until the present. EVE Online has a rich player history, and to research and safeguard it would be an interesting project. A project that I'm sure would interest a great many players.

My feelings towards such a project, is that the history would be kept in-character. No mention of the game, EVE Online, would be used. The podcast would use the in-game dating system. It would primarily focus on player events, but would weave in CCP written lore where appropriate (when that lore explains the introduction of new expansions and changes to game mechanics.) The first few podcasts would likely focus strictly on the founding of New Eden alone, until the first capsuleers, from that point it would be player focused.

The problem, of course, is where to find this history? The EVE Online forums, via EVE Search, seem to only go back to about 2006. The EVE sub-reddit, I'm not sure how far that goes back, but I'm guessing it's only about as old as Test Alliance. The original EVE forums do not go back to the beginning. A daunting task, and likely one that is now impossible. History pre-2006 may be lost. I'm sure there are stories here and there that a few players could recount, but certainly not enough of them, or in enough detail, to fill in all of EVE Online's history pre-2006.

Before I give up completely on the project, I figured I'd post about it. Maybe, somewhere out there, is a dude that has been thinking the same thing, has been collecting the older history. Or maybe someone has archived one of the older websites or forums. Or maybe . . .

If there's anybody out there with a wealth of pre-2006 EVE Online history, I'd love to have a conversation with you.
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19 comments :

  1. It's a long shot, but: maybe ask the RPers?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. I am trying. I have this post over on the My EVE forum (https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=topics&f=262), politely asking someone to post something for me in-character, that will get their attention.

      I don't have a clue how to post this (I'm not even sure posting in-character and then including a link to this obviously out-of-character post would be allowed or appreciated.)

      Anyhow, it's a dangerous thing posting on the Intergalactic Summit forum. Do it wrong, and they'll chop your balls off. You don't ruin the immersion there. Those guys will eat you alive if you break the illusion.

      Delete

    2. While I am not in the in-group of EVE-RP, the two links I sent via Twitter might help.

      And/or maybe make up a short story about a capsuleer who has found a surprising interest into the history of New Eden.

      Good luck!

      Delete

  2. Somebody should check with CCP to see if they don't have those old forum posts backed up. If so, I wonder if they could be convinced to release them in something resembling a convenient format for perusal. I'd be so up for slogging through old threads and trying to construct a history of conversations, issues, and meta-events that were of significant import to EVE Online.

    ReplyDelete

  3. I've never been able to find much about pre-2006 era even back in 2006. A few bits and pieces of folklore lying around (some very amusing flash videos) were all I found, and back then I forgot to save a local copy. Couldn't find them again when I went looking a year ago. Even the various player wiki articles of historical interest relating events of that period are now mostly missing together with the wikis.

    But, who said you had to do it in chronological order? In fact, there's something to be said for going backwards in time, first detailing what's happening now, or in very recent memory, and digging up the historical causes of these events later. Extra exposure this will net you might make up for lack of primary sources.

    ReplyDelete

  4. Try those:
    1. http://community.eveonline.com/background/

    2. http://community.eveonline.com/background/potw/

    3. http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Portal:EVE_Fiction (the HISTORY tab)

    4. http://www.eveonline.com/creations/fiction/

    There can be found lots of information about the history of EVE and New Eden, though not exactly from a 'real players' point of view.

    ReplyDelete

  5. I read some stories about the early history of EVE and famous Corps/Alliances/Chars in EON.
    You could take information out of those or ask the authors about their sources.

    ReplyDelete

  6. http://eve-search.com/forum/3517-251/page/3000
    http://games.chruker.dk/eve_online/eve_releases.php

    Both go back to 2003.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Hmm. Eve-search does go wayback. Thanks.

      I think I'm going to put together some Google Docs, and start trying to piece some stuff together.

      Delete

    2. What just happened here?

      /* hit a singularity */

      Delete

  7. Actually, I just checked the old forums archives, and they go back to 2003. So it looks like we could construct a fairly comprehensive history of forum discussions if we wanted to.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Yeah. I'm going to put together some Google Docs, and invite people to help with the piecing together. Year by year, month by month.

      See what we can come up.

      Delete

    2. That's exactly what I was thinking. Just scour all of the forums on a month-to-month basis, make notes of events or issues that stick out/get repeated, etc. and then write up historical blog posts on them individually. Then there could be yearly summaries in which we attempt to synthesize the events from a given year into a larger-level overview of the changes being witnessed in the EVE community.

      Delete

  8. you could also check the wayback machine... it's a long shot, but once something goes onto the internet, it's there forever...somewhere.

    ReplyDelete

  9. In the first issues of E-ON magazine there were some articles on the history of EVE written by a character called Reiisha (sp?), they might be a good place to start if you can find them. iirc they covered some of the earliest history, including the beta.

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  10. You do need to get your hand on the E—ON magazines, just as some other people already remarked.

    Good cause, btw.

    ReplyDelete

  11. You can also always use official EVE forums:

    http://community.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=channel&channelID=3519&page=5188

    ReplyDelete

  12. I don't know if you have ever seen it or have it but this is a good bit of story telling from around early to mid '06.

    http://dl1.eve-files.com/media/0606/CoW_last_G_campaign_2000bps.wmv

    ReplyDelete

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