EVE Information Portal

I've decided to take a philosophical view on the format and outcome of the Eve True Stories site. Seems to me there's a mixing and matching of what constitutes "best" story. Sure, it might irk some people that "best" initially means most voted. But the more I think about it - most voted is undeniably a kind of "best" regardless of the motivations/political affiliations/general skullduggery that may have illicited the vote. CCP have not erred or handed a gift box - the capsuleers of New Eden have done that all of their own accord. As a genuine record of the type of issues, behaviour and events that have driven Eve over its first decade its a pretty darn good archive and genuinly reflective of the game on many levels.

Still, there will be some (myself to a certain degree despite being philosophical about it!) who would have wanted "best" to mean most well written. Yet, CCP didn't advertise a writing contest or a fan fiction event. They advertised an "ideas" competition. They will be providing their own creative writers, storyboarders and artists to do the "best" writing as such. There's absolutely nothing to say that CCP or any of these creative professionals will be in any way drawn to the ideas that were most voted by the EVE players. They may reference them because overwhelming player voting interest is a kind of market research - but there is absolutely nothing to stop any of the story ideas submitted be taken up and used. It might be argued that that in itself is a kind of "prize" (not a trip to iceland or 10 yrs PLEX to be sure - but a reward of sorts if acknowledged).

In the final analysis I'm happy - despite my own literary pretensions - that a best "ideas" contest as opposed to a "writing" contest gives opportunity for non-writers, bad writers and general scribblers of gibberish to express their experience of the game over the last decade. It opens up the possibility for young players (lets face it CCP & EVE, your 10yrs old and a good % of your player base is probably older than they'd care to admit!) to contribute to both the past archive and future history of this universe. I enjoyed the Eve True stories event and very much look forward to seeing the future material that will draw upon and expand it.

my 2 cents, apologies for waffling on.