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7 months
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EVE Online
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| 0s | hello it has been |
|---|---|
| 3s | five long years since I lasted on this |
| 6s | stage and actually had the opportunity |
| 8s | to address this community |
| 11s | um and I don't think I've ever |
| 14s | empathize with someone quite as much as |
| 16s | when CCP Burger was on the stage |
| 18s | yesterday saying that being on this |
| 20s | stage is kind of this happy place |
| 21s | because in his safe place because just |
| 25s | being here with the community honestly |
| 28s | is |
| 29s | um comforting in a way that's hard to |
| 31s | describe so as they said about my name |
| 34s | is Andrew grohan I read a book series |
| 36s | called empires of Eve I've been writing |
| 38s | about Eve online yes yes let's do a |
| 41s | round of applause for empires of Eve |
| 43s | yeah thank you hey we got a copy in the |
| 46s | audience |
| 47s | appreciate that |
| 49s | um |
| 51s | so the first time that I ever came to |
| 54s | Fan Fest was actually 10 years ago and |
| 56s | the slogan for Eve online at the time |
| 58s | was Eve online into the second decade |
| 61s | and now I feel like that's actually my |
| 62s | mission right now is heading into the |
| 64s | second decade the grains keep slipping |
| 67s | Through The Hourglass my friends it's |
| 69s | terrifying |
| 70s | so I wanted to use this as an |
| 72s | opportunity to kind of give you guys an |
| 74s | update on where empires of Eve is right |
| 78s | now before we get into the rest of the |
| 79s | presentation |
| 81s | um |
| 81s | to use this as an opportunity to show |
| 84s | you or to tell you who I am first of all |
| 86s | if you don't actually know who I am |
| 89s | and to see what I've actually been up to |
| 91s | in the two years since Empires review |
| 94s | Volume 2 came out so in 2013 I was a |
| 97s | journalist at wired when I decided to |
| 99s | launch a Kickstarter to raise a simple |
| 102s | amount of money to print a thousand |
| 104s | copies of a book about Eve online that I |
| 106s | was writing at the time and this |
| 108s | community |
| 110s | sight unseen and really without my |
| 113s | having to ask for too much |
| 116s | um decided to just overflow the funding |
| 119s | for the project and allowed me to |
| 121s | degrade |
| 122s | the book that I always wanted to but |
| 124s | never even really bothered to dream I |
| 127s | would be able to have the space and the |
| 129s | funding to be able to go and report and |
| 132s | to interview everybody in the community |
| 134s | and to to find the story that I always |
| 136s | wanted to write and the experience of |
| 138s | that fundamentally changed my life and |
| 140s | I'm I'm still to this day I mean I'm |
| 143s | here because of that initial trust that |
| 146s | the community placed in me and um yeah I |
| 149s | just can't to this day I still feel warm |
| 152s | fuzzies in my belly uh over that moment |
| 155s | because it was one of the defining |
| 156s | moments of my life then in 2018 we did |
| 159s | the campaign on Kickstarter for a sequel |
| 161s | which attracted even more support and |
| 163s | now to date Empires if he was actually |
| 165s | sold nearly 30 000 copies worldwide |
| 169s | and uh just being even saying that is is |
| 173s | absurd to me because like I said the |
| 175s | whole mission in the first place was |
| 177s | just to print a thousand copies of the |
| 179s | book and I thought most of those were |
| 181s | going to end up in my closet so I I to |
| 184s | be able to be here at this moment is um |
| 186s | is incredible and I thank you all so |
| 188s | much so uh last month I actually got a |
| 192s | really incredible email kind of out of |
| 194s | the blue from a museum in Spain called |
| 198s | the espacio telefonica |
| 201s | and they're creating a museum exhibit on |
| 205s | Virtual Worlds and they wanted to |
| 207s | include empires of Eve in their Museum |
| 209s | exhibit this is a a screenshot or a a |
| 213s | picture they're called pictures when |
| 216s | they're real |
| 218s | um |
| 219s | of an exhibit that they did previously |
| 221s | on digital misinformation it's a really |
| 224s | wonderful place |
| 226s | um |
| 226s | and they do a lot of amazing things with |
| 229s | technology and popular culture and so |
| 231s | the Museum of the exhibit is called |
| 233s | virtual world from Cyclorama to |
| 235s | metaverse and it's going to be running |
| 237s | from November 22nd 2023 through April |
| 241s | 2020 or 2024 so if you find yourself in |
| 244s | Madrid for whatever reason it's free to |
| 247s | the public so you can go in and check |
| 248s | out an Eve online exhibit and see what |
| 250s | we've been working on |
| 252s | just as a quick aside for anybody who |
| 254s | doesn't know what a Cyclorama is it's |
| 256s | actually kind of interesting it's an |
| 258s | 18th century technology that's kind of |
| 260s | in a vague way the first ever virtual |
| 263s | world what they would do is they had |
| 264s | these traveling uh carnivals basically |
| 267s | as a carnival exhibit where they would |
| 269s | take a huge panoramic 360 degree image |
| 273s | that they would paint of like Napoleon's |
| 277s | defeat at Waterloo or whatever and they |
| 279s | would pipe in music and there would be a |
| 281s | door and you would walk into the center |
| 282s | of it and you'd be surrounded by like a |
| 285s | battle that was unfolding and this was |
| 287s | like the 18th century version of a |
| 290s | virtual world which is a |
| 292s | really cool actually I would love to go |
| 294s | I wish we still had those |
| 296s | so right now the Empire's review Volume |
| 299s | 2 audiobook is something that I just |
| 301s | finished working on and it's currently |
| 304s | only available to backers of the |
| 306s | kickstarter for volume two but that is |
| 307s | going to change very shortly because I |
| 310s | just finally did all of the little |
| 312s | annoying things that you have to do in |
| 314s | order to submit it to audible it's a |
| 315s | very annoying little process but I |
| 318s | submitted that five or six days ago and |
| 320s | I'm told it takes about 10 days to get |
| 322s | through the approval process so with a |
| 324s | little bit of luck it should be |
| 325s | available for purchase as soon as next |
| 328s | week ideally |
| 330s | oh we get a round of applause for that |
| 332s | thank you guys that's really cool I |
| 333s | appreciate it I appreciate it so for the |
| 336s | future of the of the series I want to |
| 337s | talk about that a little bit before we |
| 339s | get going |
| 340s | um in uh next year in 2024 I'm going to |
| 344s | be beginning work on some sort of new |
| 347s | installment in this series it is very |
| 349s | hard for me to talk about what I'm going |
| 352s | to be doing next year because I work by |
| 354s | myself I'm a single person company so |
| 356s | when things get delayed or things slow |
| 359s | down my entire company comes to a |
| 361s | screeching halt so it's very difficult |
| 363s | to call my shot a year out but I am very |
| 367s | I have ideas in my head for what I want |
| 369s | to do in the future and I'm exploring |
| 372s | those and I and I'm really looking |
| 374s | forward to it I do not think it's going |
| 376s | to be a full-on Empires review volume 3 |
| 378s | simply because I just don't think that's |
| 380s | the best idea for how to explore the |
| 382s | rest of the story but I do think that |
| 385s | whatever we end up doing will end up |
| 387s | substantially expanding The Narrative |
| 389s | beyond the events of volume two and |
| 393s | whatever I do I promise it'll be a great |
| 394s | idea so uh moving on to what we're |
| 398s | actually going to talk about today and I |
| 399s | wanted to open this up by talking about |
| 400s | Pirates of Eve because this was the |
| 403s | headspace that I was in when I started |
| 406s | working on the the next project that I |
| 408s | was that I've been working on for the |
| 410s | last five years and it all started when |
| 414s | I was in the finishing stages of that |
| 416s | book and I want to show you guys |
| 418s | something that will be very familiar to |
| 420s | a lot of you |
| 422s | um but we're making a grander point here |
| 424s | so |
| 425s | this is uh for anybody who doesn't know |
| 428s | this is the sovereignty map of Eve |
| 430s | online that shows which organizations |
| 433s | own which Null Sec territories and this |
| 436s | is a screenshot of Eve as it appeared in |
| 438s | 2007 and it's amazing because we can |
| 442s | actually this is a time lapse and you |
| 444s | can watch a screenshot is each frame of |
| 447s | this video showing a day in the life of |
| 450s | Eve online and so what I want you to do |
| 452s | is I want you to keep your eye on the |
| 454s | bottom left hand corner here a lot of |
| 456s | you are going to know what's coming but |
| 457s | it's it's still pretty interesting to |
| 458s | watch it happen in you know maybe 20 or |
| 461s | 30 seconds this blue blob down here on |
| 464s | the bottom left hand corner that says |
| 465s | Band of Brothers on it something |
| 467s | terrible is going to happen to it and |
| 470s | we've talked about this earlier in the |
| 472s | keynote that this is the dissolution of |
| 476s | Band of Brothers and what's gonna oh |
| 477s | it's already gone oh my God he's gone |
| 479s | Band of Brothers Bob is dead I can't |
| 482s | believe it happened |
| 484s | um |
| 485s | and I I these watching this video was so |
| 489s | important to me to understanding what |
| 492s | Eve online actually is |
| 494s | because when you see moments like that |
| 497s | happen on the map you know instinctively |
| 500s | as a Storyteller that's where the story |
| 503s | is those moments of of drastic seismic |
| 507s | change are where you go to find the |
| 510s | human dramas that makes the story of Eve |
| 514s | actually worth learning to people those |
| 516s | are the moments where everything changed |
| 518s | that's what you need to understand in |
| 521s | order to understand the ebb and flow of |
| 523s | power so you see for a long period of |
| 525s | time the map usually tends to remain |
| 527s | mostly stable until you get to these |
| 530s | moments where suddenly everything shifts |
| 534s | and all of a sudden a blob just appears |
| 537s | and wipes something else out |
| 540s | and uh this was it was watching this map |
| 544s | play out where I really started to |
| 546s | understand what I was trying to study |
| 548s | with Eve online that I was really |
| 550s | looking from the top down at this kind |
| 552s | of like petri dish of a a human social |
| 557s | ecology that was evolving over time and |
| 561s | it's very difficult to read this map but |
| 563s | once you understand what you're actually |
| 565s | looking at you can actually see these |
| 567s | organizations uh growing and becoming |
| 572s | larger and more powerful over time so |
| 579s | having had that in mind and thinking |
| 582s | about the dissolution of Band of |
| 583s | Brothers I wanted to watch another video |
| 585s | and this is a visualization of the |
| 590s | entire internet as it existed in 1991 |
| 593s | and we're watching the exact same thing |
| 596s | taking place where we are watching a |
| 599s | frame a snapshot of the structure of the |
| 601s | internet as it grew day by day over time |
| 605s | and these these flowers are network hubs |
| 609s | like one of these is going to be Google |
| 611s | and another one is going to be YouTube |
| 613s | and the we can learn things about the |
| 617s | structure of the Internet by studying |
| 618s | this map the blue |
| 620s | is uh the United States the red I |
| 624s | believe is China Green represents the |
| 628s | networks of Iran and the Middle East and |
| 631s | I believe purple if I'm not mistaken is |
| 634s | Europe |
| 635s | and so we can watch all of this |
| 637s | happening as it unfolds over time and |
| 640s | this is a visualization project that's |
| 642s | created by Barrett Leon at the Opti |
| 644s | project and uh it's honestly one of the |
| 647s | most to me one of the most beautiful |
| 649s | things that I've ever seen watching the |
| 651s | profoundity of this system start to |
| 654s | develop like this is to to someone who |
| 657s | studies the internet this is like my |
| 659s | pale blue dot like this when I look at |
| 662s | this I see every hero in Coward every |
| 665s | young couple falling in love in the DMS |
| 667s | this is everything and so if you |
| 670s | actually looked and this is a very |
| 672s | zoomed out map we can't actually know |
| 675s | what most of these hubs actually are but |
| 678s | what's fascinating to me is you can see |
| 680s | these similar things starting to take |
| 682s | starting to happen on this map as |
| 685s | networks start eating each other and and |
| 688s | moving around and and |
| 690s | conglomerating with one another and it's |
| 694s | profoundly fascinating to me to know |
| 698s | that if we had enough information we |
| 701s | could zoom in on this map we could find |
| 703s | Eve online in this bouquet of flowers |
| 707s | and perhaps even find the dissolution of |
| 710s | Band of Brothers on this map in flow |
| 713s | with the entire rest of the internet |
| 721s | and |
| 722s | um |
| 724s | when I started thinking about all of |
| 726s | these things and and seeing these it |
| 729s | called these Human Social ecologies |
| 731s | playing out in front of me |
| 733s | I started to feel a little bit crazy |
| 736s | and was wondering |
| 739s | am I imagining all of this do I want |
| 742s | this all to be |
| 744s | very profound do I want Eve to be in |
| 748s | flow with the whole rest of humanity in |
| 750s | the internet or am I actually looking at |
| 753s | something really fascinating here and so |
| 757s | in order to try to wrap my head around |
| 759s | this I reached out to somebody who a lot |
| 762s | some of you will know others of you will |
| 764s | not know but I think everybody who loves |
| 766s | Eve should know it's a guy named RAF |
| 768s | Coster RAF Coster was the lead designer |
| 771s | of Ultima Online |
| 773s | I called in a few uh an Ultima Online |
| 775s | was the direct design ancestor of Eve |
| 779s | um back way back in the early 2000s even |
| 781s | the late 90s one of the early mission |
| 783s | statements for Yvonne line as it was |
| 785s | being developed was to create Ultima |
| 787s | Online in space so this is a person who |
| 789s | knows a lot about how these sorts of |
| 792s | systems actually work and so I called in |
| 794s | a few favors and managed to actually get |
| 796s | him on the phone and I'm going to play a |
| 798s | couple of clips for you from my |
| 800s | conversation with him because it ended |
| 803s | up being one of the most profound |
| 805s | conversations I've ever had in my life |
| 807s | as he immediately started to explain to |
| 810s | me the structure of all human |
| 812s | civilization across all eras of history |
| 816s | and so I bring I bring up this map for |
| 818s | you on this graph for you because he's |
| 820s | going to reference what's called a |
| 823s | Pareto distribution and it's all very |
| 825s | simple he's gonna |
| 827s | he's gonna fake like he's gonna talk to |
| 829s | you about math but don't be afraid he's |
| 831s | not actually going to we're going to |
| 832s | move past it really quickly but this is |
| 835s | what he's going to be talking about when |
| 836s | he talks about power laws and burrito |
| 838s | distributions you can keep your eye on |
| 839s | this map |
| 841s | if you take all of the cities in the |
| 846s | world when you put them on a graph for |
| 848s | population |
| 849s | so you end up with yes but if you take |
| 853s | this and put it on a log scale so this |
| 855s | is the exact same data but on a log |
| 857s | scale it looks like that that's called a |
| 861s | power law distribution often called a |
| 864s | Pareto distribution anyway it turns out |
| 866s | that magically throughout history it |
| 869s | hasn't matter what the most powerful |
| 871s | country in the world was you know |
| 873s | regardless of what was going on in |
| 875s | politics if you graft the population of |
| 878s | the cities of the world they always |
| 881s | followed that curve think about how |
| 883s | whack that is for a second |
| 885s | they always have this distribution too |
| 888s | the biggest one is always n times larger |
| 891s | than the next biggest and so on down the |
| 893s | chain |
| 894s | I'm describing a shape of human |
| 896s | civilization all periods in history |
| 899s | regardless of geography the largest |
| 901s | cities in the world have always had this |
| 903s | structure if you take the wealth of |
| 906s | individuals across the world they have |
| 910s | tended to follow this curve I mean these |
| 912s | curves are hidden everywhere they're |
| 914s | hidden in things like your cell like |
| 917s | your body follows this kind of curve the |
| 920s | graph that is your body has only a very |
| 923s | small percentage of cells that are |
| 925s | actually in charge of specifically |
| 927s | your nervous system cells and the kings |
| 929s | of the nervous system cells are in your |
| 931s | brain you have cells in your fingernails |
| 934s | not only do you not give a about |
| 935s | them you intentionally kill them off |
| 937s | yourself because they're that |
| 939s | unimportant to your network |
| 942s | so I actually kind of undersold the |
| 945s | ambition of his comments because he went |
| 947s | on to describe how these very same laws |
| 950s | are bound up in almost every science |
| 954s | like the actual states of matter plasma |
| 957s | gas liquids and solids are actually |
| 960s | simply names for different levels of |
| 963s | connectivity in the network graph |
| 965s | between the molecules so this is kind of |
| 968s | like a |
| 969s | universal truth of how things actually |
| 972s | uh |
| 974s | actually it works scientifically and he |
| 977s | kind of started to really blow my mind |
| 979s | when he explained how all of this |
| 980s | applies to MMOs the reason is because of |
| 984s | how networks work when two things form a |
| 988s | relationship |
| 989s | any two things okay any sort form a |
| 992s | relationship mathematicians call that an |
| 995s | edge so think of it as a node and a line |
| 997s | and another node right let's say you've |
| 1000s | got a whole bunch of random nodes and |
| 1002s | you just roll dice to start attaching |
| 1004s | them what you'll find is that they |
| 1007s | attach in kind of a soup the an average |
| 1009s | node has the same number of connections |
| 1012s | on average as every other node right but |
| 1015s | if you tilt the odds just a tiny bit so |
| 1018s | so that a node that already has edges |
| 1021s | tends to get more |
| 1023s | so I want to play WoW because it's where |
| 1027s | my friends are okay whatever that's |
| 1029s | called a preferential attachment Network |
| 1032s | and uh it's very hard to find things in |
| 1035s | human society that are not preferential |
| 1038s | attachments |
| 1039s | you know Facebook wins out over the |
| 1042s | other social networks because it's where |
| 1044s | everybody already is if you take the |
| 1047s | populations of MMOs at any given moment |
| 1051s | since MMOs started they also follow this |
| 1054s | curve |
| 1056s | so it kind of blew my mind and uh then |
| 1059s | further went on to explain that not only |
| 1061s | do MMOs |
| 1064s | collectively follow this structure that |
| 1066s | not only are all of the MMOs essentially |
| 1069s | sharing a population amongst each other |
| 1072s | a single population a single community |
| 1075s | that exists and permeates all of the |
| 1077s | different titles that are out there even |
| 1079s | included |
| 1081s | but that this actually also applies to |
| 1083s | player organizations this applies to |
| 1085s | guilds and corporations as well that |
| 1087s | this is |
| 1089s | um essentially social science all the |
| 1091s | way down |
| 1092s | and you can see this in the mega |
| 1094s | coalitions of nullsec where you see |
| 1095s | these very very few groups that |
| 1098s | conglomerate into massive coalitions of |
| 1101s | tens of thousands of players whereas the |
| 1103s | majority of them fall into the category |
| 1106s | of these uh the long tail the very |
| 1108s | smaller groups of 30 40 50 players |
| 1112s | so |
| 1114s | as a Storyteller of MMOs historian of |
| 1117s | the internet this is actually |
| 1119s | particularly fascinating to me |
| 1121s | because he went on to explain that |
| 1123s | there's this phrase in the science |
| 1125s | called a phase transition that applies |
| 1128s | to all of these different types of |
| 1130s | networks and a phase transition is |
| 1132s | exactly what happened to Band of |
| 1133s | Brothers it's when something happens |
| 1135s | that suddenly causes the network |
| 1139s | connections to shift and when they shift |
| 1142s | they tend to shift very rapidly and you |
| 1145s | see that immediately there something |
| 1147s | terrible happens to Band of Brothers and |
| 1149s | it turns to liquid in a moment and a |
| 1151s | moment later it's evaporated into gas |
| 1152s | and it's gone |
| 1155s | and so I started looking |
| 1160s | as a Storyteller for these moments of |
| 1163s | phase transition |
| 1165s | because those are the moments |
| 1168s | of deepest Humanity |
| 1170s | those are the moments that drill down |
| 1173s | deepest into these other digital social |
| 1176s | networks and can teach you the most by |
| 1179s | digging down into the history of why |
| 1181s | Band of Brothers was destroyed what |
| 1184s | happened there who was there who did |
| 1187s | what and why it all occurred you can |
| 1189s | understand so much about Eve online and |
| 1193s | that essentially is the structure of the |
| 1195s | first empires of Eve book The |
| 1197s | dissolution of Band of Brothers Korea is |
| 1198s | provides the climax for the story |
| 1201s | and so I went around looking for these |
| 1204s | other moments of phase transition inside |
| 1207s | the other |
| 1209s | popular networks within that shared |
| 1212s | community of other MMOs and so the the |
| 1215s | first story that I investigated was one |
| 1216s | of the more famous events in online |
| 1218s | gaming history which is this an event in |
| 1220s | World of Warcraft called the gates of on |
| 1222s | kiraj |
| 1223s | and the gates of Entourage was a |
| 1227s | one-of-a-kind event in which every |
| 1230s | server of World of Warcraft received a |
| 1232s | new dungeon with the gates sealed and |
| 1235s | each server had to go on a massive |
| 1238s | realm-wide Quest that included every |
| 1240s | single player on that realm to work |
| 1243s | together in order to amass an enormous |
| 1245s | amount of supplies to you know Supply |
| 1248s | The Siege on on this hidden dungeon |
| 1251s | where the old God c'thune this big |
| 1253s | eyeball was waiting and they could only |
| 1256s | actually go into it when the entire |
| 1258s | server had amassed all of these these |
| 1261s | enormous amount of supplies and when one |
| 1264s | particular hero from each particular |
| 1265s | server had gone on this months-long |
| 1268s | quest to reforge the scepter of the |
| 1271s | shifting Sands so that he could ring a |
| 1274s | Gong outside the gates and open them up |
| 1276s | for the first time and so what |
| 1278s | implicitly ended up happening is that |
| 1280s | this has created a race between all of |
| 1283s | the different Realms to be the first one |
| 1285s | to open up the gates and one server one |
| 1289s | in particular a server called madiv |
| 1292s | and this guy named callahad was the very |
| 1295s | first person to open the gates in World |
| 1298s | of Warcraft history and |
| 1300s | what nobody anticipated including the |
| 1303s | designers of the encounter was that when |
| 1307s | you have only one place on one server in |
| 1311s | World of Warcraft where something |
| 1313s | interesting is happening |
| 1315s | every other server empties |
| 1318s | all of the players from the other |
| 1320s | servers not all of the players but tens |
| 1322s | of thousands of players from the other |
| 1323s | servers left their server created level |
| 1326s | one characters on the medivh server and |
| 1329s | began a massive pilgrimage across the |
| 1333s | world of Azeroth to arrive in the desert |
| 1336s | in one of these higher level zones to be |
| 1338s | able to be there to witness the opening |
| 1340s | of the gates of on kiraj and that's what |
| 1342s | you see here in these uh relatively |
| 1346s | Exquisite screenshots of players massing |
| 1349s | around the gates as they were opened |
| 1354s | so the second story that I dug into |
| 1358s | was this story that I called The Siege |
| 1359s | of keger mall by the armies of the dead |
| 1361s | and it takes place in a zombie |
| 1363s | apocalypse text MMO called Urban dead |
| 1367s | um which is a fabulous game despite the |
| 1370s | fact that it's a text-based MMO and what |
| 1373s | ended up happening in urban dead is the |
| 1376s | the way the game worked was the zombie |
| 1378s | side and The Human Side were not fixed |
| 1380s | teams if you died as a human you became |
| 1383s | a member of the zombie team and if you |
| 1385s | were a zombie and a human jabbed you |
| 1387s | with us with a medical syringe you came |
| 1390s | back to life and became a human again |
| 1393s | so at a certain point the humans got |
| 1396s | tired of running away from the zombies |
| 1398s | and decided to make a Last Stand at this |
| 1400s | place called kager Mall |
| 1402s | and hundreds upon hundreds of humans |
| 1404s | showed up to defend them all to try to |
| 1407s | actually create one little slice of |
| 1409s | civilization again in this apocalypse so |
| 1412s | that it didn't have to get dispersed by |
| 1413s | the overwhelming horde over and over and |
| 1416s | over again |
| 1417s | and so what happens is the zombies all |
| 1420s | find out that this is where everybody is |
| 1422s | at and every horde of zombies within the |
| 1426s | game converged on keger mall and you |
| 1429s | have this incredible battle that takes |
| 1431s | place between thousands of players that |
| 1433s | unfolded over the course of more than a |
| 1435s | month |
| 1436s | and the only reason why it ended |
| 1439s | is because Urban dead was run by an |
| 1443s | independent game developer there was |
| 1445s | only one developer in charge of the game |
| 1447s | and he was not able to be inside the |
| 1449s | virtual environment and actually know |
| 1451s | what was happening so in the middle of |
| 1454s | the siege of kager Mall |
| 1456s | the guy whose name his name was Kevin |
| 1458s | Kevin |
| 1460s | changed some of the rules remember |
| 1462s | that's that revivification syringe that |
| 1465s | I talked about he changed the loot rate |
| 1467s | of those syringes so that three times as |
| 1471s | many syringes were able to be found |
| 1474s | and the humans wiped out the zombie Side |
| 1476s | by resurrecting almost all of them so |
| 1479s | that there were almost no zombies Left |
| 1481s | in urban dead |
| 1483s | and the story |
| 1487s | climaxes or culminates with a protest |
| 1491s | March that |
| 1493s | where the zombie side and The Human Side |
| 1496s | actually joined in common cause and |
| 1498s | became allies and marched across the |
| 1500s | city in solidarity to try to get Kevin's |
| 1503s | attention to say |
| 1505s | Lord the game is broken |
| 1507s | we need your help please roll back |
| 1509s | please roll back the update |
| 1515s | this is a game called Asheron's Call |
| 1518s | which came out in 2000 and the graphics |
| 1521s | are great aren't they guys Round of |
| 1522s | Applause for astronauts calls Graphics |
| 1524s | thank you |
| 1525s | so |
| 1527s | astronaut's call is a really cool game |
| 1529s | where they had an i the developers of |
| 1532s | the game had an idea and what they |
| 1534s | wanted to do |
| 1536s | was they wanted to uh |
| 1539s | release these crystals all over the game |
| 1541s | world for the players to find and what |
| 1544s | the players didn't know was that when |
| 1546s | they smashed these crystals and got a |
| 1548s | bunch of loot out of them that these |
| 1550s | crystals in the lore were actually the |
| 1553s | horcruxes of the game's main villain |
| 1555s | this winged demon named balzeron and so |
| 1559s | the development team didn't tell the |
| 1560s | players that they were trying to trick |
| 1562s | them into releasing the demon through |
| 1564s | their own greed right they were trying |
| 1566s | to pull the old okey-doke on them and |
| 1568s | they were trying to like release these |
| 1569s | little hints that this is what was going |
| 1571s | to happen and that's what you're looking |
| 1572s | at right now when you see these players |
| 1574s | standing on a mountain top the |
| 1576s | development team actually layered a |
| 1578s | silhouette of belzeron into the Skybox |
| 1581s | of the world so that when lightning |
| 1583s | struck you would be able to see just for |
| 1585s | like a fraction of a second you would |
| 1586s | see the winged demon with his Beady red |
| 1589s | eyes beaming down on the world of uh |
| 1592s | darrath it was called dareth |
| 1595s | and so once the players figured out that |
| 1598s | the dev team was trying to |
| 1602s | make them complicit in the destruction |
| 1604s | of the world that they were role-playing |
| 1606s | as saviors of they refused to play along |
| 1609s | they literally formed a secret society |
| 1612s | that formed Oaths to guard the final |
| 1615s | Crystal the final horcrux of belzeron |
| 1618s | the Hope Slayer |
| 1619s | 24 hours a day seven days a week for |
| 1622s | more than a month |
| 1623s | and they the cool thing about Asheron's |
| 1627s | Call |
| 1628s | is that every creature in the game had |
| 1630s | experience points and could level up so |
| 1632s | if you were a monster you could uh and |
| 1635s | you kill the player you would get XP |
| 1637s | from that and you might actually level |
| 1638s | up and become an even more powerful |
| 1640s | monster players used to troll the Newbie |
| 1642s | zones by feeding themselves to like a |
| 1645s | level one bunny rabbit until it was a |
| 1647s | level 30 rabbit and it was just |
| 1649s | rampaging through the new the Newbie |
| 1650s | zones nibbling |
| 1652s | players to death right so they did the |
| 1655s | same thing to the Crystal and they |
| 1657s | turned it into a level 900 Crystal that |
| 1659s | one shot everybody who ever came near it |
| 1662s | and it became so broken that it started |
| 1664s | refusing Dev commands |
| 1669s | they eventually figured out exactly why |
| 1672s | it was refusing Dev commands it wasn't |
| 1673s | like a ghost or something like that but |
| 1676s | uh what what actually happened is the |
| 1678s | Crystal had so much extra experience |
| 1680s | that the moment they tried to set it |
| 1682s | it's HP to zero to destroy it it would |
| 1685s | spend its XP on more levels again and |
| 1688s | instantly |
| 1689s | refill its own health but it took him a |
| 1692s | while to figure out why that was |
| 1693s | happening they were I talked to the devs |
| 1695s | about this they were like we were kind |
| 1696s | of scared we were like what's going on |
| 1701s | so this is liter this is actually uh so |
| 1703s | what they ended up doing is they they |
| 1706s | found the greatest troll in Asheron's |
| 1709s | Call and recruited them into uh |
| 1712s | basically a role play event where they |
| 1713s | gave them |
| 1715s | um like Infinity Buffs to go in and role |
| 1718s | play the destruction of the the crystal |
| 1720s | Defenders and destroy the crystal |
| 1723s | and which it's too long of a story but |
| 1725s | you have to read the story it's a it's a |
| 1727s | great tale |
| 1728s | um and this is this is belzeron after he |
| 1730s | was Ultimate released this down here |
| 1732s | this person in the orange in the bottom |
| 1735s | left that's vidorian uh the greatest |
| 1737s | troll in the history of of Asheron's |
| 1739s | Call who ultimately destroyed the |
| 1742s | crystal released Bells around the Hope |
| 1744s | Slayer and commenced what they called |
| 1746s | the fourth sending of Darkness |
| 1751s | this guy's another great troll |
| 1754s | fancy the famous Bard was a character in |
| 1757s | EverQuest |
| 1759s | who |
| 1760s | EverQuest had a problem |
| 1762s | with um |
| 1764s | what you might call lords they |
| 1767s | couldn't control certain aspects of |
| 1769s | their community and so they had to |
| 1771s | create all these rules to govern these |
| 1773s | people's behavior and make sure that |
| 1775s | they weren't harassing people out of the |
| 1776s | game |
| 1777s | and the the players these players hated |
| 1781s | that and they were like well we need to |
| 1782s | be able to express ourselves to the |
| 1784s | maximum of of our capability or else |
| 1787s | we're not living our fullest life in the |
| 1789s | virtual environment so the solution that |
| 1792s | they came up with was to create a no |
| 1793s | rules server |
| 1795s | and the no rule server had one rule it |
| 1798s | wasn't quite a no rule server they had |
| 1800s | one rule and it was that any player who |
| 1802s | was less than level slower than level |
| 1804s | six was invulnerable couldn't be |
| 1806s | attacked by other players so this was a |
| 1808s | ruthless place that was run by the worst |
| 1811s | elements of the community the some of |
| 1813s | the some of the most they're some of the |
| 1815s | best pvpers in the game but they were |
| 1818s | mean dudes and so fancy the famous bard |
| 1823s | was a level six player who |
| 1827s | skilled only one skill and it was called |
| 1830s | celos accelerando silos accelerando is a |
| 1833s | movement speed skill that Buffs your |
| 1835s | movement speed so that you can run |
| 1837s | faster than everyone what he did is he |
| 1840s | ran around the world attracting the |
| 1842s | aggro of all of these what are called |
| 1844s | sand Giants which are very large |
| 1846s | formidable enemies and you can see and |
| 1849s | it's hard to see some of these Graphics |
| 1851s | but you can see the sand Giants are |
| 1853s | chasing fancy through the down the river |
| 1856s | across the desert here |
| 1858s | and he would take this enormous train of |
| 1862s | high-level enemies and run it right into |
| 1864s | the town centers and kill everybody |
| 1867s | and the fun thing about fancy is that he |
| 1870s | was role-playing as a doer of good he |
| 1873s | worshiped the God of Light this guy |
| 1875s | named Nathaniel Mar who was a uh he's a |
| 1878s | God in the Everquest Universe who's |
| 1880s | who's literally he's a paladin whose |
| 1882s | face is so beautiful that he hides it |
| 1883s | behind his hair because it would pain |
| 1885s | you to look upon him |
| 1887s | and that was Fancy's God and fancy |
| 1890s | um killed everyone fancy killed 350 |
| 1894s | people across a rampage of two days and |
| 1897s | basically took over sell and Zach at |
| 1899s | only level six uh the the no rule server |
| 1901s | was called Sullen Zach and he became the |
| 1903s | level six God of selenzak here he is |
| 1906s | again with it with a whole train of sand |
| 1908s | Giants chasing after him there's there's |
| 1911s | fancy close-up with his cool green vest |
| 1913s | running across the desert I love this |
| 1916s | guy |
| 1919s | the Sun King shines on the devil of the |
| 1922s | Republic the best chapter title I ever |
| 1924s | came up with |
| 1926s | is about |
| 1927s | Second Life |
| 1929s | one of the weirdest and ultimately |
| 1932s | kind of oddly coolest games that I've |
| 1935s | ever learned about uh |
| 1938s | in the early 2000s there was a really |
| 1941s | big fad around second life and the idea |
| 1945s | of creating permanent virtual outposts |
| 1947s | inside of second life and the first |
| 1951s | political organization in history I |
| 1954s | believe to create a virtual headquarters |
| 1956s | was the the What's called the front |
| 1959s | National in France which is the uh |
| 1963s | political party within France that tends |
| 1965s | to blame things on immigrants which |
| 1967s | tends to be a thing that shows up at |
| 1968s | least once in every country it seems |
| 1970s | like but the denizens of Second Life |
| 1973s | hated this they hated the idea that this |
| 1976s | was going to be an unwelcoming space a |
| 1978s | place where they were celebrating the |
| 1983s | election of Jamari Le Pen who was the |
| 1986s | leader of the party who is now who is |
| 1988s | actually the father of the current |
| 1989s | leader of the party Marine Le Pen and so |
| 1991s | they staged uh protest slash Riot they |
| 1996s | shot they made guns that shot pigs at |
| 1999s | the headquarters building and they |
| 2001s | basically shut the entire thing down |
| 2003s | they made lots of posters with Jamboree |
| 2005s | Le Pen with a little Hitler mustache on |
| 2007s | and then my absolute favorite thing one |
| 2010s | of the one of them made an AOE attack of |
| 2013s | Thomas the Train Engine |
| 2016s | which is just worth the whole story just |
| 2020s | on its own |
| 2022s | um and so |
| 2023s | Jean Marie Le Pen's nickname in France |
| 2025s | was the devil of the Republic and when |
| 2028s | the protesters actually defeated the |
| 2031s | front National and forced them to |
| 2033s | retreat from Second Life |
| 2036s | um they second life is a highly modable |
| 2039s | game and they took a JPEG of Dr Martin |
| 2042s | Luther King Jr and they superimposed it |
| 2044s | on the Sun so that forever afterward Dr |
| 2047s | King would be shining down smiling upon |
| 2050s | the sight of a successful anti-fascist |
| 2051s | action |
| 2055s | laughs |
| 2059s | so I've now been studying MMOs for 10 |
| 2063s | years and I've been working on these |
| 2064s | particular stories uh and studying I've |
| 2066s | written I think seven or eight chapters |
| 2069s | over the last five years in my spare |
| 2072s | time chipping away at this and doing |
| 2074s | research on on other games as well at |
| 2076s | the same time I was writing about Eve |
| 2077s | and the key takeaway is actually |
| 2081s | it's profound But ultimately very simple |
| 2083s | is that |
| 2084s | we are from many games but we exist |
| 2088s | across one larger Community that's more |
| 2091s | important than any individual game and |
| 2093s | that we are ultimately connected to our |
| 2096s | Brethren Across The Gaming Community and |
| 2098s | to a lesser extent we are in flow with |
| 2101s | the entire rest of the digital Humanity |
| 2104s | across the internet in that uh |
| 2106s | visualization that we watched earlier |
| 2108s | makes that relatively clear |
| 2111s | and I find this so deeply interesting |
| 2113s | because |
| 2116s | these moments of phase transition these |
| 2119s | moments where the social fabric of the |
| 2121s | world breaks down |
| 2123s | has everything to teach a modern social |
| 2126s | media |
| 2127s | about what awaits all of us in a digital |
| 2131s | future |
| 2133s | because I've got bad news Mark |
| 2136s | Zuckerberg doesn't know about any of |
| 2138s | this stuff he's never studied it Elon |
| 2140s | Musk doesn't know about the history and |
| 2143s | what the history of gaming and online |
| 2145s | gaming has to teach social media about |
| 2148s | the internet's past and it's almost |
| 2151s | disappointingly |
| 2153s | these moments of protest and rupture our |
| 2156s | these social failures where these |
| 2159s | societies kind of came apart are are far |
| 2162s | more complicated and interesting than |
| 2164s | what's going wrong with modern social |
| 2166s | media today which is failing at elements |
| 2170s | that are far more basic than what games |
| 2172s | like Eve are experimenting with in the |
| 2175s | modern world and so that is |
| 2177s | one of the great things about even the |
| 2180s | responsibilities of Eve moving forward |
| 2182s | is that Eve is the test pilot for |
| 2186s | digital research for testing out Human |
| 2189s | Social societies |
| 2191s | um and it's a it's an awesome |
| 2193s | responsibility and it's one to take |
| 2194s | extremely seriously and I know that CCP |
| 2196s | does |
| 2201s | so |
| 2204s | I've Loved writing these stories so much |
| 2206s | because they take place in deeply |
| 2209s | Fantastical environments and star these |
| 2211s | bizarre characters and they grapple with |
| 2216s | the functioning of the uni of these |
| 2218s | digital universes and and what goes |
| 2220s | wrong when things go wrong and I've |
| 2223s | spent years trying to figure out what I |
| 2225s | should actually call this book when |
| 2228s | so many of the characters that we're |
| 2230s | meeting and we're grappling with in this |
| 2232s | story are some of the most problematic |
| 2234s | elements of of the universe of these |
| 2237s | digital universes |
| 2240s | um and that's why I came up with the |
| 2242s | name Edge Lord elegy the faith of |
| 2244s | digital societies |
| 2247s | and I hope that you will consider uh as |
| 2250s | we move forward into the early next year |
| 2251s | becoming a supporter as we start to plan |
| 2253s | a Kickstarter |
| 2257s | so all of my research |
| 2260s | over these past five years working on |
| 2263s | these stories |
| 2265s | suggest just one deeply and desperately |
| 2268s | important lesson for Eve and for the |
| 2272s | internet broadly and for social media |
| 2273s | and it's that every time one of these |
| 2278s | societies broke down |
| 2280s | if you study it closely enough you find |
| 2283s | out that it was designed to break down |
| 2285s | exactly as it did it was always going to |
| 2289s | happen and so you have to study these |
| 2291s | spaces and understand the social |
| 2293s | dynamics well enough to get out in front |
| 2295s | of it and make sure that that collapse |
| 2297s | does not happen because in the future |
| 2301s | where we're living in a world where |
| 2304s | Facebook has two billion citizens the |
| 2307s | consequences of such a rupture arnest |
| 2310s | cheeky as fancy the famous Bard they're |
| 2314s | potentially extraordinarily serious |
| 2317s | and |
| 2319s | one of the reasons why I love Eve so |
| 2321s | much |
| 2323s | is that I know that Eve does take that |
| 2324s | responsibility so seriously and |
| 2328s | um |
| 2329s | if Eve is going to achieve the dream of |
| 2333s | Eve forever |
| 2335s | the only way that that is going to |
| 2337s | happen |
| 2338s | is by building the community person by |
| 2342s | person and making sure that absolutely |
| 2345s | nobody flies alone and that the |
| 2348s | community is healthy and strong |
| 2350s | and I just want to say thank you guys so |
| 2352s | much for coming and for giving me an |
| 2354s | opportunity to be up here again I've |
| 2356s | missed you all so much and how about a |
| 2358s | round of applause for everybody at home |
| 2360s | who didn't get to come this year |
| 2362s | thank you guys so much thank you |