Like I said before Fanfest began, CCP puts on a crazy show for its fans. This year’s convention wasn’t any different when you consider they had a huge production based around CCP employees fighting a legitimate MMA fighter. However, the most exciting bits of news were never going to come from the silly staged events—they were going to be coming from the panels and presentations.

The following are the biggest takeaways as far as I’m concerned presented in no particular order:

• CCP will eventually drop the PS3 and continue with an updated version of DUST 514 for PC
  Probably the best turnaround news that could have ever come out of CCP Shanghai’s contribution to Fanfest. Developing solely for the Playstation 3 was a mistake and I’m sure that CCP knows it, now that a new console generation is in full swing. Pushing development towards the PC also means that more players will be able to give their previously pod-bound characters a chance to experience infantry combat.

• CCP plans to roll all three of its games into one product in the future.
  This is the most exciting news that will directly effect the meta of EVE Online and will ultimately allow the other two games CCP is developing to be a success. Allowing players to use their characters in multiple environments gives veteran capsuleers more to do in the New Eden universe instead of the more popular alternative to waiting for something to do in internet space: play another game.

• The new Mordus Legion pirate faction ships are teh sexeh. And they reskinned the Condor. And the new Moa will win hearts and minds.
  I am a shit-tier industrialist living in high-sec (right outside Jita, I might add) and I’m totally looking forward to spending all of my money on these new ships, especially the completely redesigned Moa with its new retractable nacelles and testing out a low-sec skirmishing Garmur. A full EVE Online recap can be found over at The Mittani.¹

• The tears precipitating from the looming industry changes to remove Tech 2 original blueprints is amazing.
  If the game of EVE Online was supposed tone a game where you could margin-trade to the top, there’d be a lot more market features added to the game than the simple interface they already have. The blueprint concept is supposed to support the notion that (nearly) everything in the game is made but eh players. However, due to the way that Tech 2 BPOs were initially distributed, their finite supply allowed for prices to steadily rise. Now that these are going away, Jita 4-4 margin traders and manufacturers are going haywire, and that’s just the start. There are other industry balancing changes that will be making things more expensive on the whole. Time to HTFU, fellow industry players.²

I might not be the very best at ~internet spaceships~ games, but I’d like to think that I have fun with them. EVE Online is going to change for the better over the next couple of years. Even though not all of what came out of the Icelandic convention was good,³ I’m looking forward to seeing the changes announced at Fanfest in the game.

EVE Fanfest is an annual conference surrounding EVE Online and the other games related to the New Eden universe. It’s become a huge celebration of CCP Games and a chance for players to get together and meet in a real space, but the real value of Fanfest comes from the presentations that take place. Most of the presentations are entertaining and informative about how the company approaches its sandbox.

I’m definitely going to be watching the stream as much as I can. Getting hyped for the upcoming summer expansion. I also have a few drafts for ideas I’m kicking around including posts about my thoughts on Dark Souls 2 (I’ve finally made it to NG+!) and on my first impressions of my Nintendo 2DS purchase now that I’ve had a couple of weeks with it.

As far as must-watch events on the stream, here’s a few I’d suggest anyone to try to make time to watch: ¹

• 1600 UTC today: CSM Panel
  The CSM is a panel made up of players who directly advise CCP Games on the development of new features and updates to EVE Online. With the CSM8 term coming to a close, I imagine there’ll be plenty of reflective-esque comments to be gleamed.
• 1700 UTC today: EVE Fanfest Welcome & EVE Valkyrie Keynote
  Looking for details to come out about an estimated release date and system plan for Valkyrie, the upcoming space-dogfighting Oculus VR game.
• 1700 UTC tomorrow: EVE Online Keynote
  This is typically the time when we get the summer expansion revealed to us, complete with a demo of all of the new things being added. With such a huge focus on Industry modernization evidenced by dev blogs, this could be the time for CCP to surprise its players with drastic capital ship rebalancing.
• 1900 UTC tomorrow: Alliance Panel
  Historically entertaining presentations given about certain player-run organizations in the game. Last year’s highlights (for me) was a tie between TDSIN’s second year presentation which was more of a hilarious update and DBRB’s GSF presentation in his admiral’s outfit… I wonder who will be the winner this year!
• 1700 UTC Saturday: CCP Presents
  CCP’s future plans have frequently been divulged in this particular block of time. A strong showing here will leave players hyped up for years to come. With the big 10-year-old bash last year that celebrated the upcoming second decade of EVE Online, this presentation is probably going to touch on the status of so many of the ideas they shared about how New Eden will expand in size in the future.