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[Matariki Rain]

What stories set in the world of EVE would you like to read?

I've just read the latest incarnation of the novels-of-EVE thread. It's good to see Svetlana around again, but it does feel like we're going over old terrain one more time. *wry*

So, if we were doing an EVE fiction project, showing the things that inspired us to play and roleplay in EVE, what would we want to see? Imagine it's just us and the worlds we've created in our imaginations that we want to share, not a storyline department pragmatically requiring us to explain each faction while advancing a particular plot and setting up the features scheduled for the next expansion. What possibilities drew you in? What intrigued and excited you?

For me, the answers come in different types and flavours.

I don't particularly want novels. I think I'd like a set of short stories, maybe with some shorter vignettes and longer novellas, each complete and sufficient. They might have some callbacks to each other or show different responses to the same events, but mostly they're episodes from different lives showing me what it might be like to live as particular people.

I'd like to see variation from what feels to me like the grinding grimdark. Contrasts. Texture. There's some rather good space-noir in the EVE canon, but not everything has to be doomed, misguided or manipulated. (I am exaggerating slightly for effect, but the anxiety of EVE is something that I've been thinking about lately. I'd like some characters I could enjoy and be engaged by, without the conditioned response of holding back because any sign of hope will necessarily be snuffed out in the course of the tale.)

I'd like to see world-building that I could use in my backstory, and to refine the sorts of things I think would be normal and different in certain backgrounds. Much of this might have only passing contact with space and podders, but would develop the cultures we grew up in.

I'd like to see things that tell me what it's like for podders doing some of the different things podders do, and that are easily understandable within actual EVE gameplay and social mores. (Our fiction is somehow lacking in the realities of gatecamp porn, realistic market shenanigans, or the personality politics of keeping FCs happy and productive.)

I could continue. Perhaps I will, later.

What sorts of EVE stories would you want to see?

[Saede Riordan]

Incoming long rambling 6am post. I apologise for how scattered my thoughts likely seem in this.

One of the things that bothers me about the way the EVE universe has been portrayed, is that it seems rather static. Things don't seem to change all that much because mechanically they cannot change all that much. We never see new stargates and stations being built, systems never really change hands, security status never ever changes. And the factions all seem sort of frozen in time. Like, once the game started, nothing really could change drastically. Even changes of government, like what is happening in the caldari state, seem fairly superficial at the end of the day. The Caldari won't change mechanically, the alliances will never shift, and the way the game plays in terms of sides will never change. This really irks me as I want to see the EVE universe as this amazing realistic dynamic universe. Where is the exploration with new gates being built? Where are the terraforming projects? and the colony ships? and the space elevators?

Another thing I really want to see explored in fiction, is that I want to see the some of the societal effects of that huge amounts of technology being introduced. What happens when the majority of the population has cloning and is thus immortal as a society? That's something the canon should start addressing, since its something that could conceivably be a major social issue within the next couple decades ingame.

The EVE universe has access to the sort of technology that sends a lot of sci-fi civilisations post-singularity, post-scarcity, and often post-physical. There's lots of interesting hints that there might actually be some sort of crazy other world lurking behind the physical universe, that capsuleers see glimpses of when they die (Jita 4-4) and I'd really like to see that sort of stuff explored. Was Rust Creeps just crazydude or is there something real there?

I want to see progress. It seems like the Big4 are sort of frozen at this snapshot in history, in terms of culture and such. Their tech changes, but the eve cultures seem fairly fixed. I understand that from a marketing standpoint, you want your factions to be fairly monolithic, but I'd really like to see some actual changes in cultures, not just superficial ones like leadership. I want to see something like a reformation event happen in the Amarr Empire. I want to see the Caldari/Minmatar alliance that people have been pushing for years get off the ground. I want to see the Intaki Separatists possible actually accomplish something. What if Intaki DID become a separate nation?

In essence, what I really want to see the canon go at this point is any direction other then sideways, which is what it seems to have been doing.

I've been kind of trying to get around this in my fiction, and my RP. Its a rather careful balancing act, where I'm trying to actually introduce new technology and new ideas into the accepted 'idea pool' of people's RP, without conflicting with the canon. You should see the first public manifestation of that within a few weeks.

One of the things I have been poking at is this: I'm a nerd IRL, I've read The Culture, and The Foundation, and the Void Trilogy, and lots of other series featuring post-singularity or near-singularity societies. I have a rough idea of what it would take to get there in terms of technology and resources.
Saede is also a nerd, Saede has likely read the IC versions of those stories. She likely has the same understanding. But here is the difference between Saede and I: She also has the wealth, power and technology to make a civilisation like that actually happen. The way this translates OOC is that we're essentially trying to roleplay a civilisation into existing. Its an extremely long term project, but its been so much fun along the way so far, every little crisis or moral dilemma they run into is a chance for RP.

The other thing I really want in canon is just more worldbuilding. Most other games that have as complex of a story as EVE have it rather well fleshed out and smoothed and polished. EVE's canon is remarkably rough and difficult to understand, and there are far, far more blank spots then in most fiction. There's so much stuff that we as the players just don't know and that limits what we can do in huge ways. I've basically just started filling in the grey areas with my own ideas, but I understand not everyone has the same ideas, and not everyone even wants to try and touch those grey areas. There's some stuff it really would just be easier to know for sure OOC so that we could shape our RP appropriately.

I'd also definitely like to see more of the existing 'secret' stuff become public. There's all sorts of crazy things going on behind the scenes with the jove and the Enhudeudhadadblahblah that our characters can't touch in any way because there's no way for us to find out about it. I'm out in WH space poking the sleeper civilisation, and my character can't even tell there are people there at all. Istvaan touched on this, and me and a few other people have been plotting for a while, ways to somehow get that information out in a way that made sense.

Forgive the rambling, like I said, 6 am.

[Bataav]

I want to see progress. It seems like the Big4 are sort of frozen at this snapshot in history, in terms of culture and such. Their tech changes, but the eve cultures seem fairly fixed. I understand that from a marketing standpoint, you want your factions to be fairly monolithic, but I'd really like to see some actual changes in cultures, not just superficial ones like leadership. I want to see something like a reformation event happen in the Amarr Empire. I want to see the Caldari/Minmatar alliance that people have been pushing for years get off the ground. I want to see the Intaki Separatists possible actually accomplish something.

I think one of the greatest areas of potential for the New Eden storyline lies with the minor factions.

How do they impact the universe around them through their interactions amongst themselves and also the Big 4? They have the potential to provide an extra layer of depth not just through exploring who they are in themselves, but the interwoven stories that link them to the major powers.

For example, how does the Syndicate impact and interact with the Federation? Do they influence the successes and failures of either side in the FW conflict along their borders? I'd love FW to be extended to the minor factions themselves.

What if Intaki DID become a separate nation?

It's been said before that if that actually happened those of us championing the cause wouldn't know what to do with ourselves. The struggle for that goal is our reason for being.

That said, even acknowledgement that the cause exists would be welcome, and could add extra depth to the Federation/Placid/Syndicate relationship that I think would be welcomed by the playerbase in the regions affected, whether FW player, RPer or losec pirate.

[Vieve]

I'd like to see anthologies.  A novella or two, plus stories of various lengths, all on a particular theme or focused on a singular event.

Random examples:

• an anthology set on Caldari Prime and Gallente Prime between first contact and the dispatch/arrival of the CDS.
• an anthology showing the whole spectrum of conflicts that happened during the Day of Darkness. I think getting a peek at the Tribes pre-enslavement would be fascinating.
• an anthology showing "modern" Amarr from the view of minor Holders, freedmen, commoners, slaves, et cetera.
• a "contemporary" anthology of intersecting stories on the Jita IV-IV station during an ordinary day (this could be a riff or spinoff of the Jita IV-IV chronicle, sure).
• anthologies focusing on the 'other' factions.  Angels, Blood Raiders, EOM, Guristas, ORE, Mordus, Sansha, Serpentis, SOE, SOCT, Syndicate, EI-EI-O.
• a "historical" or "contemporary" anthology focusing on null-sec.