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[Ellis Croix]

I'm still amazed that people never really picked up on the whole "Empyrean" thing.

[Ken]

They didn't?  Hmm.  I always took it to be a joke or ironic jab at a group of people who were very far from being "empyrean".  The TEA trailer even highlights the less-than-genuine nature of the titular time period.

[Hamish Grayson]

Dropbear addressed the issue: http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1519536&page=1#8

For those of us stuck at work for 24hrs, and can't access the eve-o website what did he say?

[Ken]

For those of us stuck at work for 24hrs, and can't access the eve-o website what did he say?

This was the one reason why I was really excited for the new forums.  Could get to them through EVE Gate, which they don't yet know to filter 

For your duty pleasure:

Hey guys,

Apologies for joining the discussion late, things are pretty busy for us all right now, as you can imagine.

So...about that line. First of all, we're glad to see it was noticed, and that discussions have already started about the implications, and so on. I think it says something about our player base when subtly introduced (yet important) changes to the storyline are narrowed in on with speed and analysed at depth.

Now that I've buttered you up with flattery, the next thing to point out is that this is just the first little step in a much larger, more long-term movement, the aim of which is to elaborate more on the life of the capsuleer, including the hot topic of how they come to be in the first place. I can't speak about specifics yet, since I'm not directly involved in the next steps, nor is everything hammered out and confirmed yet.

Expanding a bit more on the newly introduced part of it though...and giving you an internal insight on the matter: you'll notice that this new piece of canon is introduced as a voiceover from AURA. Something that might not be appreciated is that when you're working with a voice actor in a studio on a script, you want to do it all at once (it's much more effective than getting the actor back in the studio repeatedly for small changes).

Also, if you have plans for the future, then the voiceover has to account for that. What you record today has to make sense tomorrow, when things change.

And that's kind of what is going on here. You're seeing the first part of a larger shift because the voiceover is going out now, with Incarna. In the future, that little tidbit which seems unceremoniously introduced will tie in with other things and make much greater sense in that context. For the moment, it will remain a little snippet of the new player's introduction to EVE that, hopefully, makes them do a little double-take in their head and ask "wait, what?!" like you guys did.

Speaking more broadly about the specifics of this new canon, and its implications...

Firstly, this is not a retcon. What that means is we've not suddenly defined what has happened in the last eight years. Instead, we're just defining how things work now (where "now" means, once Incarna's New Player Experience launches). I can't say where, how or when we'll bring that out in the canon, just that it's our intent to do so at some point, and make clear (beyond this forum post) that there was a change in the way capsuleers graduated.

We're doing this for one simple reason: We don't want to pull the rug out from underneath people with an unnecessary retcon. Simple as that. It's avoidable, so we're avoiding it.

The deeper reasons motivating the change are the ones people have already picked up on; it's about differentiating capsuleers from baseliners (but not necessarily alienating and separating the two wholesale, as some people are concerned is the intent) and other themes, which will be expanded upon further in other ways down the line. Some cool stuff is cooking on that front.

Finally...regarding the broader concern that we're "walling off" the world of non-capsuleers.

I have to start by saying that it kind of strikes me as a funny, out-of-nowhere concern. I don't mean to belittle it, nor come across as saying I don't take it seriously, I'm just a little "wtf?" at it is all.

Here's why.

30 second hypothetical: You're CCP, and you want to tear those walls down between capsuleers and "the rest of the world." All you have right now is capsuleers flying around inside spaceships.

So what's the first thing you do, to tear those walls down?

You get those pilots out of their ships, and walking around on "dry land."

I mean, that's the foundation, right? You can't ever hope to take a stroll down Crystal Boulevard unless you can, like, stroll. Right?

Personally, I feel like Incarna is the most storyline-oriented expansion EVE has ever seen. It's different to other storyline-heavy expansions like Empyrean Age in that it's a more slow-burning, long-term thing, but what it lacks in immediate, juicy storyline, it makes up for in terms of potential.

For one, the notion of walking down Crystal Boulevard moves from the realm of "how would that ever happen?" to "I can see how that could possibly happen in the years to come". Hopefully you agree that, although that isn't something that benefits us immediately, it's still a profound shift in EVE's storyline potential.

From one perspective, Incarna is a big step towards the very thing you guys are concerned we're walking away from, and more broadly, it's a big step towards some pretty exciting new storyline possibilities. Even more broadly, from a content perspective, it's a damn cool way to push things out to players in a way that is oh-so-compatible with storyline (and user friendly, to boot).

To give an example. Instead of finding out about pirate epic arcs by reading a years-old Dev Blog outside of the game client (putting aside the question: how would you know to read it in the first place?), you can now stand in front of your TV screen in your captain's quarters and see an ad from the Angel Cartel.

That's another little victory for EVE's storyline right there.

I drifted a bit from the point there. The tl;dr is that the "everyone is a clone" development is not a retcon, is something we've thought about quite a bit, and will be explored in more depth in the future.

If I missed something, or more likely, misunderstood something (particularly about the "putting walls up" concern) then please do point it out.

[Hamish Grayson]

Thanks Ken!

[Ellis Croix]

They didn't?  Hmm.  I always took it to be a joke or ironic jab at a group of people who were very far from being "empyrean".  The TEA trailer even highlights the less-than-genuine nature of the titular time period.

Empyrean = infomorph...

...well, I'll just go to my corner again. 

[Matariki Rain]

Ken, thanks for asking that. You gave a good summary of my concerns and got a response which seems to address them. I'm going to ponder for a bit.