The Cult of Immersionalism
Hello, I’m Ginger and I’m the events coordinator for CCP. Seeing as how writing a blog seems to be the cool thing to do nowadays, I thought I would take the opportunity to explain some things.
First of all, what do I do? Well, I work alongside Abraxas, Eris Discordia and Gnauton in what is officially known as the Dynamic Content team, unofficially as the G-unit (don’t ask).
We work with all storyline/fiction-related content, crossing over on many aspects but my main focus is co-ordinating and running events. To do this, we work closely with Aurora, who are about as good a bunch of deluded, crazy, talented individuals as a man could hope to meet. We help guide them along a general story path, helping and supporting them as much as possible to make the events run smoother. This way we get to utilise the limited manpower at our disposal to effectively push a more coherent and linked story across multiple fronts.
Chances are that the majority of you have never been in an event. Unfortunately, because of the sheer number of players in EVE, our limited manpower, coupled with the comparative lack of tools at our disposal, this is a fact we can’t change too much at the moment. However, we do push continuously to try to get additional tools implemented so we can broaden the scope and deepen the immersion of our events.
Now, what is the point of all of this, I hear you ask? Surely it’s just for those roleplayers who wander around the woods in loincloths hitting each other with foam swords?
But here’s the thing…
You — yes, you reading this right now - roleplay. Yes, I’m afraid so, even those gate gankers screaming, "Not me!". There is no denying it. You are a roleplayer! When you undock from a station and go pew-pew someone in the face, or mine a ‘roid, you’re playing a role. The only difference between you and the guys in loincloths is how far they’re willing to go to immerse themselves in a fictional world.
Eve’s all about the sandbox right? Provide the tools and the players create the content. Throw sand in other player’s faces and build sandcastles and all that great stuff. So what we do is provide even more sand for the people who want greater immersion. We weave stories, deepen the fiction, and attempt to get players immersed, all in the hope of spurring more interaction between players. One arc might provide enough immersional 'sand' for corporations to be formed, wars to be fought, stations to be conquered, and pretty much anything at all, to be honest. The creativity of our players never ceases to amaze me!
So this is our vision: we create sand. And we’re not doing it just for the immersionieers (great word, just made it up), but we do concentrate on this particular group within the EVE community because they get the most enjoyment from it. However, players who would not normally consider themselves immersionauts (another great and just made up word!) do participate in these events and, indeed, they are encouraged. We’re like the Borg in that respect. “Resistance is futile. You will be immersed!”
Events aren’t here as the be-all and end-all of immersivism (I’m getting good at this making words up lark). For the rest of EVE, it’s the players that are creating the majority of the content, but we put more sand there for players to utilize — if they like. We try to bring EVE’s rich background and history to life, and hopefully we can expand the touch of what we do to more and more people.
And if you want to get involved in the storyline, then I suggest you check the News / Chronicles / Intergalactic Summit – there’s a wonderfully deep fictional universe that players can immerse themselves in, and it can be a great deal of fun. I can do nothing more but recommend that you at least give it a shot.
P.S. Aurora is recruiting. Join us in building the mother of all sandcastles. Loin cloths provided. Apply here
