It’s been an incredible week in EVE Online. Goonswarm Federation has conquered the Fountain region of New Eden, driving out TEST Alliance and gaining access to some incredibly rare moons. The Alliance Tournament XI ended in a gripping final between Hydra Reloaded and Pandemic Legion, with the contest going right to the wire before PL emerged victorious.

These are both incredible achievements, requiring months of work, hundreds or thousands of players, and vast resources to draw from. As I watched the ATXI, one of the commentators mentioned that over 700 billion ISK worth of ships had been destroyed during the tournament – that’s over $25,000. Winning, it seems, is an expensive business.

But now that winners have emerged, where will these great forces turn their attention? There’s a feeling in my small industrial corporation – part fear, part anticipation – that things are about to become a whole lot more unstable.

In EVE Online, the player is everything. Being a sandbox, there are no dungeons to grind, no raid bosses to master. While there are NPCs and missions, they don’t dominate the game. As senior producer Andie Nordgren once told me, as long as you’re undocked, you’re also content for other players to discover.

One strong example of this was the bitter end of the Fountain War, a drawn out battle over many months between two coalitions of alliances. The last hurrah had over 4000 players taking part, will redraw the political map of New Eden and even influence the player-driven economy.

And yet, for me it was something that almost felt like a different game. I’d enjoyed the propaganda wars played out on the different forums, but I couldn’t wrap my head around what it would be like to participate. Providing some explanation, GameSkinny described actually participating as “something in between a turn-based strategy and a play-by-mail game.” 

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. In EVE Online, that truism still holds, even among the politics, plots and machinations that gyre within CCP’s sandbox. But while trust can be earned in New Eden, it is also malleable, flashing from strong iron to intangible vapors in an instant.

Last week, I talked about declarations of war. With the corporation in lockdown for most of the week, I decided to spin up a reckless alt in search of trigger-happy adventure. But while mission running was making me braver and bolder than ever before, my PvP escapades had a little less luck. After burning through five destroyers and a handful of clones, I needed a change of tack.

By now, I’d been playing EVE Online for a month. After learning the basics of ship piloting and working my way through the tutorial, I’d headed out into space with no real goal in mind. I half-stumbled into a corporation, earned a healthy amount of money and started exploring some of the hidden mysteries.

It was at this point that I found myself at a crossroads. I could continue down the industrial road, become better at mining and earn even more money. Or I could use the money I’d earned to start buying powerful equipment and pursue the life of a battleship captain.

Little did I know that my hand would be forced. War was delivered to our doorstep, forcing me to reconsider everything.

New Eden is a vast universe, teeming with hidden riches just waiting to be discovered. Besides the planets and asteroid belts, solar systems might be home to hidden wrecks, pirate hideouts or even wormholes. And, as I continued to journey through EVE Online, I decided it was time for a change.

After earning a healthy amount of ISK from mining, I went in search of variety. The corporation I’d joined was full of chatter about how members go exploring or run missions when they’re not out mining the belts, and I was eager to find out more. With my mining barge safely docked, I headed into the depths of space in an altogether different vessel.

Choice can be intimidating.

In cuddlier MMOs, my choices after completing the tutorial would be limited to where I wanted to quest, or what type of hero I wanted to become. In the sandbox of EVE Online, my options were as vast as the universe in front of me. With enough time and skill, I could become anything.

It’s a choice that could wait for now. As mentioned in my previous article, I needed to start earning money so that I could afford whatever I chose to indulge in. For me, that meant mining. It would give me a chance to earn ISK (EVE’s in-game currency) relatively risk free, while giving me time to think about what I wanted to do.

Warping out in my small mining frigate, I left the starter area behind for a new home some distance away. It was a gamble to head out into unknown territory, but one that ultimately paid off.

Like a massive fish tank, EVE Online is a game that I love to watch. Unusually for an MMO, it’s the actions of players that create headlines across the gaming world. Whether it’s a simple mistake that has major consequences, or all-out war between two major factions, it’s fascinatingly unique.

But if there’s one thing I learned from EVE FanFest in Reykjavik, it’s that observation only gets you so far. I couldn’t spend my days tapping on the glass and peering into the murk – I needed to dive in and experience it for myself. I was also curious – could I find my own stories about life in New Eden?

If you've been following the news surrounding CCP's Sci-fi MMO, EVE Online, then you're probably aware that last weekend the Tranquility cluster and web servers that house EVE Online and DUST 514 sustained a DDoS attack. In response to EVE servers being hit with prolonged downtime on Sunday, June 2nd and Monday, June 3rd CCP developers are sending players a gift of in-game skill-points.

It's the astounding 19th free expansion to hit EVE Online and Odyssey promises to change the way that players see the universe.

Among the many changes coming to CCP's long running sci-fi MMO, the Sensor Overlay system will inform players of deep space anomalies, the clues to content that will make breadcrumbing such an expansive game environment much easier. Which means players will be able to find something to do much closer and much more often.

A sickness is spreading across the eclectic, alien-terraformed lands of San Francisco and St. Louis. In Defiance, players will already have noticed that some humans are suffering from a mysterious, terrible affliction.

Today marks the day when the plague fully hits Defiance and kicks off the latest cross-media event that promises to once again link the game and television show.

As stated in a press release today, the new content includes:

"The Plague Sieges – an all new game mode, 8 new emergencies, 2 new pursuits, a new data recorder, and an all new mission series that runs from June 10th to 17th."

We asked Trion senior designer Trick Dempsey about the event to discover just what lies ahead.