EVE Online was originally launched in May 2003, meaning that this year CCP Games will be ushering in the franchises second century. But despite it being very much a veteran in the gaming world – several hundreds of thousands of subscribers with the “Tranquility” server as of this post having 30,000 players on at this moment. With EVE Online currently active and DUST 514 for the Playstation 3 currently in beta testing…. CCP have announced that the theme for the “EVE Fanfest 2013” is “The Second Decade” – welcoming in and hopefully previewing what is to come in the coming months and years.
EVE Fanfest is the annual festival that features over 1,000 EVE pilots, DUST 514 mercs and their friends and family from around the globe coming together in Reykjavik, Iceland for three straight days of constant celebration. This year will be the biggest, most amazing Fanfest yet, taking place less than a month before EVE Online’s tenth anniversary on May 6th and celebrated by the most unique and imaginative community in all of gaming. Tickets for the event have been selling fast and are nearly sold out if not sold out as of this post – with Early Bird packaging ended and several of the extra events at capacity.
Hilmar Veigar Petursson | CEO of CCP
Fanfest is the truest celebration of the EVE universe, where online foes become instant friends and shared war stories over drinks bring our wonderful community even closer together.This year, as DUST 514’s journey truly begins and we celebrate ten glorious years of EVE Online with our fans, CCP will be going bigger and bolder than ever before by creating a truly amazing Fanfest for those attending or following along.
This year they hope to offer even more unique events, amazing panels, presentations, PvP tournaments, exotic local excursions, game demos, round tables, first-looks, developer pub crawls, concerts parties and more. The following are some of the promoted events from the press release:
Icelandic Symphony Orchestra
The night before the official opening of Fanfest, the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra will perform selected music from the original EVE Online soundtrack in an inspired and artistic performance that will set the mood for the events to come. Tickets and more information are available at http://midi.is/concerts/15/387/Make EVE Real
The new “Make EVE Real” speaker track will include luminary speakers and scientific pioneers who will share bold initiatives for humanity and its place among the stars, exploring areas where the tech and science behind EVE’s future universe could become a modern reality. The first announced speaker, Michael Laine (President of LiftPort Group) will present a vision for the future of space exploration via a “space elevator” following over a decade of research with a world-class team of experts and a recently successful Kickstarter campaign to conduct an experiment and to engage the global community. More speakers actively involved in advancing towards what we now consider science-fiction will be announced in the coming weeks.Mixed Martial Arts
Icelandic Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) phenom Gunnar “Gunni” Nelson (10-0-1) will take part in a completely unique spectacle at Fanfest—bringing the fight to the ground like the DUST 514mercenaries of the EVE Universe. Nelson recently signed a sponsorship with CCP for DUST 514 and will be attending Fanfest fresh off a Feb 16 UFC match in London’s legendary Wembley Arena.
Have you yet to play EVE Online yet? It is somewhat of a unique online game in many regards and one I can personally recommend checking out. While I could sit here and go on and on about it, sign up for a free 14-day trial at the games official website HERE.
