EVE Online at Ten Ton Hammer

When it comes to the economics in virtual worlds, few men are as competent about the subject as EVE Online's Dr. Gudmundsson (Dr. E). This former professor of economics has been working as a part of the EVE Online team for nearly a year, and at this year's Leipzig Games Convention he sat down with Ten Ton Hammer's Garrett Fuller to discuss the future of economics in EVE Online and virtual worlds in general. Enjoy!

With this level of growth, CCP implemented the CSM, Council of Stellar Management to give players a democratic voice with EVE developers. Dr. E explained in our interview that meeting with the council is one of his favorite things in working on EVE. The players are always ahead of the curve, Dr. E explained and they continue to surprise designers with ideas and game play. The Council and developers keep a close eye on the economy and trading to assure it is a free market which the doctor says matches most competitative free markets in reality. As examples he explained that once a game design change was put onto the test server, nothing was spoken of it officially to players. The player base discovered the change on the test server and instantly in game the markets reacted to the change, even though it had not been implemented into the regular EVE space.

• To read the rest of the EVE interview, click here!