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Ten Ton Hammer: You’ve also mentioned in your logs that a lot of the Revelations 2 enhancements are based off of players’ requests, things that the players have wanted for quite some time. How do you decide which requests to do? I mean, there are a lot of development teams that go strictly off the numbers they see after they’ve processed in-game statistics. Why do you guys do it differently?

Magnus: We’re just strange people here in Iceland. *laughs* We’ve always participated with the community. We really want this to be their world and not our world.

That said, we’ve added A LOT of content in the last two expansions, and we felt like this would be the proper time to refine some of these features. There are a lot of these instances in Revelations 2 where we are making improvements or refinements on existing material than simply adding more and more content.

There’s already so much content in EVE, and I think we’re making the right choice when it comes to refining rather than adding. There were a lot of features that the players really wanted, and we set our minds to it and really banged it all out.

Revelations 2 features a large number of player requested changes.

Most of the requests come through our forums, and we all actively read that material. Players might not realize it, but reading the forums is like a religion here at CCP. Most of us do it every day.

Ten Ton Hammer: You do have a very active and very sincere forum community. While there are still trolls, flames, and all the other evil that can spawn on forums, in general your community is very courteous and is remarkable well-spoken. How did you develop such a great official forum community?

Magnus: To start, we definitely respect all our users. After that, our users tend to be from an older generation, which makes it easier for us to associate with their personalities. It’s easy to be around them at fan events and to grasp what they’re trying to tell us.

Our game was originally made up of very hardcore users and I think that really helped develop our community in the beginning, because they worked very closely with us. They helped create an atmosphere that helped withstand our growth.

Finally, we never felt that we were a corporation trying to sell a game. CCP was just a company that wanted to create a game that they wanted to play with the gamers.

Ten Ton Hammer: Before we finish up Magnus, is there anything else you’d like people to know about Revelations 2?

Magnus: People should also know that we’re including many additions for corporations and alliances going into Revelations 2, mostly concerning management.

We’re also expanding the concept of exploration, which has become an extremely popular way to make money in EVE. We’re going to expand that concept significantly, specifically for the solar explorers and those who want to go explore on their own…

Ten Ton Hammer: Sorry to interrupt, Magnus, but could you clarify what exploration means to people who might not know the details of the game? It doesn’t mean just piloting your ship off into space does it?

Magnus: No, no, no…that’s a good question though. Explorers are searching for specific objects within the game, mainly with various probes that they send out. They’re looking for certain things within the system. If they find something in the system, they’ll look for a particular type of site that they’re looking for, and that might lead them to an excellent source of income.

By changing the new player experience, Magnus hopes that more players will be drawn to EVE.

Ten Ton Hammer: Now that we’ve gotten that cleared up, is there anything else you’d like to share?

Magnus: We’re still working on the new player experience in EVE. It’s definitely something that we’re constantly working on, trying to make it easier for players to grasp the game.

Ten Ton Hammer: Do you know what those changes are?

Magnus: Well, we’re trying to make them fun! That’s something we’re still trying to crack. There’s also going to be added protection and safety for the new player, to keep them from being harassed by other gamers. We’re also looking at adding video tutorials.

Ten Ton Hammer: Just sitting back and watching a video while you’re traveling would be very nice.

Magnus: Exactly.

Ten Ton Hammer: I think we’ve covered almost everything, Magnus. Thanks again for your time, and I hope we can chat again at some of the upcoming conventions.

Magnus: Definitely, it’s always a pleasure.