Friday, January 30, 2009

CK Banter #4: We, the EVE-bloggers.

Welcome to the forth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by yours truly. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

Manasi asks "How do we, EVE bloggers, adapt to changes as they are thrust upon us (speed changes, no more ghost training, all the dev blogs, etc), or as our lives make playing the game different (more time, less time)?".

As CCP expands and commits more resources to EVE, and as the player-base continues to grow, the flow of newsworthy content will increase. In my humble opinion, it is the responsibility of the EVE blogger to serve the community in several ways.

We, as members of the EVE blogging community, have two charges. The first is the player. More players will come to rely on us to decrypt CCP information. Simply regurgitating dev blogs won't be enough. We'll have to break it down for the noobs and help vets to adapt old strats. People will come to us for educated opinion, not a wall of text they saw on an RSS feed straight from CCP.

The second group that relies on us is CCP itself. They're reading and paying attention. We know they are. When the dredge of the forums becomes too much, they look to us much like they look to the CSM, or how businesses look to focus groups. We have to become an effective conduit between CCP and the community.

How do we serve everyone? we stay informed and communicative. Carebear blogs comment on and promote pirate blogs. RP blogs comment on and promote industry blogs. We write about our experiences and each other's experiences. We right guides about what to do and what not to do. When there's outrage in the community, we serve as a calm and objective voice for everyone involved. We admonish CCP when they screw around, players when they act like a mob, and ourselves when we get too self-serving or righteous.

Must we adapt to do this? Not really. I think we're already doing a good job... but we can always do better.

o7

Participants:

Participants:

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well thought out and answered :) I also happen to agree get informed and communicate that info to others :)

Anonymous said...

I like your stance on this. Hopefully, with all the people who do blog about EVE, we can cover a large portion of the many game play styles that are out there and ultimately increase the enjoyment factor for the players.

Good answer mate!!!

Bahamut said...

i used to be a journalist and am now getting into law enforcement, so I know what it means to serve the public interest.

The EVE-blogging community seems to consider itself journalism, so if they're gonna talk the talk they better walk the walk.

Anonymous said...

Agreed. I know we've been slacking off on our side in this mission; it's time for us to get the whip cracking again. Our new contributor is going to bring a lot to the blog, but that doesn't excuse us from keeping our eye on the ball.

Carole Pivarnik said...

A noble perspective! Personally, I blog primarily for two reasons: the creative satisfaction I get from writing about my real or fictional experiences related to a game I love, and the enjoyment I get from reading others' opinions about what I publish and engaging in some discussion about it via comments.

I'd characterize my blog as more personal journal than journalism, generally. It's highly subjective, prone to personal whimsy, and often I'd guess is of no particular use to the community whatsoever beyond entertainment value. I'm very appreciative that folks seem to enjoy it, but I don't see myself as having any particular obligation to inform or educate...beyond the implied promise to write from the perspective of a low sec pirate.

That said, I selfishly VERY MUCH appreciate the efforts of those who do serve the information needs of the community in their blogs (because I am lazy and their generous contributions make my EVE life easier and more productive *grin*).

Bahamut said...

"prone to personal whimsy" ... how Mary Poppins! Love it.

Not all EVE blogs need submit themselves to the journalistic sword of Damacles. It's all volunteer, right?

That said, it's perhaps not so wise to feign journalism, as some blogs do. IMHO it invites sloth on the greater community. Things like regurgitating dev blogs really irk me.