The terms of PVP and PVE and overarching story have been a little blurred in EVE Online for some time now, and today EVE Insider shows how much that's getting furthered. The primary goals are clearer interface and bigger consequences, with higher rewards for those who participate actively. Enemy faction capturing time has been increased to 30+ hours, up from 7, and enemy factions can't dock into unallied stations. Furthermore, the faction in control can spend Loyalty Points to gain upgrades during that time. And that's just the start of it. 

In a rather awesome blog post celebrating EVE Online's success - for the players making what the game is, remembering the fond times, and promising free stuff for players - CCP will soon be passing yet another year of their MMO's stellar success. The free stuff aforementioned is cruisers, skill books, implants, and ore, all fully listed on their site, and the offer is open from this coming May 4th to June 4th.

He might be a bit hard to understand, but if you play EVE Online, he's talking about important stuff. Changes to make mining more viable, some UI cleanup in the Effect bar, and - most awesomely - new graphics and details on the new missiles. The missiles now exit from ports, have smoketrails, sail through the air, and explode on impact. To see and hear more, check out the whole thing.

You might remember the system that allows you to buy a graphics cards for grinding EVE Online's in-game currency, PLEX. Well the 100 cards they had around for the program have already sold out, exactly 64 seconds after the first redemption went through. I can't say anything about this that isn't funnier than the fact that it happened. 

No word yet if CCCP is going to be extending the program further.

I have a strong reason to suspect that David Reid, CCP's recently appointed Chief Marketing Officer, is the human incarnation of the energizer bunny. A week and a half ago - at EVE Fanfest - I had the opportunity to speak with David on CCP's big plans for 2012 and, even after eight straight hours of interacting with fans and press, he was still the most enthusiastic and energetic man at the venue. This also means that within a 15 minute interview, we managed to have an in-depth discussion on blending the DUST 514 and EVE Online communities, CCP's vision for cloud gaming, and a little bit of World of Darkness thrown in at the end. It's all fascinating, so let's get right into it!

Boy that's one for the history books. nVidia has cut a deal with CCP games, one which allows players to spend in-game EVE Online PLEX currency to buy their GeForce 560 graphics card. You can now buy graphics cards priced upwards of $150 by grinding in a video game. 

It's a bit more complicated than that - PLEX is Player License Extension, which can be bought with currency to net yourself a free month's subscription, and the cost is very high. There's also the fact that it really is only one specific video card that can be purchased, which will inevitably be outdated quickly. But this is yet another story that sets EVE Online apart from all other MMOs, for good or for ill. 

EVE Fanfest 2012 ended yesterday night, but not before CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson debuted their newest trailer, "One World," to the thousands of live fans attending the "CCP Presents!" keynote speech. The trailer gives a lot of backstory behind the DUST 514 soldiers and how, exactly, they relate to the EVE Online Universe. The trailer also gives a hint as to some of the crossover DUST 514 / EVE Online features they hope to implement - or have already been implemented - into the game, including the ability for DUST 514 soldiers to shoot EVE Online ships out of the sky, and for EVE Online players to trigger Orbital Bombardments on the planet, decimating the land.

Stay tuned this week for a lot more information on DUST 514, as well as a few interviews from EVE Fanfest 2012, and some information on CCP's long-hidden World of Darkness MMORPG.

And so it begins! Thursday marked the first day of EVE Fanfest, as players and CCP enthusiasts gathered in Reykjavik, Iceland, to hear of future plans for EVE Online, in addition to getting new details on CCP's upcoming PS3 exclusive MMOFPS, DUST 514 (more on that in a few days!). World of Darkness is also slated to make an appearance Saturday, day three of EVE Fanfest, although what sort of details we'll get regarding this delayed horror-based MMORPG remains to be seen. Yesterday we took in the DUST 514 keynote and, while not a lot of new information was presented there, ZAM will attend all of the round table discussions being hosted today and tomorrow to bring you our in-depth analysis of the game, as well as our hands-on experience with it. For now, however, let's get on with the EVE Keynote speech!

Just a quick one for now - the Fanfest 2012 livestream is going! Go check it out if you haven't already. 

Good news for everyone who, in the words of CCP Games, can't "make it to this icy rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean." EVE Online's big fan-convention in Iceland will be livestreamed.

Using CCP's Eve.TV, they will broadcast the entire event, including any conferences, announcements, fan tournaments, interviews with the developers, and performances by artists like HaZar or DJ Alienhead. For those of you who have the money to burn on the event, you can buy the HD stream too and gain an in-game avatar shirt as well as an Iteron Mark IV Quafe Ultra Edition ship. 

Does that mean they're handing out real t-shirts and real Iteron Mark IV starships at the convention? EVE Online players, get back to me on that, I might want to go now.