Filed under: DUST 514

Did you drop your name into CCP Games' hat as a potential tester for DUST 514? Then tomorrow might be a lovely day for you, as the studio is emailing out the first round of closed beta keys for registered participants after a short delay from its original key-handing-out schedule.

It is unknown how many keys will be sent out and to whom. Last month, CCP told Fanfest attendees that they would be among the first to test the anticipated MMOFPS. The DUST 514 website states that the studio is sending out Fanfest keys first and keys to standard registered players "soon after."

To celebrate the release of the closed beta keys, CCP is holding a "special event" over the weekend. The details of this event are forthcoming.

[Update: CCP has confirmed that beta registration has begun today and that EVE players and Fanfest attendees will get first pick.]

Last week I celebrated the fourth anniversary of the EVE Evolved column with a competition to win one of two 30-day pilot's licenses. Congratulations to winners Dong Yi and Atrameides Denard, whose prizes have been contracted in-game. Today EVE Online itself turns nine years old, and so this week's EVE Evolved column takes a look back at the top EVE stories of the year. It's been a rollercoaster of a year for CCP, with the infamous monoclegate scandal hitting subscriptions hard during the summer and only recently starting to recover.

The drama kicked off as the much-touted Incarna expansion drew close and CCP revealed that it would contain no multiplayer elements and would introduce a microtransaction store for vanity items. Players didn't seem to mind the cash shop as long as it contained only vanity items, and CCP had previously promised that microtransactions would be limited to those types of items. When the Incarna expansion finally launched and players got a first-hand look at the cash shop, however, it became apparent that something was fundamentally wrong.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I look back at the top EVE stories of the year, from the incredible videos and scams to the story of how CCP brought EVE Online back from the brink of disaster.

The death of the subscription model has been greatly exaggerated, according to CCP. This view isn't terribly surprising if you consider the fact that the company's fortunes ebb and flow with sub-based EVE Online. What is somewhat surprising is the frankness with which EVE producer Jon Lander talks about the free-to-play mania that's gripped western dev studios in recent years.

"You look at the companies who did go free-to-play. They retrofitted it on, and that was because their games were failing. They didn't care about the tiny nugget of players who were still playing, because they knew they would get a huge number of other players and it would be more profitable," Lander told PC Gamer, before going on to explain how such a retrofit would kill EVE's essence.

Overall quality and the desire for long-term play also factor into a title's business model, Lander says. "If you have a really good game [...] and people want to spend a long time playing it, not like a month or two but like EVE players for years at a time, they're prepared to pay a subscription fee for a good quality gaming experience."

He also mentions EVE's PLEX system, which allows for real-world money to be injected into the EVE economy sans shady third-party brokers. And of course, CCP is experimenting with free-to-play via its new DUST 514 shooter, which Lander says was built from the ground up for the new business model. It's not necessarily the future, though. "People say the subscription MMO is dead. I fundamentally disagree with that. It's simply not the case," he says. Hit the jump for video excerpts from the interview.

"It's not our game," says CCP's Jon Lander. He's talking about EVE Online, and he makes no bones about the firm's role in the ongoing internet spaceship drama that is New Eden. "We're the janitors of it; we sweep up and make sure the power's still running and whatever, but it's their game. EVE is the sum history of their personal interactions, and we don't own that. We just look after it."

The "their" Lander refers to is the game's playerbase, of course, and he tells GamesIndustry.biz that despite the turmoil of the last 12 months, the EVE property is none the worse for wear (and in fact it may be getting stronger due to a design re-focus and the imminent arrival of DUST 514).

Ultimately the interview brings no new information to the table, but it does serve as a handy recap of recent EVE events. It also offers up more than a few juicy quotes from both Lander and lead game designer Kristoffer "CCP Soundwave" Touborg.

On April 27th, 2008, I joined the Massively crew and published the first edition of a new weekly column dedicated to the world of EVE Online. It's hard to believe that the EVE Evolved column is now four years old, spanning nine major expansions and predating CCP Games' transformation into an industry giant with three games in development. Since the column's first crude scribbling about shuttles, I've written over 200 in-depth articles, guides, stories, and opinion pieces. With its free expansions and iterative updates, EVE is a rapidly changing game that provides a constant supply of things to write about.

To celebrate the fourth anniversary of the column, I'm giving away two 30-day Pilot's License EXtensions to two lucky readers. To enter the competition, leave a comment stating which EVE Evolved article from this year is your favourite, and why it's your favorite, and what topic you'd like to see covered in the coming year. You will need an active EVE account to claim the prize, so be sure to include a character name with your comment if you want to be able to win a prize. If you're not comfortable with giving out your character name, use an alternate character or sign up a new trial account. The winners' names will be revealed in next week's column.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I look back at some of the highlights from the column's fourth year.

Oh, Tribes: Ascend, if only you were an MMO.

Actually, wait a minute. When I think on it, if Hi-Rez Studios' new free-to-play sci-fi shooter were an MMO, I probably wouldn't like it as much. There's something to be said for frequent updates and instant gameplay gratification, and Tribes provides those things (and more) in spades.

CCP is being rather selective with its invites to DUST 514's ongoing beta test. That said, if you attended Fanfest 2012 last month, you can now redeem a closed beta voucher code and get on with the sci-fi sandbox fragging.

You'll need one of the code cards given out at Fanfest, and you'll need to enter the numbers on the new redeem page at the DUST 514 website. Once you've done so, you'll be placed in a queue to receive your actual beta code via email. CCP says it will begin sending out said codes "very soon, hopefully as early as the week of May 7, 2012."

Most FPS titles feature static mission areas, says CCP's CmdrWang. Over time, players memorize layouts, spawn locations, and objectives because nothing ever changes. Not so in DUST 514, the upcoming EVE Online-based MMOFPS.

CCP is bringing its sci-fi sandbox design chops to the shooter space, and the company has broken down its dynamic battlefield concept in a new DUST dev blog. Each DUST planet will be divided into separate districts, which are basically large territories that contain resources and infrastructure needed to control the world. While planetary landscapes remain static, these districts can vary quite a bit from one deployment to the next based on what has happened in previous engagements and based on player placement decisions in regard to battlefield equipment.

Memorizing the maps won't give you a huge advantage, CmdrWang says, because you may find a new choke point or structure clogging up your previous short-cut. Read more about DUST's emergent battlefield play at the official PlayStation blog.

CCP recently said that it would take seven years to max out every skill in its DUST 514 MMOFPS. If you want to see what that improbable feat looks like on a DUST character screen, head to fansite DUST514.org (or check out the video clip behind the cut).

"Much like in real life, and in EVE Online, we don't expect that a player will master all of these skills," explains CCP marketing guru David Reid. Specialization is the name of DUST 514's skill game, and Reid says that most players will probably choose a few skills and "get really, really good at them."

DUST isn't just about skills, though. It's an MMO, and an MMO means gear, so the game will launch with upwards of a thousand items (the vast majority of which can be lost in battle). How do you manage and equip these items? Through the fitting screen, of course, and today's video gives us a good look at the system in action.

Fansite DUST514.org has the best introductory info dump we've seen to date regarding CCP's upcoming DUST 514 MMOFPS.

The sci-fi shooter is, of course, set in EVE Online's New Eden universe, but how exactly does the new player experience look and feel? That question is answered at length on the site's latest blog post. Dropsuits and dropsuit fittings are covered in detail, as is DUST's complex skill system.

Also noteworthy are the tidbits relating to missions and PvP. DUST, like EVE, starts newbs off in high-security space, where there are plenty of NPC corporations willing to hand out mercenary contracts. These aren't just bot matches, though, as you'll go up against other players who have chosen to work for competing corporations. The blog also delves into DUST's version of blueprint originals and blueprint copies as they relate to gear acquisition, not to mention a host of other interesting topics.

Dude, there was a ton of big shooter news this week!

I mean, this isn't terribly unusual, particularly since the genre is expanding at a rapid rate, but when I've got to cut interesting items out of this column for length reasons, you know it's been an eventful few days.

Join me after the break for a recap on everything from Firefall to Defiance to John Romero and beyond.

DUST 514 isn't at PAX this weekend, which probably explains CCP's strategic reveal of a new dev blog earlier this afternoon. We knew that the MMOFPS will boast a number of similarities to its EVE Online sibling (like the fitting screens, factions, and lore); one thing we didn't know, though, was that DUST will also repurpose vehicle hulls in a decidedly EVE-like way.

Many EVE ships share the same hull visuals despite having radically different performance envelopes and combat roles, and DUST vehicles will definitely follow that trend, according to CCP's Cmdr Wang.

DUST vehicles will also be powered by a capacitor (which should seem awfully familiar to you capsuleer types). Cap management will therefore play a vital role in the new game just as it does in the old. Finally, DUST's vehicle skill system also takes a page out of EVE's book. Today's dev blog finishes up with a look at a couple of high-level vehicle skills as well as some verbiage on module customization.

Hoo boy, CCP and EVE Online.

Wait, what? Isn't this Massively's shooter column? Well, yes, yes it is, and if you weren't already aware, CCP has made a shooter called DUST 514 set in the EVE universe. I bring this up for two reasons. One, I'm really looking forward to the game (as I might have mentioned last time). Two, CCP has taken some lumps in the PR department over the past couple of weeks primarily because of its annual alcohol-fueled sausage-fest.

I'm not going to rehash cyber-bully scandals today, but since e-thug players will undoubtedly have some sort of DUST presence, and since DUST shares certain unforgiving gameplay tenets with its sister title, should those of you who love sandbox shooters but hate EVE Online even bother with the game?

CCP has been pretty quiet on the subject of microtransactions since last summer's monoclegate and the ensuing Jita protests. EVE Online creative director Torfi Frans Olafsson recently spoke up about the trendy new business model, and while he acknowledged that it is popular, he also said that CCP is "very reluctant to do that in EVE because it's so established. It's like changing the DNA of a living organism after it's born. That didn't work in Blade Runner," he tells PC Gamer.

Olafsson also repeats the anti-pay-to-win mantra that comes standard in just about every developer interview these days. He says that CCP will sell cosmetic items in EVE, including makeovers for your avatar, ship, and starbase. Given the fact that players will be purchasing weapons and gear in DUST 514 (which will interface directly with EVE's pre-existing economy), we've no doubt it will be interesting to see how CCP maintains that delicate balance.

"I think we have to be very careful in introducing such mechanics into EVE. And I personally think that we shouldn't be doing it in the near future," Olafsson says, "because it's such a vulnerable little flower in a vulnerable little ecosystem. You make minor changes to an ecosystem and you can introduce hostile things and the whole system breaks down."

Check out the video interview after the cut.

Oh man, this back and forth between PlanetSide 2 and DUST 514 is going to be the death of me. I feel like I'm cheating on one game every time I get excited about the other, but I just can't help it since both titles are drawing a bead on my personal sweet spot.

This week's Firing Line is all DUST all the time, thanks to the massive info dump at last weekend's Fanfest 2012 event. I didn't get to go to Iceland for the hands-on, unfortunately, but I did log into PlayStation Home for the keynote livestream (which is archived after the cut in case you missed it).

And I'll go ahead and beg your forgiveness for my fanboy breathlessness in advance this week. I've been an EVE Online player for a number of years now, so I'm already enamored of both the DUST universe and CCP's propensity for sandbox mechanics. What I didn't know prior to Fanfest, though, was just how deep the rabbit hole's going to go.