Back from the Top of the World
Just returned from my trip to Iceland and Eve Fanfest 2025 – what a ride! I came back full of emotions, insights, new connections, and a mountain of content to sort through. While I sift through interviews, refine thousands of photos, and stitch together footage for a proper highlight trailer, I wanted to recap my impressions and, well, to let you know I successfully survived this epic adventure.
Update: added 6 interviews, video interview and full event coverage links at the end of the post.
Table of Contents
Meeting Old Friends and Making New Ones
Eve Online is, at its core, a game about meaningful connections – and Eve Fanfest is no different. It was a joy to meet familiar faces from every corner of New Eden: players, CCP developers, and even community legends like the Space Pope (the only currently active pope on planet Earth), Jin’taan, and my favorite pugcrawl buddy from the last Fanfest – Mystical Might.
There were also plenty of new friends made, some unexpectedly, like those I met during the Eve Galaxy Conquest panel (which I’ll cover more in my full festival review). All in all, I walked away feeling more connected to every branch of the CCP Games universe – and that means more content for you, dear readers.
Eve Online: First Thoughts on the Legion Expansion
As always, some players complain that the expansion isn’t meaningful enough, while others are already flipping it into profits.
The halls were buzzing with theories about capital meta shifts, and how fleets might utilize the new Siege + MJD dread combo. It was also the #1 topic of discussion during the post-announcement pubcrawl.
The visual overhaul for some T1 cruisers – and their T2 variants – looks fantastic. They feel modern, but the iconic silhouettes remain. Notably, the stat changes to the Thorax and Muninn are huge. That +40 Powergrid and speed boost for the Thorax? A game changer. My dual 1600mm plated heavy tackler used to barely squeeze in a rack of 125mm autocannons — now it can fit something with a real punch. I think both ships will find their way back into PvE and PvP, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Rupture making a serious comeback.
There’s a lot more coming with the update on May 27 and in the months to follow. You’ll definitely want to read the release notes when they drop. But there’s one particular feature I want to highlight…
Freelance Jobs – A Hidden Gem of the Legion Expansion
In my opinion, this is a major step toward making Eve Online feel like a next-gen MMO — no small feat for a game that’s been around for 22 years. In short, it’s a toolset that empowers players to create their own missions and narrative arcs – guiding corpmates or complete strangers into custom objectives and storylines. For over 20 years, the mission system remained mostly untouched. It boiled down to the same old “bring me 10 wolf pelts” – only in space.
At Fanfest, I spoke with a wide range of developers – not just the managers and directors, but also the engineers working behind the scenes on the very feature that makes all this backend magic possible. What we’re seeing now is just the beginning: a framework with a handful of sample objectives to experiment with. But it’s already capable of pulling nearly any variable from the database. The team plans to monitor community feedback and prioritize which new mission parameters or goals to add next, based directly on player demand.
Naturally, I can already see how this feature might be used for less-than-wholesome purposes – ganking, trapping, scamming – the usual EVE gameplay we know and love. But on a serious note, the potential here is massive. Buyback programs could be streamlined. You could create item delivery requests and avoid market fees entirely. Players could outsource logistics to strangers while still controlling the terms.
One fun use case? Dealing with your local mining competitors. Tired of a rival corp farming ice in your system? Put up a Freelance Job: “Kill 10 of their barges.” Offer enough ISK, and a swarm of Catalysts will take care of the rest. This could spark a renaissance of proxy wars and indirect conflict – a golden age for third-party PvP and mercenary-style gameplay.
But this system isn’t just about destruction. It offers new freedom to lone wolves – those who prefer to live on their own terms. Now, solo players can engage with corp activities without the pressure of long-term commitments. And maybe, over time, that contractor becomes part of the team. Or maybe not – and that’s perfectly fine, too.
In my opinion, Freelance Jobs are the best feature of the Legion expansion. A foundational piece that could reshape New Eden much like wormholes did in the Apocrypha era – opening new frontiers of interaction, conflict, and creativity.
The Broader Universe of Eve Fanfest 2025
While Eve Online is clearly the centerpiece of the festival, CCP Games is steadily building a broader ecosystem of sci-fi experiences, each offering a different take on life in New Eden.
Eve Galaxy Conquest
There weren’t any developers from the Shanghai team physically present this year, but I did connect with people at CCP’s Reykjavík office who are deeply involved in the project as players (surprise, surprise!) and genuinely care about its future. We had a constructive chat about current issues in the game – what needs attention, what could evolve – and agreed to stay in touch post-Fanfest to figure out how to keep the momentum going and help the game grow.
Season 4 is expected to launch in late May, bringing a new commander and fresh ships into play. I’ll try to dig up more details soon and share them here first.
Eve Vanguard
Having played in previous playtests, I was curious – and a bit nervous – about how Vanguard would integrate into New Eden’s lore and overall direction. After meeting the team and discussing it at length, my confidence in the project has grown. One of the highlights was sharing some of my fanfics with the narrative lead – a great conversation starter, and I think it sparked some mutual inspiration.
Expect an upcoming interview with Eve Vanguard’s game director – it’s a good one.
Eve Frontier
I can’t share much yet – some of what I saw and heard is still under wraps – but I can say this: there’s been major progress since the earlier “Awakening” phase of the project. I’m genuinely excited about the direction, and I plan to spend more time with the dev team to go deeper into what makes this project tick.
There’s been a lot of confusion around Eve Frontier, so I’ll use my fintech background (yes, that’s my day job!) to unpack and explain the game’s systems, especially where blockchain and gameplay intersect.
While exploring this project, I had an intriguing thought:
Blockchain is permanence made digital – an unchanging sky under which gameplay unfolds like clouds: transient, uncertain, and shaped by the winds of choice.
Imagine building a roguelike on top of that foundation – a game where some assets stay with you, while others are intentionally at risk, making every run feel meaningful and high-stakes. That contrast between the eternal and the fleeting, the immutable and the impermanent… it’s poetic. And fascinating. Fun times ahead, indeed.
What’s Next
You might know this site is a solo project presented with the care and structure of a full media outlet – and yes, I still work a day job to keep the server running (and the bills paid). But I took some vacation time to bring you this coverage while the memories are still fresh and the stories are still hot.
Here’s what’s coming soon:
- A batch of exclusive interviews – featuring developers, community voices, and more. Some are already out:
- A new photo saga – capturing my emotional journey through Iceland and Eve Fanfest.
- Blitz 2.0 – A funny video interview on the surface – rapid-fire questions, dizzying pace, and what might seem like pure randomness. But beneath the chaos lies a deliberately crafted structure: each question, and the order they appear in, was carefully designed to reveal hidden insights, future trends, and the true mindset of the developers. It’s comedy with a side of strategy.
- A full video trailer – a visual recap tying it all together.
So stay tuned, follow my socials, and don’t miss the drop!
Fly safe, o7
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