How EVE Online's Alliance Tournament Came Together

INTERVIEW

Last month, I spoke to former EVE player and current CCP community developer Peter Farrell about EVE Online's record breaking war, and about the unique wartime economy that has sprung up in the galaxy. This month, I caught up with Farrell again, as well as fellow ex-player and current community dev Jessica Kenyon, about a lighter - though similarly intense - subject: the Alliance Tournament. The contest was a staple of EVE for years but has been absent for a little while now, with Farrell and Kenyon acting as the faces behind its revival. It allows different teams to compete in short, structured ways with a variety of rules and limits that make it far more concentrated than the drawn out and rare battles within the war itself. The best way to think of it might be as a medieval jousting tournament held during peacetime, where various houses vie for dominance and bragging rights without needing to kill each other. It's like that, except it's not during peacetime.