Sturmer's avatar

Friendship Machine Event – How to Leverage Game Events to Build Meaningful Connections

Ewww, this title sounds like something out of a scientific journal, but in reality, this event was absolutely a social experiment - one that unfolded naturally in the chaotic sandbox of EVE Online.

Let’s Start with the Stats

Number of participants? Unknown!

I hosted public fleets across multiple characters for about 16 hours. At peak, we had 250 pilots, but the fleet rotated every 4 hours as players completed their 2,000 event points and moved on.

But the real reason why it’s hard to estimate, bcoz an idea caught fire, and soon other players were hosting these fleets 24/7 across multiple regions of empire space.

The Goal of the Project

The aim was simple - to create a safe space and collaboration platform for corpless loners like myself, helping each other to complete the Drifter Crisis event and earn rewards.

When random mission objectives were removed and seagulling was neutralized, I saw an opportunity to help solo players, so I started hosting public fleets.

The Outcomes Were Fantastic

Countless players in fleet chat expressed how much they enjoyed the event, saying it was one of the best they’ve ever participated in.

Since the event itself wasn’t difficult gameplay-wise, players naturally engaged with each other - sharing stories, hobbies, music, jokes, and more. It felt less like an ISK grind and more like a space-themed speed-dating event.

Here are a few testimonies from fleet chat:

The Evolution of the Fleet

As the fleet grew, players started organizing and creating roles to improve efficiency and security. Gankers showed up? Few skilled pilots stepped in with PvP ships to form a protection wing. Frigates got blown up by deadly NPCs? Fleet members donated replacement ships. Logistics, speedy salvagers... woah!

Many pilots had never flown in a fleet before, and when they saw hundreds of ships warping together simultaneously—from their own fleet—they couldn’t contain their excitement, cheering and expressing pure joy.

At some point, gankers failed miserably in an attempt to wipe us with four smartbombing battleships—which, of course, ended hilariously. (Related Kills | Autaris | 2025-03-15 19:00 | zKillboard) And it triggered the 'Fly together - die together' effect on those, who lost their ships.

A Social Experiment in Space

I’ve been playing EVE Online for two decades, and I’ve never seen this level of spontaneous player cooperation in a PvE event before. It reminded me of what CCP Ghost once called the "Friendship Machine" - EVE’s unique ability to forge real social connections through gameplay.

I covered the full story in detail on my blog, so if you want a deeper dive, check it out!

The Takeaway for CCP Games

To wrap things up, I made this humorous video to capture the best moments:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dy6vVyNs_es?feature=oembed

This event’s success offers valuable lessons for future EVE content. Previous group content often received heavy criticism for forcing cooperation, but this event proved a different approach works:

  • Easy to hop in

  • Not overly intensive (leaving time for social interaction)

  • Encourages teamwork organically, without strict obligations, if half of the fleet was slacking - noone complained! There was so many ships on site, that people didn't stress out about someone not performing well, or performing at all.

Maybe this is the winning formula - a player-driven, social experience that turns a simple 'grindy' PvE event into something far more meaningful.

Lumin's avatar

Ahh, greetings once more fellow citizens of this fine establishment. Lurm the Slurm is here once more with something a little different, but definitely brand new. I shall start by stating that the event I present is not quite what was asked for, for when does Lurm the Slurm ever follow the rules? It is instead something unique and intimate... a one on one encounter out in the furthest reaches of space experienced by an individual, and enjoyed by the whole. It was and is also most certainly not something that has been done before and thus here we are.

This is a live, one-on-one D&D-style sci-fi RPG called Stations & Starfarers set in the universe of EVE Online. Explore space, roll dice, and experience improvised storytelling from Lurm the Slurm. This is a one on one TTRPG style encounter with live narration, meaningful character choices, a studio (Twitch chat) audience, and obviously a great many cinematic deaths. Oh, it is also a giveaway that any can enter!

After this initial test and launch (yes, there will be teething issues but I am quite happy with how the first ever show went... and happy that I found a willing victim) Stations and Starfarers is going to be a staple on my channel and shall, soon enough, be known across all of New Eden as an experience and event not to be missed. So, while it may be one on one, and it may be small scale compared to the others posted here, it shall eventually grow beyond all in its scope and influence as the number victims participants increase and the word spreads. The adventure is undertaken by an individual, but experienced by a live audience that get to weigh in, provide guidance, and event win prizes. I also believe the unique nature of it perhaps helps a little to push it as something special, a new experience that can also be enjoyed live when it happens, or after the fact through the videos I'll be uploading. I firmly believe that players need more reasons to interact with each other, to take a moment to see who else is in space with them, and perhaps even open a line of communication with someone they think perhaps needs or wants it. Ultimately, I want players undocking and enjoying their time in space, and if experiencing something like Stations and Starfarers can help rebuild some of the lost faith or belief in their fellow players, then that's a win for Lurm the Slurm. My idea was to try do something new, and hopefully break away from what I see as a pretty toxic giveaway culture that has grown and festered in the community, and try reward players for taking a moment out of their day for their fellow capsuleers. It is merely a start, but let us hope that it is not a prayer come too late.

Perhaps a that lost flame can indeed be rekindled?


As for the evidence, well, the proof is all well-documented in the video. The Twitch VOD can also be found here, and the Stations and Starfarers encounter begins at about 01:19:45. I hope it suffices. I would also gladly collect some comments from those that viewed and enjoyed it! I had to hustle to get all the planning and preperations done in time and am extremely happy with the end result. I am most happy that this can all be done on the fly, as often as I like, controlled entirely by my single stream deck, and shaped into stories and experiences that can last a lifetime for those involved. I am also happy to report that all the people that watched it live enjoyed it tremendously. The fantastic thing is that anything I win here I can cycle right back in and start giving away in game. More JustAbout money? More PLEX to give away during future Stations and Starfarers runs and more interseted parties watching how it should be done! I'm sorry, as I mentioned and in case it wasn't clear, I just really don't like the way that most EVE Online live streams are almost entirely giveaway driven and I aim to change that with this and basically all that I do in and for the game.

(For some clarity this was all done entirely live, on Twitch - I make the stories up on the fly, and relay them, I created all the assets used including the art and overlays, and I have all the music and effects, and all the rest, bound on my stream deck for easy use. There was nothing at all pre-planned about this encounter other than the prep work I did to set the framework of Stations and Starfarers up!)

Happy That, and thank you for your consideration and all that you do for us gamers and content creators <3

https://www.youtube.com/embed/9loRTz8fbCY?feature=oembedhttps://embed.bsky.app/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbsky.app%2Fprofile%2Ftalesoflumin.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3loqzschgts22

Kane Carnifex's avatar

A revival of an forgotten masterpiece.
Never seen in the EVE Universe, before.

Until now!


Takeshi's Castle joins EVE:Online in cooperation with the Brave Collective.
Kane Carnifex has taken over the Castle and is bathing like Dagobert Duck in endless space ISK.
Prevent him from buying a "Space-Beach-Resort"...by mastering his Feeder Events
Quick before he gets borred!

Kane Carnifex :
These challenges are purely for MY amusement.

Statistics (Last Update: 15.04.2025)

Brave Castle

A Homage to Takeshi's Castle & EVE:Online
You may know which in the original only ~9 of 130 runs actually won°
Therefore we are very confident to not payout the Prize Pool of 25 Billion.

How do you get the ISK?

Win one of the three feeder games & then win the battle against the current owner of Brave Castle. Me, Kane Carnifex.

Feeder Games Preview:

The Minefield
You need to get your Ship from point A to point B.
But the grid ... is so empty are you sure we on the right Grid?

Exploding Bowling
Your talent is luck, then this is for you.
You volunteer for Practice & Training.
Be Brave & stand still.

Apocalypto
We mixed Skill with Luck and made another Target practice.
But it looks like this time you need to run, run as fast as you can.
Make it from A over B to C without dying.

Battle for Brave Castle

Little to nothing is known about Kane Carnifex and his Master of Arms Dujek Oneye.
Neither what lays behind the cold old castle walls.

Are you BRAVE enough to follow General Lee into the unknown?
Will you succeed against the millions of minions, in this one Final battle....
do you have it to take Brave Castle and secure the treasure chest?

Draft EVENT Trailer:

(we changing up the Dates to make it a long run version)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/zHWyQxIfXHU?feature=oembed

Dates:

The Minefield 12.April.2025

Trailer Minefield:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qluy-pdzM_Y?feature=oembed

Feeder Games "The Minefield" Highlight Cut

https://www.youtube.com/embed/I-_5XMZ4ZKs?feature=oembed



Exploding Bowling ???
Apocalypto ??
Comming soon...!!!
Due to some Stratops and a very low player amount due eastern we lunched an alternative version of an EVE Quiz. So easy... a shame if or?

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1NDrDZIkEhI3vTx-uNKuXCemE5V4GADhZvXrH_ulRQuw/edit
  1. Somewhere in Delve is a haunted site...
    Whispers are all around the cluster.
    Ghosts have been seen in New Eden.
    Count me the number of Capital Wracks which still remain in space until today.

  2. If Brave would be Spaceship which one would it be?

  3. What is your XXX per Hour? (XXX = Word i am looking for)

Whats the base speed of an unloaded Freighter?

  • 120m/s

  • 86m/s

  • A Minimat or Caldari?

  • You mean with Fleets Boosts or?

  • 45m/s but webbed

Battle for Brave Castle:

26.04.202025


Busy Saturday, but we found a slot to battle it out.
From 11 people which made it we ended up with 5 which contested the Brave Castle.
Unfortunately for Brave Castle also the Guards were low and alerting calls got unanswered.
As the battle started Dujek and Kane only recieved 2 Guards...
The fate was sealed, even for veterans there is a small chance to turn the tides.

Just in the classics of Takeshi Castle the final battle was a homage to the Watergun and Lasergun with Meta Moas, same fit for everybody we are not that evil.

https://zkillboard.com/kill/126608687/https://zkillboard.com/kill/126608702/

Kane Carnifex

Congrats, you made it.
Tales we be told, vidoes be uploaded.Stay tuned will sum up everything until tomorrow including the payouts.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/5cxOS_Tzzqg?feature=oembed


But did you hear Super Space Mario Kart? I heard it here first.

Kane Carnifex's avatar

We are done, the end wasn´t that special as i had it in my head with fireworks and warp ins and music.... kneefalls you name it.

But the stone is set, here is the Brave Shenigan of Chaos Events...

Luka Zaharin's avatar

(Original post 09.03) Since several months, my brother Tian and I wanted to organise a Frigate PvP Tournament and this reward gave us the last push to finally take this big step and get our ideas out there. This bounty came at a good time for us, and we can share our way to fulfil this old Eve dream of ours. I can't wait to see how it turns out!

We would like to bring aspiring and veteran solo pilots together in a friendly contest for some nice prizes with a special bracket for young players. In addition, we are working with a few other content creators to spread the word and create a good atmosphere. We set up the rules as well as the signup form and started advertising with the trailer very today.

I decided to use this post to share some insights in our journey, update it during the preparations and complete my entry after the event. I hope that is alright, but please let me know if I should enter in a single post after all the material is collected and cut together.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/we-S1XPcnvY?feature=oembed

(Edit 10.03 07:37) So, barely a day after we got the word out and published the signup form, we already have 5 entries to the tournament and many positive messages. Hopefully it will be as much fun as it starts to promise!

(Edit 19.03 07:33) Up to 15 confirmed signups as well as several more pilots that are interested in joining. Our new player bracket actually has two confirmed entries so far. We refined some of the rules and reworded them for additional clarity and defined several internal tie-breaker rules that we decided to keep a secret to avoid adaption...

(Edit 31.03 21:19) With the signups officially closing on Tuesday, we are getting into some last advertisement. 20 confirmed signups with several more people interested. We also received surprising 1b ISK and 200 PLEX from different donors to upgrade the price pool. Our "Is there something you want to let us know"- question seems to be a good place to express some level of anticipation. We only can hope we can keep up with it!

  • "Thank You for hosting an event like this!"

  • "Thanks for putting this on!"

  • "elite pvp!"

  • "Thx for the event. GFs all around!"

(Edit 04.04 20:11) So, we are slowly getting into the last tasks. Signups are mostly closed and we sent a bunch of mails out with the estimated times of people's first matches. My fingers are starting to hurt from the copy-pasting... xD I'm quite looking forward to the event now!

(Edit 06.04 09:49) So, it was a great evening yesterday. The had a really good atmosphere, no real stream snipers and a bunch of really nice fights. After four hours of highly concentrated work, we had a winner! One of the viewers even donated a Marshal for the first prize, so it was really worth it! Now it's time for a short break and then I'll get working on the wrap-up video.

(Final edit 12.04 20:46) Finally done with the video! I turns out I could not really mix the two things I wanted to get in, so I split the wrap-up into two videos. One has all the nice numbers we reached and the other one recaps the best fights and moments of the evening.

It was a crazy event, we had so much fun! Even though it all seemed in a pretty bad state when only one of the new players managed to log in and we had to suddenly reorganise the entire timetable. I spent a good part of the evening pinging and chatting to get the people into their matches more or less in time, but in the end it worked!

For me, one of the best parts certainly way the ISD who showed up for a short moment and Wingnut, the Alliance tournament commentator, joining in with a combat Heron to fight in our little tournament! Not to talk about the fun atmosphere we managed to create and the camaraderie amongst the competitors. I am really happy how it turned out.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/BgvfR64kogo?feature=oembedhttps://www.youtube.com/embed/lUETSIBvCZE?feature=oembed

And here the links to the signup, rules and info we had set up.

https://forms.gle/c8kCL9MiPnNMc3f69https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cJz4UluPny8s7K_R9i0Gq4k17smmN8NW1pUMPa6nJrA/edit?tab=t.0https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MNmhKvrJ7b6OYrVfakPoD2zR1lEVIFcH3nN0KUU8An4/edit?tab=t.0

Now this should have been the last edit. Again, it is a pretty long post, but this should cover about everything about our tournament. I am still getting messages from people asking if they could join as well next time and I am looking forward to the second Frigates on Fire Solo PvP Tournament!

Fly safe everyone and see you out there!

Kane Carnifex's avatar

Define brand-new?

Like something new new or is refubished okish?

Alex Sinclair's avatar

Hey Kane Carnifex. The activities themselves don't need to be revolutionary and never seen before. But it can't be an event that was due to happen anyway nor a 1:1 revival of an older event. If it's inspired by an older event that you're resurrecting, it would need to have a few transformative or new elements to it. Here's a good test:

If someone who knew of the old event saw the 'refurbished' one, would they say 'Oh they're doing that again with a new name' or would they say 'the folks who put on that event are putting on a something similar with some big changes'?

The reason we're insisting on this is that we know some of our community members regularly put on events anyway, and we don't want to grant an unfair advantage to those who could just copy-paste a lapsed event.

Alex Sinclair's avatar

Thanks everyone, we're excited to start studying these submissions. I'm just posting to remind you that this reward closes soon, so make sure your entries meet all the requirements and have your most up-to-date stats! And anyone who's yet to submit... get submitting!

Alex Sinclair's avatar

Holy moly. I can confirm that it's near impossible to judge between a glorious Takeshi's Castle x EVE crossover, a fantastic and professional new PvP tournament, a fleet-up phenomenon that could change official game events forever, and an outrageously creative D&D-style role-played mini-game with a captivated Twitch audience and custom graphics and sound effects. We went back and forth countless times on which of you should get the top prize. You've all done brilliantly well and we want to see each of these events become new constants in New Eden. You should all be very proud!

Lumin Sturmer Luka Zaharin Kane Carnifex 

Luka Zaharin's avatar

Hey, thank you for the prize!

I must admit though I hoped for a bit of a different outcome.

While I totally understand that we did not have as many attendants in game as for example the event fleet, I thought our numbers, our organisation especially for this bounty and event and our post-event documentation were pretty good.

I would love to hear some more about the process of decision to make sure to perform to the best of our abilities next time 🙂

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Rewards (and other cool stuff) inside!

Not only are there great reward submissions to check out, but some of the best conversations on the internet are happening here - and our members are getting rewarded for having them. Don't miss out!

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