As part of CCP’s continuing plan to take over the world, subsuming our globe into the enormity of New Eden, the developer announced during their Fanfest keynote that they’ve partnered with Dark Horse Comics and director Baltasar Kormákur to produce a run of comic books and a TV series based on the true stories emerging from EVE.
Dark Horse are already working on True Stories, the first comic book to come from their partnership. The 64 page book is being worked on by four artists and four writers and will be a story inspired by events in the game’s history. This isn’t some homogenised story, but dramatic versions of specific events.
Much further down the line, so far off that CCP won’t even talk about release windows, is a TV series that, again, is telling the stories of EVE’s players. There are scant details about the project, though the developer did say that they’ve attached director Baltasar Kormákur. He’s the chap who directed Contraband, that thoroughly alright action movie.
While we’ve not seen any of the fruits of these partnerships, it’s excellent to hear that CCP are approaching their game’s history in this way. EVE’s most compelling characteristic is its propensity to generate stories. These are things that people share with one another about the game, and the thing that non-EVE players know of the game. So crafting these stories into something players and non-players can enjoy alike, and in different formats, is exciting. I never thought I’d be excited by transmedia but, dammit, it’s happened.