Games writer Andrew Groen has had work published at a variety of publications over the years, freelancing for Wired and Daily Dot as well as writing for Penny Arcade Report. Recently, he announced an ambitious project he's been working on during the past year: researching and writing a book that will cover the complex and fascinating history of Eve Online and its players.
The space sci-fi game has been running for over a decade and revolves around alliances, deception, and a delicate economy. Thousands of players take part in strategic battles with expensive ships over territory and resources, all of which are precipitated by the actions of individuals over months, even years. The more Groen became invested in Eve, the more he realized that most of this interesting history was not saved anywhere--it could be lost forever. By gathering stories from players to collect a coherent retelling of past events, he is saving the history of what is arguably the most fully realized virtual society in existence.
Groen launched a Kickstarter drive to fund the publishing of his book, A History of the Great Empires of Eve Online, which passed its target goal of $12,500 in just one day. I had the opportunity to ask him a few questions about the project, his motivations, and Eve itself.
Your book reached its Kickstarter funding goal within the first day, congratulations! Are you surprised the goal was met so quickly? Were you expecting to struggle to reach it at all?
"I was extremely surprised. I knew that there was a lot of interest in Eve, but I completely underestimated the intensity of that interest. Prior to launch, my assumption is that it would be easy to get people interested but difficult to get people interested enough to back the project.
My hope for a decent start in the first couple of days was 25%. I figured if I could make it that far then I could push hard to reach 50% over the next couple weeks, and then make a big rally at the end. I was confident I'd reach the goal, but never once allowed myself to dream that I'd be sitting at 225% after 3 days."
Did you ever consider a more popular or mainstream topic for this first endeavor in order to make it more likely to succeed, or were you determined to make an Eve book happen?
"I think that in the games industry Eve is pretty mainstream. I mean contrast this book on Eve with Anna Anthropy's book on ZZT or Darius Kazemi's book on Jagged Alliance 2. Eve has a global audience of notoriously dedicated players, as well as an audience of millions who admire the game from afar."
"But if you mean mainstream outside of the games business then the answer is definitely: no. I didn't consider anything else. I never would have made it through the daunting, terrifying process of planning this project and launching a Kickstarter if I wasn't absolutely in love with this book."
If the Eve project is a success, would you want to do more books like this? Also, do you think you could be starting a trend of similar projects, and/or an interest in looking deeper into (and writing about) game history?
"I'm really focused on the current project right now so I'm not thinking too much about what comes after this, but I will say that I'm not sure there is any other game/virtual world out there that could actually have a history book written about it. That's what really gets me energized about Eve. Plenty of people have written great things about the history of games, or of a game but there's no other game that I can think of that allows us to think about the history in the game. It's a tiny semantic distinction, but a huge philosophical one.
That's not to say this book is entirely original. The idea of diving deep into a single game in book form is certainly not new, and I owe a great deal to Brendan Keogh's Killing is Harmless for showing all games writers what can be done independently with a book length format."
How do you feel about so many people writing and talking about you now that this project is both public and already funded? Is it strange to be on the opposite sides of interviews?
"I don't mind it when the interviews are in a written format, but voice interviews are stressful. I always end up with days-long pangs of regrets as I think about what I should have said. Speaking off-the-cuff has never been a talent of mine, and a career in writing gets you accustomed to being able to revise your words until you get them just-so. It's nerve wracking when your written work depends on you being convincing vocally."
You mentioned in the update that a hardcover book is the thing people are asking for the most with any extra funding you receive, do you think you'll be able to make this happen? What else would you love to add if possible?
"I think a hardcover should be doable. I just need to talk with my printer first to make sure. I don't want to promise my backers something and then not be able to deliver. The other main thing I'm working on including is a section of photo-quality paper for including high-quality images. I would absolutely love to include a handful of pages that show off some of the propaganda posters alliances have made to drum up support for their causes. Or really important in-game screenshots.
Backers have also asked about the possibility of including in-game drawn-art dramatizations of battles when screenshots aren't available. Others have requested detailed maps and other graphics. While many others suggested an audiobook addition. Suffice to say I'm investigating the viability of all of these ideas."
How much can one individual impact the rest of the in-game Eve community? Will you be writing a lot about the same people, or do those in power rise and fall quickly?
"Eve is just like the real world in this regard. You can impact the rest of the in-game community if you're really talented or charismatic. Most people are simple miners or soldiers, but you also find great people who rise to the top. It's hard to say whether people rise and fall "quickly," but certainly there are leaders who have maintained power for years. Others are swept aside in months, and others are deposed. I think it has a good balance: it's not about the same group of people staying in power forever, but the people who do gain power tend to keep it long enough to do really interesting things."
You've said there's a lot of deception in the Eve universe, including those who try to twist history to depict themselves more favorably when talking to you. How are you best able to sift through those obstacles to get to the truth?
"The only way to do it is through basic reporting. You just have to talk to a lot of people. When you do that you start to get a sense of the actual consensus, and you start to figure out who you can trust. It's also important to discern when you can trust untrustworthy people. Just because someone may lie about one event, doesn't necessarily make them a bad source for another event.
You balance it all out by being diligent and ensuring that you get multiple sources for everything."
Is the history in Eve cyclical from what you've seen? Meaning, are you seeing the same patterns repeat themselves as you go back in history, much like real human history?
"If you look at history as the rise and fall of power then it's definitely cyclical. Probably by necessity. One group obtains power, inevitably loses it, cedes that power to the next group. So on and so forth. The interesting part of history is not what happened, but why it happened. Nobody cares that Band of Brothers lost a war, but lots of people would care to hear the tale of Haargoth Agamar the traitorous turncoat who arguably dealt BoB (an alliance of thousands) their killing blow single-handedly. The story of BoB getting powerful and then losing their power is cyclical. The story that caused that cycle to perpetuate is one-of-a-kind."
What is it about Eve that drew you in for the book topic, rather than the equally-long competitive history of certain series, or the general scene?
"As a games reporter you don't get many chances to write human interest stories. They're very difficult to find, and they're often desperately hidden by skillful PR professionals. Eve is a game and a community that throws its human interest stories in your face. I like writing about Eve because it's one of the only subjects in gaming that consistently yields stories with drama and human interest."
If you do have interest in another book, would you consider esports the topic you'd most likely write about, or is there something else you're itching to cover in the future?
"My interest is in serving readers, and my writing in both Eve and eSports are part of that. They're both under-served readerships. That said, I don't think eSports would be right for a book. In part because the scene has been vigorously served by documentarians already doing good long-form work. eSports needs more good short-form work, not long-form.
I want to stress that there is no thought in my mind about what my next project is. I'm fully focused on the current one. But I can say that I would only do another book when I had found a subject that could give readers something they can't get anywhere else. I think there's far too many writers who waste their own time on stories that have already been written."
Find out more about the book on its Kickstarter page and the video below, and follow Andrew on Twitter @ScienceGroen.