So you may recall I posted earlier about MoMA’s inclusion of video games into it’s rather substantial archives of art–you might also recall that among the many games listed, Like Portal and Tetris, there was EVE Online, which… well, I’ve never played, so I can only speculate why it deserves this honor.  Still, this is an exciting time for the CCP, owners and operators of the property, and while it’s certainly an honor, it’s also a challenge: how will they present a game as complicated and mind-blowingly deep as EVE Online to a museum audience in a way that will help them appreciate the game’s complexity and artistic merits?

According to a blog post, “Rather than having a PC simply running EVE somewhere in the corner with a keyboard and mouse and risk the untrained audience spending their time angrily trying to open the door in the captain‘s quarters or being serial suicide ganked in Jita, we decided on a more linear presentation. We‘ve decided to take one day of life in New Eden, capture it, distill it and try to present it as best as we can in a 5-10 minute video sequence that would play across two large screens. The video will be a combination of in-game recordings made by us, complex infographics, and most importantly, gameplay videos recorded by you, the inhabitants of New Eden.”

So what does that entail?  The CCP had the interesting idea of making this upcoming December 9th “The Most Interesting Day in New Eden”–that day, players will do THINGS in EVE that they think best represent the spirit of the game and record it, sending it to the CCP to be included in the 5-10 minute presentation.

“Our infographics will display market activity, NPC kills, player kills, jumps and all those metrics that explain how vibrant and alive our world is. The player captured gameplay videos will give it a human face. Whatever you are doing that night, whether it is running plexes, hauling ore, hunting with a small gang in losec, or fighting in a large fleet engagement, we ask that you record it, both video and sound and chatter, upload it and allow us to celebrate it in a montage of New Eden awesomeness. Perhaps this is the perfect opportunity to run that massive fleet op you‘ve been planning.”

…oh, and they also said “Note that we will not promote or use videos of EULA violating behavior, blatant obscenity or other behavior which may be entertaining to you, but doesn‘t necessarily help paint this image of the universe of New Eden we want to communicate. Not that it‘s all to be sugar coated, pink and fluffy–but you get the idea.”  So if you were planning on getting your friends to make a big troll face out of your ships, well… yeah, probably not going to be included.

The blog post, which you can read in it’s entity here, includes some tips and advice on how to capture your video and where to send it.  In the end, the CCP reassured us that this is all about us, the players: “It may sound corny, but at the end of the day, New Eden and EVE Online is you. It’s the actions and efforts of you, the players, that make it so unlike anything else out there. Through the good times and the bad times, the force that has shaped and defined EVE is the passion of its playerbase. We are endlessly grateful for it, and hope that you will participate in this effort to celebrate that fact, and tell the world about it.”

Cool story.  Frankly, I like the idea, and it makes me wonder what other companies will do to display their games: you could probably just offer a playable version of fl0w, but you sure as hell couldn’t do that with Dwarf Fortress…

Still, if you’re a EVE player, make sure to participate: your crappy ship and poorly-devised username could be immortalized!