The Boss Of EVE Online Talks The Metaverse, Surviving The Pandemic, And Creating A New Generation Of Space Pilots

thegamer.com:

Hilmar Veigar Pétursson is the CEO of EVE Online developer CCP Games, and has been there from the very beginning. He started out coding the long-running space MMO; now he focuses on running the company and overseeing projects including its latest venture into the FPS genre. I sat down with Pétursson at this year's EVE Fanfest to talk about, among other things, how the pandemic impacted the game, the never-ending quest to attract new players, and how EVE was doing 'the metaverse' years before it became a buzzword.

"China was a kind of canary in the coal mine for us," he says when I ask about how the pandemic affected CCP. "We have an office in Shanghai, so we had a preview of what was to come, and had time to prepare here in Iceland. This is probably gonna come our way, we thought, so let's get ready. We purchased computers for everyone to have a double setup at home and at the office. So when it came time for us to leave our offices in London and Reykjavik, it was a smooth transition."

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"There was a unifying element to it," he says. "We did yoga and quizzes over Zoom and almost had fun with it. But then the drudgery started to set in. Sitting alone at home is not a great way to do creative work. There's no serendipity at the coffee machine, no being inspired by overhearing conversations and butting in. These random things often lead to the greatest moments in making a video game."

"In 2021 we had all these false starts. Everything is opening up, now it's closed, now it's open again. That was really tiring. So now, this year, I'm personally very ready to be in an office working with people. Having everyone here