EVE’s latest event, Purity of the Throne, is up and running. It’s also the first event I’ve taken part in that I can remember. The main (only?) reward are the new skins for Amarr ships, which at least stand out in that they are all white. Collecting them is easy, as each site you clear drops one, and the sites can easily be done in anything greater than a well-fit frigate. I’m using a shitfit Astero, which is massive overkill but makes the sites and travel very quick and easy. So far I’ve clear a dozen or so of the sites, and plan to ship all of my extra skins off to Jita at a later date.

What I like about the event, and events like this in general, is how they introduce new fluff to the game. The event is the reason the new fluff exists, and just by playing, you get the stuff. At a later date, the fluff is moved to the in-game store, where those coming in late or those who skipped the event can ‘catch up’ by spending some extra money. It works for me because my sub cost is justified by new content being ‘free’ in-game. It works for the devs because they are not only creating content for subscribers, but also filling up the cash shop without going directly to that end-point.

FFXIV does this better than most MMOs IMO, because the events are frequent yet easy, meaning the cash shop is always getting updated without players feeling the devs are focusing on the wrong thing in a sub MMO. CCP really should do more of this, rather than direct-to-shop skins and other fluff. The events can’t be hard to organize, there is plenty of lore to further in EVE, and so many ships could benefit from more skins.