SCOPE News and Drifter Guts—How Did We Get There?

  
After the release of the newest SCOPE video, I, along with the other players behind the Drifter autopsy report, have been asked the same question: How did we end up in a SCOPE video? Rather than answering the question repeatedly, I thought it would be appropriate to give a detailed explanation. First off: Huge kudos to CCP for being so engaging with the lore. The SCOPE videos and player involvement has been absolutely amazing, and it has completely hooked me on the lore. I have noticed that many other players who normally don’t pay much attention to lore, have been interested in it as well. When players began to be mentioned in the videos, I set myself the goal of being in one. Little did I know how fast it would happen, or how great the video would actually be. Many players were excited about it, and I have heard that it’s been considered the best SCOPE video so far.

  Everything started with Anslo and his idea about making a medical report based on visual analysis of the Drifter implants (which I will refer to as the “first report”). He created the idea from CCP mentioning the Drifters’ design had a purpose. Nothing was added because it looked cool. Anslo wanted to take this a step further and show that players could move the story forward. He then gathered a team together having both real life knowledge and experience that was relevant. Anslo himself is working on medical trials and has a good understanding of human biology, however, as both Kalo Askold and I are medical students, so he asked us to help him with the more advanced physiology. Kybernetes Moros has mechanical knowledge and was tasked to do an analysis on the jaw implants. We wrote the first report based on the images and in-game model of the Drifters. Anslo and I went through the parts of the human brain one by one, and tried to combine it with knowledge about game lore and the shared images. We essentially were making things up, while operating in a framework that made it look somewhat plausible with real life science and EVE lore. Kybernetes did the same for the jaw implants, and Kalo went through it all to make sure we didn’t have any major loopholes. Finally, it was all wrapped up by Anslo who had arrived at theories based on his lore knowledge and information about the Drifters. It was all formatted based on a report from real life medical trials, and it was the source of this wonderful quote:

“Whoever requested this form be used for an initial entity analysis without giving me a damn corpse deserves to be shot” –A.Tetua

The first report was published in-character at the roleplaying section of the official forums. Later on, CCP did some layout changes to make it look like an official DED document which can be found here. The reception of the first report was great, and CCP was intrigued by the details of our work. We were then tasked to do a second report—The Autopsy report. This time, we assumed we had recovered a Drifter body and subsequently performed an autopsy on it. We were given a small hint from CCP, mentioning the lack of vocal cords. Aside from that, the process was similar to the first report. This time though, we had to create far more out of thin air and strive for a balance between precise details and being vague enough to leave CCP room for interpretation. Like the first report, I was tasked with doing the medical internal examination, Anslo worked on the implant analysis and most of the nervous system, and Kybernetes worked on the exosuit analysis. Kalo analysed the report and provided feedback. When the report was submitted, it was just matter of waiting for CCP’s response. Anslo had been the only of us who had been in touch with them, and he was extremely vague when I asked him about what was going to happen. At this point, I expected that we would at least get a mention in a SCOPE video;  aside from that, I didn’t know what else to expect. Was I amazed when I saw the video! Not only was the video centered around us and our work, it was also followed up with a small live event and a news article with the second report being published. The video team did an absolutely amazing job and deserves a lot of respect (and also a pay raise) for their work on the SCOPE videos. Looking in hindsight, this has been a blast to do and the results were absolutely amazing. It was an incredibly fun way to integrate my real life knowledge with EVE, and I honestly had not expected to be involved in this manner. I’m looking forward to seeing where CCP will take the lore; it has definitely become interesting for both hardcore lore fans and general players. When it comes to the storyIine, I salute CCP for the approach they have taken, and I hope that our work is the first step in more player-dev interaction. With sufficient creativity and detailed work, it can be possible. Finally, there is one little detail that amused me. For those of you who know how my character Miz looks, it’s easy to spot how different she looked in the video. It turns out they had based her on a Gallente character rather than Vherokior, which is her actual bloodline. This wasn’t the first time they did this, as Makoto Priano was also made as a Gallente character in a SCOPE video rather than Achura. On the other hand, I really shouldn’t complain as the Vherokior bloodline looks like shit by default, and it’s unlikely that the video makers would take the time and effort to make her look decent.
Tags: Drifters, lore, Mizhir, SCOPE

About the author

Mizhir

Mizhir is a devout small gang PvP:er and EVE video maker, mostly known as the producer of the One Man Crew solo PvP contest. He flies with Turn Left.