Things that make you go, “Hrmmm?”
John Smedley. In a Drake. In EVE Online.
Many Drakes
I mean, sure, it isn’t like he said he had a titan or anything. And Drakes are pretty common. But you still don’t get one in a day. You have to play the game a bit.
It is one of those things… I know he says he loves online games. But he runs the online game division for Sony, so he would be foolish to say anything different.
And I know he says he loves SOE’s games… especially PlanetSide. But again, that is one of his products, he would be a fool to say otherwise.
But he appears to know what a Drake is and that its main business is shooting missiles. It is not an obvious aspect of the game. I bet Bhagpuss, who has skimmed many a post here about Drakes, couldn’t have made the “Drake = missiles” association. Not because he isn’t paying attention, but because he hasn’t played EVE.
It implies that Smed might really play online games… games besides Free Realms.
That is somewhat reassuring.
In the mean time, it is Inferno launch day… which is where the whole missile thing got started.
Direct link here.
I will most definitely be firing some missiles tonight.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 
I bought and fit out a Hawk yesterday just to see the launchers on it today.
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You win your bet!
Actually I assumed all spaceships would be able to fire missiles. And launch drones. Well, except the mining ones. I imagine them to fire huge tractor beams, be very slow to turn and have next to no defenses.
Next question must be what Corp is Smed in? Maybe he’s in yours, although it would be even funnier if he was in SynCaine’s.
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@Bhagpuss – A lot of ships in the game can fire missiles. But I do not think any ship can fit as many launchers, and thus fire as many missiles simultaneously, as a Drake. It is slow, it is cheap, and it looks like a doorstop, but if you want big shields and lots of missiles, you want a Drake. It is the most missiling ship around.
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Not surprized at all. I expect most developers play many games, for botyh ideas and because when you go home from staring at spreadsheets and bug reports from X-Game, you just want to chill out and do anything else…. except play X-Game.
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@Cyndre – That a dev (and Smed hasn’t been a dev for many years) plays other games, absolutely. Smed playing EVE, that seemed to be another level beyond! But I have formed a bad opinion of senior execs and their grasp of products over the years.
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Imagine the suicide ganking that would ensue if his character name became known.
Better still.. imagine Derek Smart playing EVE and his character name becoming known.
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@carson63000 – Smed… I’d go and look. Derek Smart though… bwahahahaha!!!
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I love the new missile animations, but they’re slightly buggy on the Drake – I can only see missile fire from one side of the ship. The launchers on the other side are there, but they don’t get an animation.
And Smed in a Drake? I wonder if the SOE people have their own corp…
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Raven’s missile spam is perfect, but Drake’s a bit disappointing, gun turret animation on missile launchers looks strange.
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While I would love to imagine the President of SEO grinding his way through level 1 missions to work his way up to a Drake I think it is more likely that either a lackey did the grinding or else CCP gifted him an account with some shiny ships to play with.
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I’ve updated my EVE client but have not had the opportunity to fly my Drake as yet. I’ll log on tonight and watch the missile parade reigning down on some unsuspecting target.
Should be a beautiful sight to see.
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I would not be surprised if most MMO devs play EVE. They should, after all, know what a good MMO looks like (cwutIdidthur? Multi-layers!)
One could also write this off as Smed talking about CCP because DUST is a PS3 exclusive, but that would require some heavy tinfoil.
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I didn’t use my Drake last night, but ratted a bit with my Tengu. The burst of heavy missiles looks good, but it is the detail on the launcher deploying, shooting, and reloading that I found most interesting.
I will have to put Raven and Kestrel on my list of ships to try along with the Drake.
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The president of SOE plays on social engineering hack and scam central? That explains Sony’s security problems…
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And, after posting this, I find out that Smed is in the CFC, the same coalition of alliances to which I belong. I’ve probably flown some fleet ops with him.
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