MeinMMO editor Caro attended the EVE Fanfest in Reykjavik for the first time this year, although she was initially skeptical. After some conversations with players, the community manager, and insights into new content, she now understands what makes the EVE experience so special for players.
EVE Online has previously meant exactly 3 things to me: record-breaking battles, overpowered corporations, and exploding spaceships. Since I traveled to the annual EVE Fanfest in Iceland this year on behalf of MeinMMO, I wanted to understand: What makes EVE Online so special for its players? And as a complete newcomer in an over 20-year-old MMO full of veterans, did I even have a chance?
After my return, I can report: EVE players are a tight-knit community and are still willing to welcome even fresh newcomers.
Community is the focus of the entire Fanfest
On-site, I quickly learned: Yes, of course, the Fanfest is a perfect place for Fenris Creations (formerly CCP Games) to showcase new content and plans for EVE. And this was generously done throughout the days in various presentations. At the same time, it was clearly important to create an event for those who made EVE what it is today – namely, its players.
Even at the opening ceremony, achievements and strong personalities from the community were highlighted on stage and celebrated for their successes. I don’t want to withhold my favorite statistics from you:
- Over 20 million hours of EVE content were watched on Twitch and YouTube. That’s over 2,282 years or around 28 lifetimes.
- The “oldest” character present at the Fanfest is a capsuleer who was revived at the release of EVE Online on May 6, 2003. The youngest has only been playing since December 2025 and still wanted to be at the next Fanfest.
- 134 players, making up the majority of the 940 attendees of the Fanfest, are from the alliance with the wonderful name “Goonswarm Federation,” which led to loud cheers from the members when announced. This group boasts a total of over 69,000 members and 774 corporations in EVE Online.
- All Fanfest participants have spent an average of 7,900 hours on the space MMO (the average for the presenting developers was 8,848 hours).
To clarify how much one can accomplish with 10,000 hours of lifetime, the following examples were given:
In English:
What you can achieve in 10,000 hours (completely unrelated):
- Learn Mandarin, Japanese and Finnish fluently.
- Master the violin at concert level.
- Earn a doctorate, perhaps even two.
- Run from Reykjavik to Rome. Twice.
- Run 75 marathons.
- Prepare 40,000 frozen pizzas.
- Play 16,000 chess games.
- Watch 15,800 series on Netflix.
#Worth it
Newcomers are not a thorn in the side, rather the opposite
What struck me quickly on my day at the Fanfest was the focus on gaining new players. Whether in the showcase of new content, the exchange with players, or the conversation with Community Manager and Lead Peter Farrell.
The developers – as Farrell said – are well aware that the entrance into their MMO often seems intimidating for those interested. Personally, I assumed that newcomers simply don’t want to be the new scapegoats of New Eden, torn apart by veterans for lack of skill. However, according to Farrell, this is not the case at all, quite the opposite:
“Our veteran players also have a legitimate interest in this. They want more people to play the game because they know: When more people are around, there’s more activity. All major groups have their own training organizations for new players. Once you’ve found your people, you’ll stick with the game. They will show you the way, no matter what guides we put out or anything like that.”
To provide newcomers with an easier entry into EVE Online, the new expansion “Cradle of War” was introduced during the Fanfest.
An appropriate name, as it turned out for me. Because through the new content of the DLC, the true difficulty of getting started is to be alleviated for newcomers, especially through better guidance instead of an easier difficulty setting:
“The real problem we see with getting started is decision paralysis,” explains Farrell. “When you start, we tell you: ‘You can do anything!’ And that’s really cool, but what does ‘anything’ mean? We need to explain what this ‘anything’ is.”
In the expansion, newcomers will be captured in a starter system called “Exordiom,” which will only have players of the same level who will support each other at the start and teach how the actual core mechanics of the game work.
“From there, the idea is that you feel comfortable enough to make informed decisions and take conscious risks instead of accidentally veering into a dark alley,” Farrell adds. This way, the team wants players to feel that with the right preparation, they will no longer feel overwhelmed by possibilities.
However, he emphasizes that one should not feel intimidated by long-standing veterans:
So, everyone went through this ordeal when trying to learn the game and knows how hard it is. So if someone makes it, it’s like being part of a kind of community of people who have survived one of the hardest games.
And the people – the players are so nice, I can’t even put into words how great they are. But if you’re there for even just five minutes, someone comes up to you, asks how you’re doing, and especially asks who you’re flying with, and even if you’re something like an enemy, they say: ‘Oh, it’s okay, here you are my friend, let’s go have a drink, let’s talk about your favorite ship.’
Peter Farrell, Community Manager and Lead in an interview
A promise I wanted to test myself
To experience this promised kind of community myself and to make my own impression, I walked through the venue of the Fanfest and wanted to take in as much as possible.
To emphasize the word “fest” in Fanfest, Fenris Creations offered their players various activities, such as game stations (including EVE Vanguard and Frontier), opportunities to win and purchase goodies, and a corner for communal knitting, which, according to Farrell, was requested by the players themselves for the Fanfest.
I was drawn to a pop-up for painting miniature spaceships known from New Eden. Here, I was sure I could use miniatures as an icebreaker to chat with EVE fans.
I chose a Caracal ship, whose tip somehow reminded me of a beak. The entire design had to follow:
My plan ultimately worked out. I struck up a conversation at the painting table with a long-time EVE player who dedicated himself to a Scorpion model. And here it became clear to me that my little knowledge was by no means mocked or disparaged, but quite the opposite.
Chatting with a player who promptly moved to Iceland for EVE
I unfortunately didn’t even ask his name, but the player was genuinely interested in what motivated a novice like me to come to the EVE Fanfest. What followed was not only an introduction to the ships we were painting, but also how much EVE meant to him.
He told me that many years ago, he emigrated from Belgium to Iceland just for the annual Fanfest. In Reykjavik, he eventually met his partner and has not left his current home since.
He said that the Fanfest continues to be special year after year, and he always looks forward to seeing new and old faces and talking about the game they all love. Fanfest is something truly special, and I could see that not only from his story but also from the other painters and EVE players at the table, who clearly agreed.
The player mentioned he would regularly check MeinMMO after my article, so – if you are reading this, dear Scorpion painter – best wishes!
With the launch of Cradle of War on June 9, I get the perfect chance to test the alleged newcomer-friendliness of EVE Online – and what can I say? Somehow I’m itching to try it, even though I still wouldn’t consider myself an absolute sci-fi or spaceship fan. But after meeting the players, I can understand why they love their space MMO so much.
The loud cheering in presentations about the success of other players. People who were able to reunite for the first time after a year of waiting for the next Fanfest. The excitement that was palpable over the new announcements. For the players, Fanfest 2026 was truly the festival that the title promises. And I, as an “outsider,” felt immediately welcome.
My awe at entering such a long-established MMO remains, but I gained confidence that I wouldn’t completely despair at the start. Otherwise, I wouldn’t hesitate to ask the community for help in the future, which I was able to meet at the Fanfest.
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