In the space MMORPG EVE Online, player associations employ their own specialists for propaganda. They tell players what is happening – from the perspective of the alliance they serve.
What is the Ministry of Truth? The “Ministry of Truth”, abbreviated MiniTru, is the propaganda department of the “Empire”, a powerful alliance in EVE Online. The US site Kotaku spoke with the head of this organization about propaganda in EVE.
Other alliances have their own similar departments.
Why propaganda in EVE? EVE Online demands a lot from players. Battles can last days, wars sometimes years. Players are expected to stay online for nights, farming, doing, and fighting, all in service of their own alliance.
From the perspective of the alliances, it is desired that players set aside their own needs and egos to serve the greater good.
This requires regular reinforcement for the individual, that one is on the “right side”. Propaganda in EVE takes things that happen in the game and places them in a context that optimally represents one’s side.
The head of the Ministry of Truth says:
- When you win and the other loses, propaganda is about having fun and keeping the regular soldier engaged
- When you lose, it is about mitigating the defeats. You have to package the defeats in a way that they do not depress morale
Propaganda in EVE has many faces: Various forms are mentioned as examples of successful propaganda. Simple posters are based on “real” propaganda models from the real world.
There are long text messages that tell a story and are supposed to give players the feeling of belonging to something greater. The message must be conveyed clearly. Here, for example: Every single ship counts.
Even original songs and videos serve as propaganda. Alliances have members with all sorts of skills. One is a singer, another is a songwriter, and the next can edit videos. All of this is used for propaganda.
Propaganda promises eternal glory
A fraud becomes a heroic deed: In this video, the “Empire” portrays the terrible blow against the leader of another alliance.
They lured him into a trap, so that he threatened another live in the Twitch chat, saying he would cut off his hands. For this threat, the alliance leader was banned from EVE Online:
- The fraud is told with headlines from international gaming magazines.
- The aftermath of the story is reported by the titles of Reddit threads.
- In the background, a cover of a hit by Johnny Cash adapted to EVE plays.
We reported on the actual incident that is sung about here at the time:
