Internet Spaceships are Serious Business
An EVE Online Reader

by Marcus Carter, Kelly Bergstrom and Darryl Woodford

by Marcus Carter, Kelly Bergstrom and Darryl Woodford

Available now! Only $22.95

EVE Online is a socially complex, science-fiction-themed universe simulation and massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) first released in 2003. In this fascinating book, scholars, players, and EVE’s developer CCP Games examine the intricate world of EVE Online—providing authentic accounts of lived experience within a game with more than a decade of history and millions of “real” dollars behind it.

Internet Spaceships Are Serious Business is one of the most comprehensive collections of works on EVE Online ever produced, but written in language that is accessible to the uninitiated reader. It captures a side of EVE that is often lost in academic writings, and each chapter stands as a snapshot in time of one of the world’s most unique and well-studied massively multiplayer online games. – Brendan Drain, MMO expert

Book Reviews

Matthew Wysocki (2017) Review of Internet Spaceships Are Serious Business, The American Journal of Play 9(2): 280-282 [link]

Treacherous Play


by Marcus Carter

by Marcus Carter

Available now from MIT Press, and in Open Access.

Deception and betrayal in gameplay are generally considered off-limits, designed out of most multiplayer games. There are a few games, however, in which deception and betrayal are allowed, and even encouraged. In Treacherous Play, Marcus Carter explores the ethics and experience of playing such games, offering detailed explorations of three games in which this kind of “dark play” is both lawful and advantageous: EVE Online, DayZ, and the television series Survivor. Examining aspects of games that are often hidden, ignored, or designed away, Carter shows the appeal of playing treacherously.

“A fascinating study in nontraditional game design. Marcus Carter’s Treacherous Play includes some of the best writing about EVE Online yet published, investigating the inherent darkness of its design and the effect on its community.”
Andrew Groen, author of Empires of EVE: A History of the Great Wars of EVE Online

“To succinctly summarize what made DayZ a phenomenon is difficult, but Marcus Carter’s description of human nature and interaction captures the premise brilliantly.”
Dean Hall, creator of DayZ

“As the importance of our virtual presence grows in our increasingly online world, Treacherous Play sheds light on why good people do bad things online.”
Keith Harrison, formerly known as Endie; EVE Online spymaster and former member of the CSM.

EVE Online Literature

Research into EVE Online occurs within a surprisingly broad variety of disciplines. This list attempts to provide an introduction into this body of literature, but is likely not complete.

If you have work which you would like included in this list, please feel free to email me.

This page is no longer actively maintained.

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Internet Spaceships are Serious Business: An EVE Online Reader

Available in PDF from JSTOR.

Carter, M., Bergstrom, K. & Woodford, D. (2016) Internet Spaceships are Serious Business. Minnesota: The University of Minnesota Press.

Bergstrom, K. & Carter, M. (2016) EVE Online for the Uninitiated. In Internet Spaceships are Serious Business, edited by M. Carter, K. Bergstrom & D. Woodford. The University of Minnesota Press, pp. 1-16.

Paul, C. (2016) EVE Online is Hard and it Matters. In Internet Spaceships are Serious Business, edited by M. Carter, K. Bergstrom & D. Woodford. The University of Minnesota Press, pp. 17-30.

Bainbridge, W. S. (2016) Virtual Interstellar Travel. In Internet Spaceships are Serious Business, edited by M. Carter, K. Bergstrom & D. Woodford. The University of Minnesota Press, pp. 31-47.

Emilsson, K. P. (2016) Universes, Metaverses and Multiverses. In Internet Spaceships are Serious Business, edited by M. Carter, K. Bergstrom & D. Woodford. The University of Minnesota Press, pp. 48-54.

Milik, O. (2016) The Digital Grind: Time and Labor as Resources of War in EVE Online. In Internet Spaceships are Serious Business, edited by M. Carter, K. Bergstrom & D. Woodford. The University of Minnesota Press, pp. 55-76.

Goodfellow, C. (2016) The Russians are Coming! Stereotypes and Perceptions of “Russianness” in EVE Online In Internet Spaceships are Serious Business, edited by M. Carter, K. Bergstrom & D. Woodford. The University of Minnesota Press, pp. 77-92.

Chribba (2016) The Art of Selling Trust In Internet Spaceships are Serious Business, edited by M. Carter, K. Bergstrom & D. Woodford. The University of Minnesota Press, pp. 93-98.

Page, R. (2016) We Play Something Awful: Goon Projects and Pervasive Practices on Online Games In Internet Spaceships are Serious Business, edited by M. Carter, K. Bergstrom & D. Woodford. The University of Minnesota Press, pp. 99-114.

Harrison, K. (2016) An Accidental Spymaster In Internet Spaceships are Serious Business, edited by M. Carter, K. Bergstrom & D. Woodford. The University of Minnesota Press, pp. 115-121.

The Mittani (2016) The Evolution of Player Organisations: A Goonswarm Perspective In Internet Spaceships are Serious Business, edited by M. Carter, K. Bergstrom & D. Woodford. The University of Minnesota Press, pp. 112-128.

Gibbs, M., Carter, M. & Mori, J. (2016) RIP Vile Rat: Makeshift Memorials in EVE Online In Internet Spaceships are Serious Business, edited by M. Carter, K. Bergstrom & D. Woodford. The University of Minnesota Press, pp. 129-147.

Bergstrom, K. (2016) Imagined Capsuleers: Reframing Discussions around Gender and EVE Online In Internet Spaceships are Serious Business, edited by M. Carter, K. Bergstrom & D. Woodford. The University of Minnesota Press, pp. 148-163.

Mantou (2016) The Social System in EVE Online In Internet Spaceships are Serious Business, edited by M. Carter, K. Bergstrom & D. Woodford. The University of Minnesota Press, pp. 164-166.

Czarnota, J. (2016) Do EVE Online Players Dream of Icelandic Spaceships? The Role and Mechanisms of Co-Creation in CCP’s Success In Internet Spaceships are Serious Business, edited by M. Carter, K. Bergstrom & D. Woodford. The University of Minnesota Press, pp. 167-188.

Webber, N. (2016) EVE Online as History In Internet Spaceships are Serious Business, edited by M. Carter, K. Bergstrom & D. Woodford. The University of Minnesota Press, pp. 189-209.

MacDonough, K., Fraimow, R., Erdman, D. Gronsbell, J. & Titkemeyer, E. (2016) On the EVE of Preservation: Conserving a Complex Universe In Internet Spaceships are Serious Business, edited by M. Carter, K. Bergstrom & D. Woodford. The University of Minnesota Press, pp. 210-220.

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Papers

Bergstrom, K. 2012. Virtual inequality: a woman’s place in cyberspace. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG’12). ACM Press, 267-269.

Bergstrom, K., Carter, M., Woodford, D., Paul, C. 2013. Constructing the Ideal EVE Online Player. In Proceedings of the 2013 Digital Games Research Association Conference. (DiGRA’13). [link]

Bergstrom, K. 2013. EVE Online Newbie Guides: Helpful information or gatekeeping mechanisms at work?. In Selected papers of the 2013 Association of Internet Researchers Conference. (AOIR’14). [link]

Bergstrom, K. 2016. Everything I know about this game suggests I should avoid it at all costs: non-player perceptions about EVE Online. In Kafai, Y., Tynes, B. & Richard, G. (eds.) Diversifying Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Race and Gender in Gaming. (pp. 118-132) Pittsburgh, PA: ETC Press. [link]

Bergstrom, K. 2016. “You don’t ever stop playing EVE Online, you just take a break”: Rethinking what it means to quit a Massively Multiplayer Online Game. In Proceedings of the 1st International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG. [link]

Bergstrom, K. 2017. Temporary Break or Permanent Departure? Rethinking what it means to quit EVE OnlineGames and Culture. x(x) 1-21. [link]

Bergstrom, K. & Carter, M. 2017. EVE Online Special Issue.  Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds 10, no 3. [link]

Bergstrom, K. 2019. EVE Online is not for everyone: exceptionalism in online gaming culturesHuman Technology 15, no. 3.

Bergstrom, K. 2020. Destruction as Deviant Leisure in EVE Online. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 13, no 1. [link]

Bainbridge, W. S. 2012. Online Multiplayer Games. (Vol. 13). Morgan & Claypool.

Bainbridge, W. S. 2011. EVE Online. In The Virtual Future. Springer, London, 113-129.

Blodgett, B. M. 2009. And the Ringleaders Were Banned: An Examination of Protest in Virtual Worlds. In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Communities and Technologies (C&T’09). ACM Press, 135-144.

Brooks, Ian. Is Betrayal in EVE Online Unethical? Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 10, no. 3 (2017): article 4.

Carter, M. (2022) Treacherous Play. MIT Press [Open Access]

Carter, M., Gibbs, M. and Harrop, M. 2012. Metagames, Paragames and Orthogames: a New Vocabulary. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG ’12). ACM Press, 11-17.

Carter, M., Gibbs, M. and Arnold, M. 2012. Avatars, Characters, Users and Players: Multiple Identities at/in Play. In Proceedings of the 24th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference (ozCHI’12). ACM Press, 68-71.

Carter, M. and Gibbs, M. 2013. eSports in EVE Online: Skullduggery, Fair Play and Acceptability in an Unbounded Competition. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG’13).  47-54. [link]

Carter, M. 2013. Ruthless Play. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG’13).  465-467. [link]

Carter, M. 2013. Ruthlessness as a Hyper Social form of Play. In Proceedings of the 2013 Digital Games Research Association Conference. (DiGRA’13).

Carter, M. 2014. Screen Ecologies, Multi-Gaming and Designing for Different Registers of Engagement. In Proceedings of the 2014 SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Human Computer Interaction in Play (CHIPlay). [link]

Carter, M. 2014. Emitexts and Paratexts: Propaganda in EVE Online. Games and Culture, 1-32 [link]

Carter, M., Bergstrom, K., Webber, N. & Milik, O. 2015. EVE is Real. In Proceedings of the 2015 Digital Games Research Conference (DiGRA’15), Luneburg, Germany. [link]

Carter, M. 2015. Massively Multiplayer Dark Play: Treacherous Play in EVE Online. In The Dark Side of Gameplay: Controversial Issues in Playful Environments, T. Mortensen, J. Linderoth & A. Brown (Eds.), London: Routledge,  pp. 191-209.  [pre-print link]

Carter, M., Gibbs, M. & Arnold, M. 2015. The Demarcation Problem in Multiplayer Games: Boundary-Work in EVE Online’s eSport. Game Studies, http://gamestudies.org/1501/articles/carter.

Carter, M. 2015. Treacherous Play in EVE Online. PhD Dissertation, The University of Melbourne. [link]

Carter, M., Bergstrom, K., Webber, N. & Milik, O. 2016. EVE is Real: How conceptions of the ‘real’ affect and reflect an online game community. Well Played 5(2), 5-33. [link]

Chia, Aleena. 2017. Scaling Technoliberalism for Massively Multiplayer Online Games. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 10, no. 3 (2017): article 2.

Craft, A. J. 2007. Sin in Cyber-Eden: Understanding the Metaphysics and Morals of Virtual WorldsEthics and Information Technology. 9(3), 205-217.

De Zwart, M. 2009. Piracy vs. Control: Models of Virtual World Governance and Their Impact on Player and User ExperienceJournal of Virtual Worlds Research. 2(3). [link]

De Zwart, M. and Humphries, S. 2014. The Lawless Frontier of Deep Space: Code as Law in EVE OnlineCultural Studies Review. 20(1), 77-99. [link]

Feng, W-C., Brandt, D. and Saha, D. 2008. A Long-Term Study of a Popular MMORPG. In Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Network and System Support for Games. ACM Press, 19-24.

Goodfellow, Catherine. 2015. Russian Overlords, Vodka, and Logoffski Russian-and English-Language Discourse About Anti-Russian Xenophobia in the EVE Online CommunityGames and Culture 10(4), 343-364.

Johnson, Mark & Robert Mejia. 2017. Making Science Fiction Real: Neoliberalism, Real-Life and eSports in EVE Online Journal of Virtual Worlds Research 10, no. 3 (2017): article 1.

Keatinge, M. 2010. The Expression and Constraint of Human Agency Within the Massively Multiplayer Online Games of World of Warcraft and EVE Online: A Comparative Case Study. Master of Literature in Sociology, National University of Ireland Maynooth. [link]

Kerr, A., De Paoli, S. and Keatinge, M. 2014. Surveillant Assemblages of Governance in Massively Multiplayer Online Games: A Comparative AnalysisSurveillance & Society 12(3), 320-336. [link]

Lehdonvirta, V. 2010. Virtual Worlds Don’t Exist: Questioning the Dichotomous Approach in MMO StudiesGame Studies 10(1). [link]

Lehdonvirta, V. and Castronova, E. 2014. Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis. MIT Press: Cambridge.

Lehdonvirta, V., Ratan, R., Kennedy, T. and Williams, D. 2014. Pink and Blue Pixel$: Gender and Economic Disparity in Two Massive Online GamesThe Information Society 30(4): 243-255.

Milik, O. 2017. Virtual Warlords An Ethnomethodological View of Group Identity and Leadership in EVE OnlineGames and Culture

Page, Richard. 2017. To Win at Life: Tradition and Chinese Modernities in EVE OnlineJournal of Virtual Worlds Research 10, no. 3 (2017): article 3.

Paul, C. 2011. Don’t play me: EVE Online, new players and rhetoric. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games (FDG’11). ACM Press, 262-264.

Paul, C. 2012. Worldplay and the Discourse of Video Games: Analyzing Words, Design and Play. Routledge, New York.

Peers, B. 2011. Making Faces: EVE Online’s new portrait rendering. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2011 Talks (SIGGRAPH’11). ACM Press.

Ratan, R., Lehdonvirta, V., Kennedy, T.L.M., Williams, D. 2012. Razing the Virtual Glass Ceiling: Gendered Economic Disparity in Two Massive Online Games. Paper presented at the 62nd Annual Conference on the International Communication Association.  [link]

Reynolds, R. 2010. The Duty to ‘Play’: Ethics, EULAs and MMOsInternational Journal of Internet Research Ethics, 3(1), 48-68.

Rossignol, J. 2008. This Gaming Life: Travel in Three Cities. The University of Michigan Presss.

Sarkar, C., Ratan, R., Allen, D. and Hopcroft, J. (2012). Examining behavioral effects of player sex in two  large-scale MMOs. Paper presented at Meaningful Play 2012 [link]

Suzor, N., Woodford, D., 2013. Evaluating Consent and Legitimacy amongst shifting community norms: an EVE Online case studyJournal of Virtual Worlds Research 6(3). [link]

Taylor, N., Bergstrom, K., Jenson, J., & de Castell, S. 2015. Alienated Playbour: Relations of Production in EVE OnlineGames and Culture. 10(4) 365-388.

Warmelink, H. 2014. Online Gaming and Playful Organization. London: Routledge. [link]

Webber, N. & Milik, O. 2016. Selling the Imperium: Changing Organisational Culture and History in EVE Online. In Proceedings of the 1st International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG. [link]

Webber, N. 2014. Law, Culture and Massively Multiplayer Online Games. International Review of Law, Computers and Technology 28(1), 45-59.

Webber, N. 2016. Public History, Game Communities and Historical Knowledge. In Proceedings of Playing with History 2016 DiGRA/FDG Workshop, Dundee, UK.

Webber, N. 2017. EVE Online’s War Correspondents: Player Journalism as History. In Fans and Videogames: History, Fandom, Archives, M. Swalwell, A. Ndalianis & H. Stuckey (Eds.), London: Routledge, pp. 93-110.

Woodford, D. 2012. Hanging out is hard to do: Methodology in non-avatar environmentsJournal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, 4(3), 275-288.

Woodford, D. 2012. Regulating Virtual Environments. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG’12). ACM Press, 270-272.

Webber, Nick & Milik, O. 2017. Barbarians at the Imperium Gates: Organizational Culture and Change in EVE OnlineJournal of Virtual Worlds Research 10, no. 3 (2017): article 5.

Other

(Panel) Webber, N., Bergstrom, K., Jenson, J., de Castell, S., Goodfellow, C., McKnight, J.C. 2012. The Serious Business of Internet Spaceships: Studying EVE Online. [link]

(Series of TerraNova Blog Posts) Combs, N. 2007. EVE Online SeriesTerraNova. [123456]

(IR13 talk) Goodfellow, C. 2012. The Russians are Coming! Nationhood & Threat Perception in EVE Online. [link]

(Magazine article on Goons) Dibbell, J. 2008. Mutilated furries, flying phalluses: Put the blame on griefers, the sociopaths of the virtual world. Wired Magazine 16/2/08 [link].