EVE At War: Documenting The Pipebomb

EVE Online would make a poor spectator sport. Reading written reports about huge battles and stalking Titans can be jolly fascinating, but they're no fun to watch. Unless you've blown up loads of things in EVE yourself, you'll probably be baffled by giant swarms of little red and blue squares swirling around inside blue bubbles. What's happening? Where even are the spaceships?

Here, watch Clarion Call 4. It's a one-hour documentary by EVE alliance Rooks and Kings, looking at the changing face of EVE war through battle footage, artwork, recorded voice comms, and narration.

The core of the documentary is the rise of 'pipebombing', a battle tactic where Rooks and Kings would maneuver enemies into specific positions then 'fire' a load of ships armed with area-of-effect smartbombs from the jump portal of a Titan-class ship. It also gets into the politics and intrigue one would expect from EVE, coming out a bit like a History Channel documentary.

In that style, the narrator has a monotone voice and a dramatic script, meaning I'd almost forget the documentary was about a video game and not the Great War until they said things like:

Interdiction bubbles prevented us jumping out, and so only the rapidly-shortening lifespan of the tower separated us from the jaws of the assembled horde, a situation commonly referred to as a 'rape cage'.

Oh, video games! What are you like? Weird but fascinating, that's what. Here, watch this: