Are the EVE-Online servers moving to Iceland?

Yesterday I noted an interesting article on the BBC website about a firm setting up a 'green' server farm operation in Iceland to make use of the carbon-zero geothermal electricity alongside the lower ambient temperature to reduce the usually substantial overhead of cooling computer servers.

The article went on to note that Iceland is about to substantially increase its presence on the internet backbones with the Farice , Cantat-3, and new Danice high-capacity fibre links now on stream, and that the company concerned — Verne Global — hoped to gain a substantial number of customers by the cost reductions available to clients who move their servers there. They also made great play of how stable the underlying bedrock is in that area, close by Keflavik airport†. Indeed, their website has lots of interesting information on it.

Then I noticed a name I recognised; Vilhjálmur Thorsteinsson is Chairman of the Board of Verne Holdings. He is also Chairman of the Board of CCP Games, who created and operate EVE-Online. Given that the EVE universe is a "single shard" — every player world-wide uses the same physical group of servers and plays in the same 'space' — then, unlike other online games which have servers located in different continents, all of the EVE-Online servers are in one physical locations. Just outside London, UK, in Slough.

The Verne website makes great play of their centre being only 18ms from London (as the internet flies) and 36 milliseconds from New York. So, given the CCP Chairman is now creating this 'cooler' server centre one can't help but wonder whether the CCP servers will now be moving to Iceland to save money, as well as the planet.

† Keflavik — a former US Air Force base — also happens to be one of the rare airfields which is long enough and wide enough for the Space shuttle to land at in an emergency.

Leaving the pod.

CCP Games, the Iceland-based company behind EVE Online and the forecast 'World of Darkness' MMORPGs has announced that EVE is moving planetside and has been under development by its Shanghai team for nearly three years. DUST 514 is a hybrid first person shooter (FPS) and real-time strategy (RTS) experience set within the (MMO) EVE universe. "The primary gameplay features brutal ground combat that takes place on the surface of the planets, delivering the visceral, adrenaline-fuelled experience of futuristic firefights. Developed for the current generation of consoles — initially available on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 — DUST will be equal parts battlefield reflexes and strategic planning, allowing commanders and ground infantry to work together, utilising the real-time configurable modular weapons and vehicles at their disposal to adapt to and control dynamic battlefield conditions." Actions in the DUST514 environment will affect the rest of the EVE universe: a DUST team conquering a planet will gain control of that planet in EVE too. Where EVE pilots are the fleet, DUST are the infantry. All in the single universe. I've been looking forward to this sine I first heard about it last year and decided recently that I would create and run a 'DUST' info and discussion site. Keep watching this space! but until then go watch the trailer from Gamescom 2009 followed by CEO Hilmar Veigar Petursson talking about their plans.

Iceland

Flew up to Reykjavik last Wednesday for the Eve online Fanfest event. Mostly great fun with lots of news about upcoming changes to the game along with discussions about what direction it should take in the future. I was also on one of the panels, which was enjoyable too. being the report-back session of the Council of Stellar Management Didn't like Iceland in Winter though. Going down to breakfast at nine am and then seeing the dawn start to turn the view through the windows turn from pitch black to dull grey — and then the afternoon turn back to black around 3pm — is not my idea of a good climate. I like sunshine every day, indeed it was one of the reasons I really liked flying all around Europe daily in the late 90s — at 30,000ft you are guaranteed to get sunshine (except at night, obviously!)

My spaceship is docked

About four months ago I was elected to the 'Council of Stellar Management ' in the Eve Online MMORPG. In the summer this meant a four-day trip to Iceland to meet with the folks at CCP who develop the product. Today is time for the second meeting (the New York Times wrote about the first one ), but this time it is taking place via an in-game chat room with 'our side' sitting at keyboard in their homes in the UK, Denmark, The Netherlands, Eastern Europe and Australia. At some point the USA will be added to that. On the CCP management side they are also mostly at home, but in Reykjavik! And so far, so smoothly (but so slowly too!) Of course, because we aren't face-to-face during the meeting I can run that on one machine while continuing to write and test new code on another... and drink coffee... and listen to music... ;-P