Fans of the still-in-development space game Star Citizen have been able to piece together scattered images of a brand new ship design from social media clues. This first look at the newly-designed salvaging and utility ship, the Vulture, has many of them very excited – and many EVE Online players a bit perturbed.
EVE Online
Star Citizen’s Vulture
The Vulture’s design has been slowly released via social media over the last few weeks, allowing players to puzzle together what seems to be the final look of the new vessel. Once the images all came together, EVE players noticed a very familiar design, immediately claiming that Star Citizen‘s developers have copied the design from a small EVE mining ship, the Venture.
EVE Online’s Venture. Graphic: Kasper Hansen
There is no denying that the two ships are similar in construction, but is that alone enough to call foul? Both ships are small industrial ships, utility vessels built to perform dirty jobs for long hours. Both ships are meant to be relatively cheap entry level vessels, serving similar but not identical purposes in their respective universes. Even Star Wars features a ship that has a very similar layout.
Whether intentional or not, the reveal of the Vulture has caused several bitter feuds to start up between fans of the two games on Reddit and other social networking sites. Several EVE online personalities, from streamers all the way to EVE Online community developers, have taken to Twitter, sharing memes and light-hearted jabs at Star Citizen.
One of the EVE Online developers tried to calm things down, saying that disputes between the player base should be handled in the virtual world, offering Star Citizen players the opportunity to sign up for EVE.
Reddit user RealHorstOstus provides a light-hearted comparison of the two vessels.
Some of the jabs between the two communities have not been in good fun, however. A post on the r/EVE subreddit shows that moderators of both subreddits are even beginning to get embattled in the feud.
In the image, one of the moderators for the Star Citizen subreddit claims that the r/EVE moderators are allowing their member base to engage in “vote-brigading”. In Reddit lingo, this means sharing links with the instructions to go and up- or down-vote to force an agenda or opinion.
One EVE Online player even seemed to confirm that the EVE subreddit had been collectively reported to the Reddit admin team for this act, which is against the site’s rules.
EVE Online and Star Citizen both are known for having fanatical fan bases and more than a little bit of a rivalry, so clashes such as these are not entirely unexpected. At heart the games are similar in scope and attract very similar types of players. Hopefully this will all blow over soon and the two communities can kiss and make up.
Comments
6 responses to “EVE Online And Star Citizen Fans Trade Barbs Over Spaceship Design ”
I really like the Star Citizen ship designs, but that one is a little too close.
It is close – but i like it, looks better then what it was based off. I think it’s different enough for me
What difference does it make? One of these ships doesn’t exist, and never will exist! You’re living in a fantasy world, nerds!
… and the other one is marketing material for Star Citizen. 🙂
Well, if the EVE design is copyrighted, I’d be curious to see what would happen if it was up to a court since the visuals and utilities are very strikingly similar. And it wouldn’t be the first time that a game designer got lazy and copied something off the internet with minor modifications.
TBH, Back in 1998 I drew a spaceship design (i actually have it dated} that was exactly like this with the same function, the shape just made sense for the ships function.
Does this mean that I can sue BOTH company’s for stealing my design?
People just need to get over it, there is not one unique idea in the world these days.
I’m sure if you could be bothered you would be able to find art that makes EVE look like it ripped off their designs. People have been drawing space ships for a long time now.
It’s the spaceship equivalent of a forklift with a container claw on the front. Neither of them are original.
We should be telling the eve community about stones in glass houses.
I can almost guarantee there are dozens of ships with similar designs to games/ Media before EVE.
I think this is just 2 subsets of rabid fanboys wanting to fight each other over nothing.