“A Game of Holes” Finally Returns! Or Has It?

After an extended hiatus, the long-awaited Episode 12 of “A Game of Holes” has finally been released but under a rebranded name of “The Hole Story”—is it what loyal fans were hoping for? The first noticeable disappointment is that despite all of the free publicity generated by EVE Onion News, “The Hole Story” has joined up with TalkingInStations. In an exclusive interview conducted in the The Dark Space Initiative’s public channel, ExookiZ revealed that a rebranding was required because TalkingInStations is a CCP partner. EVE Onion News can only surmise that the delay in episode production is the result of the standard processing time for name-change requests.

Onto the episode!

In a stunningly executed introduction, ExookiZ begins by discussing the history of the “The Hole Story,” then by asking the chat if they can hear him. “We upped the production quality since my last one [GOH ep 11: Beheading Hydra Part 2 Defenders POV, July 4, 2018], so we’re going to, um, we’re gonna see what we can do. And uh, there might be a couple technical difficulties, so uh, bear with me but, you know, I promise they’ll get better. We’re already better than what my first episodes were last time, so we’ll, um, take it from there.” Loyal listeners and viewers of “A Game of Holes” would remember the static background that characterized previous episodes, but the modern “The Hole Story” now features not only a moving wormhole but a pulsar as well. This is obviously a significant departure from the podcast’s roots and it will be interesting to see what new additions are brought to the table by ExookiZ, in partnership with TalkingInStations.

At this point, the screen fades in and the audience—which can follow along as the original podcast took place on the TalkingInStations Twitch page—can finally put a face to the names of several spooky wormhole personalities. That is, as long as those faces either belong to ExookiZ or the in-game/zkillboard portraits of the spooky wormholers. Panelists included: ExookiZ, host of “The Hole Story,” and who prefers to be referred to as “Exooki”; Zolka Lando, Director, Epicentre Syndicate [EPSYN] and Cyclone enthusiast, Rahne Sentro, small gang CODE. pilot who flies with Goryn Clade [GORYN], potentially only female panelist; Yan Skshetuski, impossible-to-pronounce last name aficionado, 2011 wormhole pilot, and now with The Kronos Ritual [-K -R]; King Creator, runner of Out of Focus [OFOC].

Apparently there are a multitude of corporations and alliances in Wormhole space. The panelists discuss the “attempted eviction” of Holesale <HOLES>, who apparently evicted themselves at one point and moved to a C2 Wormhole. A faction fortizar died. King Creator declares that the associated Raven fleet was “thicc.”

Other points of discussion:

• Inner Hell [-INHE] is described as the “baddy” of wormhole space.
• Reddit is endorsed as a truthful platform. In the words of ExookiZ, “I read on Reddit that HK was evicting all the wormhole content. You can’t lie on Reddit. It’s against the rules, I’m pretty sure.” Some panelists agree that would be 100% illegal or in violation of the NDA.
• According to ExookiZ, some theorists believe cloaked dreads make sounds in Wormhole space.
• Back towards the end of December, J-Space, like the rest of EVE, had a “broken chat server,” though astute listeners will remember this was a totally-intended CCP feature to add local to J-Space. Nonetheless, this resulted in an Inner Hell seeded dreadnought fleet being discovered ahead of an eviction attempt against Stranger Danger. <CANDY>.  
• It is further revealed that carriers do not really counter dreadnoughts. According to ExookiZ, Stranger Danger. <CANDY> had estimated losses of 420 billion ISK, a number that checks out with Zolka Lando’s declaration that the eviction defense was a “blaze of glory.”
• At the forty-six minute mark, we finally hear from Rahne Sentro. Her answers are succinct. She reveals that <CODE.> has a wormhole division. Out of all of the people on the panel, Rahne Sentro speaks on three occasions: introductions, briefly explaining what she does in CODE’s wormhole division, then saying “thank you” and exiting the panel towards the end.   
• For those not in the know, C2 wormholes with Nullsec/C5 statics are the way to go for content.
• The Kronos Ritual violated a bushido code of conduct by using capitals against Fraternity <FRT>. Yan Skshetuski defended the action, implying the code did not apply to a wormhole group using capitals against “nullbears.”
• ExookiZ is not entirely sure how TDSIN will fare without Gilas following the April 9th update. “Can you even PVP without Gilas?”
• Regarding other patch changes, King Creator believes beams “are still trash.” The panel is somewhat divided about the Rorqual, Carrier, and Supercarrier changes. Could CCP’s nerfs be too much to sustain content?
• To end on a strong note, ExookiZ asks King Creator to talk about an Erebus that dropped from a X-Large Ship Maintenance Array. The story about seizing the Erebus is pretty straightforward, but it does provide yet more evidence that Large Skill Injectors are overpowered.

Loyal listeners and new viewers alike will certainly enjoy ExookiZ’s revamped wormhole podcast series. Aside from the uneven distribution of speaking time featuring various panelists, small updates—like the inclusion of a Discord overlay to help the audience keep track of which guest is speaking—help keep the content organized and clear. Even the live broadcast eked out a healthy viewership of roughly a hundred viewers while the rest of the EVE community has Brisc Rubal’s ban from EVE Online on their minds.

ExookiZ returns to fill a gap in wormhole-specific coverage by interviewing players and leaders who live in wormholes, talking about wormhole current events, and even discussing patch changes from the prism of J-Space. ExookiZ is open to feedback and has announced the next episode should be ready in two weeks “to keep the content train rolling.” However, although ExookiZ has weathered the media storm surrounding Brisc Rubal’s fall from grace, he will face an even bigger form of media competition in the coming weeks: the final season of “Game of Thrones.” But if you want your wormhole experiences to not be so “dark and full of terrors”, you may want to tune into the next episode of “The Hole Story.”