Kemiönsaari, Finland – “Fanfest at Home” is in full swing with CCP Games livestreaming many interactions in the intimacy of a household setting. But what might have been lost in the fanciful banter as CCP Burger operated what was essentially his own cooking show, was his answer to the most important question of the event: “What is your favorite burger?”
“Oh my favorite burger is like, is like pizza. I…I like them, I like them grilled. Always grilled. But if I am doing it for myself and my wife is not eating with me that night, I put anchovies into the ground beef.”
His answer drew immediate condemnation from the off-screen interviewer, who was “disgusted.” But CCP Burger doubled down, responding, “No, it is amazing. It’s a lifehack.”
But could the unconventional ingredient at the heart of the burger, the meat itself, demonstrate secret core design principles of EVE Online’s “Age of Chaos?”
Food is oftentimes the center of EVE Online controversies. Fleets have been decided by the fiery debate of whether pizza can actually be called pizza when ruined augmented by pineapple, with some FC’s declaring fleet members who hold to the travesty triumph of the culinary arts as fleet primaries. Even the highest profile betrayal in recent years—that of The Judge and the Circle of Two Alliance—had its beginnings in a Reykjavik restaurant.
But how can anchovies be reconciled with the burger? The concept may be foreign to many EVE Online players, but so was the notion of rapid, iterative changes to once-bedrock features and mechanics governing New Eden. If the perfect burger to CCP Burger is broken down into core components, many familiar parts of the game may be explained by the metaphor of the ground beef. The ground beef of a burger—especially for those burgers that do not stray into “Impossible” Whopper, salmon, veggie, or other anti-burger territory—is the building block upon which the popular food item is constructed. For CCP Burger, the metaphor of the anchovy is the adventurous burst of taste to turn a spacefaring MMORPG from just another game in the genre into a masterpiece of lasting design.
The unexpected and unconventional have been key to the gamut of changes rocking CCP’s flagship game in recent months. Depending on the personal tastes of many players, the patches have either been a smashing success or a complete letdown—just as a burger marred enhanced by anchovies can be a hit or a bust. In fact, CCP Burger’s answer is illustrative as he even admits that this theoretical favorite burger would only be created if his wife was not joining him for dinner. Although he did not elaborate on the reasons why he would need to be only cooking for himself to enjoy his favorite burger, the implications weigh heavily.
This admission speaks to the heart of recent attempts to “shake up” the defined meta of EVE Online. What might be perfect for a developer like CCP Burger may be unpalatable to many. Of course, CCP Burger also did not reveal the exact proportion of anchovy to ground beef—the off-screen interviewer was so shocked by the very concept that they did not make an attempt to follow up on CCP Burger’s ideal recipe—so it is a mystery as to the specific ratio of ground beef to anchovy that CCP Burger envisions as burger perfection.
Nonetheless, the battle lines have been drawn among EVE Online players. For months, the debates on the official forums and the r/eve subreddit have leaned towards the divisive and dismissive. Players from both camps have already started raising banners, with both sides mustering for the inevitable confrontation. Anchovy adherents have pledged solidarity with CCP Burger and have declared they will exclusively consume anchovy-laced burgers at EVE Meets and future World Tour locations, while opponents to the Age of Chaos have outlawed any deviation from traditional burger recipes. Yet, as if given form by CCP Burger’s unconventional recipe, the champions of change have a new mascot upon which to shake the very foundations of EVE Online: the anchovy.
