So it seems that the Eve online ingame browser [IGB] is confirmed to be on the chopping block, but not for awhile. While it seems like The new SSO Software is already being setup for multiple sites, it isn’t replacing the IGB for quite some time. CCP FoxFour talked more about this rumor it this post on the Eve Forums.
Oh wow, this is a pretty amazing thread. Mostly filled with a lot of misunderstanding so let me see if I can clear that up before we get to the Jita riots. Before continuing though, please be advised this post comes to you from a phone and is therefore likely to be filled with even more terribleness than my usual posts. I may try and proof read this though.
So, first and foremost the IGB is not being removed anytime soon and defiantly not without a lot of discussion with the CSM and more importantly you guys. When I say not anytime soon I mean there is no plan to remove it, there is not even a plan to look into how much effort it would be to it. Removing the IGB is as best I can tell years away from happening.
So that probably doesn’t help this that much as all i have done is confirm we CCP want to remove the IGB and that it is years away from happening. That doesn’t help the fact that many of you use the IGB and feel losing the IGB would hurt your gameplay.
So let me try something else. We don’t want to remove the IGB until we have CREST up to the point of replacing it. The most common uses of the IGB are things like DOTLAN’s radar or wormhole mapping software. Both those really just need your location information, which we can supply in the an even better way via CREST. Better CREST wouldn’t require you to have the IGB open. Log into some website, give it permission to see your location, and even when you are not on that web site it know where you are. This means you get your whole corp to sign up and then only those looking at the mail need to open the browser. This is better in so many ways.
The other big thing the IGB offers is the ability to open links in the client. I don’t think we have looked to deep into it, but we should be able to have you press a button on web site and then via CREST it tells the server which tells your client to open some window. Maybe a tad shower but again not only is the format and technology better for developers but the number of uses and possibilities is far greater than the IGB.
I could go on listing so many other things but the bottom line is this: CREST is a far newer technology and more importantly one we can maintain far easier than the IGB. We would like to remove the IGB but we will not do so until CREST, or even maybe something else, gets us feature equal to the IGB.
Really the only question and problem with moving from the IGB to CREST is the fact that you can browse the IGB from the client versus alt-tabbing. From our, or mine anyways, understanding most of you guys have multiple monitors and that’s not an issue. There are also other applications that will overlay your current web browser with the game. Things like Overwolf I think it’s called. The benefits from us doing things through CREST and relying on you guys to use an existing browser are immense. We get to focus on making cool things instead of trying to maintain a customized browser in the client. Not sure you guys realize just how much work there is in maintaining something as complex as a browser and how much of a security problem for everyone this is.
Anyways, nothing is happening anytime soon, when it does it will be because we, CCP and you the players and the CSM, have had a good long discussion about it, and only once something else is in place to replace it.
I hope that elevates your concerns for now. Let’s get back to blowing up spaceships and building an awesome universe together and enjoying the sun… Which I might be the only one doing 😛
