Do you wonder why Eve-Online development is crawling?

Of course this news will not appeal at all to a non-TableTop RPG player, but I personally think it's fantastic. CCP just released their collectible card game based on Eve, and while that's not necessarily my cup of tea, imagine trying to manage the distribution chain of a CCG from Iceland?? WW does a (reasonably) good job of publishing and distribution in North America and Europe, which will be the primary market for an Eve CCG. There's also talk of Eve paperback novels, which WW also has experience with. Finally, an Eve tabletop RPG designed by WW and CCP in tandem would be absolutely phenomenal - New Eden has always struck me as a great setting for a tabletop game. Some cross-promotion in the offline gaming market will only serve to increase CCP revenues and provide an additional pool of (relatively sophisticated) potential players to draw from, which I don't consider to be a bad move either for them or for us.

As for the other side of the coin - CCP developing a WoD MMO - I understand that this will draw developer attention away from Eve and (the many faces of) Kali. There are many reasons I, as a dedicated Eve player, do not have a major problem with this.

1. Eve works fine without Kali. Yes, Kali looks great and I look forward to it, but the game is still fun, dynamic and full of interesting situations. Kali is running on Singularity (the test server) which is encouraging, and features will creep into Tranquility over time. As a player, I would rather that happen gradually and slowly than in a whambam-all-at-once-total-chaos fashion. Thus, I am not overly concerned about Kali's eventual rollout, though I'm sure it will happen sooner rather than later.
2. WoD is a completely different setting than New Eden. The two games can co-exist and fill two very separate needs - I don't foresee Eve players jumping ship (literally) to WoD-Online with the result that developer attention erodes away from Eve. I do foresee many Eve players trying out WoD-Online and maybe subscribing to two CCP games, and I especially see many WoD tabletop players subscribing to WoD-Online and eventually getting sucked into Eve.
3. WoD is an interesting setting, quite different from traditional fantasy- or scifi tabletop RPGs. It is a cold, harsh world of backstabbing and mistrust, where you start out an ideological whippersnapper and over time deteriorate into a nihilistic curmudgeon. I find this very reminiscent of the mood in Eve, although the gameplay and dynamics are completely different. WoD has been begging to be made into a fresh new MMO, one where long-term roleplay and character interaction matters more than how many mobs you can kill in 30 minutes. If you've ever been involved in WoD MUSHes (there are a few still running) you might know the level of depth we're talking about - something on a totally different scale than any graphical mass-market MMO on the market today. Again, very different from a game like Eve, and appeals to quite different player needs and wants, but if anyone can carry out the mood and unique feature set of a WoD based MMO it would most certainly be CCP.

I, for one, welcome our Icelandic vampiric overlords.