It was to be expected that CCP would jump on the crossover hype at some point. There have been crossovers between different game series for decades, for example pictures of Mario characters in The Legend of Zelda: Orcarina of Time. But at the latest since Fortnite, crossovers of different media have been discovered as a marketing tool. Ideally, this helps both sides to increase awareness and revenue.

But is this also the case with the crossover of Eve Online and Doctor Who? CCP has come up with new mechanics for the event, which I personally find quite interesting.

Doctor Who, like Eve Online, belongs to the genre of science fiction. So that fits together to some extent. However, many players have complained that CCP would cause a break in the Eve Online story. I don’t see it quite so closely. Basically, Eve Online takes place about 20,000 years in the future, while Doctor Who goes through all eras of mankind until the end of the universe. From time perspective, both universes overlap accordingly. My understanding is, that the event areas are stray Dalek groups. When watching Doctor Who, I did not have the impression that they are everywhere. But why wouldn’t a small group of Daleks get lost in New Eden?

So my conclusion is, that while Doctor Who in New Eden doesn’t fit super into the story, it doesn’t destroy the story of Eve Online. Also, the items that exist beyond the event don’t strike me as being more out of place than other items already in the game.

Let’s get to the event itself. I have to seriously admit here that I barely participated in this one. After my test of the Winter Event, where I earned all the points, I was more curious about this events. But with the Doctor Who event, the air was out after only two sites. You know, PvE is not my thing. Exploration is the best. That’s why I flew out in my Helios and scanned an area. Since in High Sec the challenge was low to non-existent.

I was surprised by the red and blue clouds. I had read that these either speed you up or slow you down. I didn’t notice that because I was using the microwarp drive anyway. I do find the idea of different zones interesting though. To my knowledge this has not been used by CCP in this form yet. I would definitely be happy if CCP makes more use of this in the future. It makes navigation more challenging!

However, I found the tasks themselves both comical and confusing. Hack five containers, okay. Buy and sell items? Aimed at beginners, I guess. Somehow, however, rather witless. Off to Jita, bought an item and sold it again, completed two tasks. At the last event you could repeat the same tasks. This was not the case with Doctor Who. Awkward when you have no more tasks for your Helios….

I can understand the crossover, but I wonder what the BBC TV channel gets out of it. I strongly assume that most Eve Online players will already know Doctor Who. Possibly BBC will get a share of the sales in the store – but that won’t be millions. On the other hand, I don’t see BBC actively promoting Eve Online – apart from a short YouTube video. I don’t understand the marketing strategy here, to be honest.