In a post on the CCP Forums today, it was announced that Andie Nordgren, aka CCP Seagull, will be leaving the company. Seagull began her tenure as an Executive Producer within CCP in an announcement on July 25, 2014, so her departure comes after almost exactly four years in the role. Prior to this, Seagull was a Technical Producer and then Senior Producer for EVE Online, in a CCP career spanning eight years.
In the time CCP Seagull has been spearheading EVE’s direction, the game has gone through a large number of changes. The battle of B-R5RB took place in January of 2014, at a time when supercapital forces were able to cross the entire length and breadth of New Eden in minutes. Four months later, the Phoebe expansion ushered in the age of Jump Fatigue, and gating titans. While many people at the time heavily criticized then-CCP Greyscale, the designer of the Jump Fatigue system, over time the majority of the game has recognized that Fatigue has helped to enable smaller entities to engage one another without fear of supercapital hot-drops. Jump Fatigue has continued to be tweaked and adjusted as CCP observes the effects on the galactic terrain.
Some of the other changes during CCP Seagull’s tenure as Executive Producer include:
- Physical-Based Rendering (PBR) of in-space assets,
- The introduction of new ship classes like the Bowhead, T3 Destroyers, Logistics Frigates, Expedition Frigates, and more,
- The introduction of the Drifters,
- Carrier fighter changes and the introduction of Force Auxiliaries,
- The long-awaited Ishtar rebalance,
- The Aegis Sovereignty system,
- Upwell Structures, including the complete overhaul of moon mining and redistribution of moon goo,
- And of course, the transition of EVE Online to a restricted free-to-play model in the Ascension and Lifeblood expansions.
CCP Seagull was also instrumental in making the Live-Action Role-Playing (LARP) event at FanFest 2017, the Kyonoke Inquest, happen. Her long-standing ties within the LARP community helped bring the Company P to Iceland for an interactive event that brought the HARPA to New Eden as the H4-RP4 Keepstar. The event was widely hailed as a success, and many in the EVE RP community have hoped it would lead to more direct interaction with the game at large Player Meets like EVE Vegas and EVEsterdam.
The transition period running up to Seagull’s official departure will be overseen by CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, A.K.A. CCP Hellmar, who has recently returned his focus to the detail of EVE’s development direction. Strong contenders to replace CCP Seagull include CCP Fozzie, one of EVE Online’s most prominent (and notorious) game design developers, and Sean Decker, Vice-President of Product Development and an ex-EA Play4Free Vice-President.
INN would like to thank Seagull for all her hard work over the course of her tenure at CCP, and wish her well in whatever new endeavour she sets her sights on. We also look forward to seeing who the future brings to EVE Online’s top spot, and wish them luck in filling a pair of deceptively large shoes.
