Introduction to EVE Online
For about the fifth time, I decided to come back to EVE Online. If you're not familiar with this game, it's an MMORPG, but it would be a disservice to leave it at that.
EVE's selling point, and what it offers that I don't believe you'll find in any other game even to this day, is its economy and industry. Almost everything you see in this game, in terms of ships, modules, stations, and whatever else floats in space, is created by a player with materials collected by a player.
The degree to which a player's actions can affect the entire universe is unlike anything else out there.
Corporations
This game has corporations and even alliances, which are groups of corporations working together. These corporations have CEOs, directors, recruiters, and HR. They vary a lot in size, from tens of players to thousands.
My first interaction with a corporation was with one of the largest. I soon learned that getting into such a large organization is not easy; there's an application process, much like getting a job. They had multiple portals I had to log into to provide ESI access. I didn't really understand what that meant at the time, but basically you provide delegated access through OAuth to your in-game character's data. This includes your public data that any other capsuleer would see, but also more private data like your full in-game email history. Yes, this game even has an email system.
All this security exists not because corporations like to hire real-life IT personnel, but because of spying. Spying is a huge issue, and there have been instances in EVE's history where entire corporations were taken down because of a single spy. That created the need for the screening process I described above.
Not all corporations do this. Smaller ones don't have thousands of real-life dollars worth of in-game assets to lose, but spying is still an issue for them too. Small corporations are usually just groups of people playing together, recruiting here and there to grow once they have operations established.
Callback
After a couple of years away, I decided to play some EVE again. I forgot exactly which activity I wanted to pursue, but I knew it would be easier to join a corporation that specialized in it and learn from the experts. I checked a few out and eventually joined a small, expanding one.
I noticed they had no screening process whatsoever. My previous applications to other corporations had been rejected because of my past affiliation with the large corporation I mentioned earlier; some recruiters even told me I was "sus."
At that time, I was experimenting with server-side rendering using Go. In my day job, I was working with authentication protocols like OIDC and SAML, which allow corporations to access your data without you giving them your credentials. I contacted the CEO and asked if they would like a portal where people could apply, link their alt accounts, and use other authentication and identity management features, for free of course.
I figured I could benefit from having an actual corporation use the portal so I could improve it and eventually turn it into a SaaS application where corporations could create their own portals with UI customization and custom domains. I know, ambitious. But sometimes you need to be a little arrogant and overconfident to start tackling tasks above your current scale, because that's how you grow.
I soon found out that the SaaS idea wasn't going to happen, not because it was too hard, but because of EVE's Terms of Service for third-party applications. You cannot charge real money in exchange for access to a third-party application. You can charge in-game currency, but I wasn't going to maintain a project of this scale for that.
What Do I Do?
The portal for this specific corporation was almost done, the one I had intended to abstract into a SaaS, so I had to find a way to make it worth my time.
I explored a couple of options, one being selling a license for the code or the server binary so corporations could self-host a customized portal. I considered a lower tier for the binary and config files, and a higher tier for the full source code.
Ultimately, I decided to make the project public and free. This would provide something more valuable than a small fee: street cred.
My goal is to show what can be done for small corporations and how simple it is to grab the binary, set your environment variables, and customize the theme. If people need more than that, they can contact me for consultation or hosting.
Right now I'm looking for feedback. I'm sure there are things I don't yet understand about what a corporation or a non-technical user actually needs from a portal like this.
I'll be collecting feedback and may post an update depending on the level of interest. Keep an eye out if you'd like to hear how this plays out.
Thanks for sticking around!