IEEE Spectrum February, 2009 - 28

dream
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09

jobs

Erlendur Thorsteinsson
master of the universe

the technology that makes Eve
happen-that tracks the coordinates of
thousands of ships in space, computes
the results of their gunfire, processes the
activation of weapons, and manages
other transactions-did not exist until ccp
this computer scientist breathes life into
invented it. that was exactly the kind of
challenge that lured thorsteinsson to the
the many worlds of the sci-fi game Eve online
company. His team of 14 programmers
writes, debugs, and pieces together the
computer code that powers Eve.
N a DarK November day, erlendur
deal: they were going home.
to keep people in the game and attract
thorsteinsson strolls into the party
He quickly landed a job at one of the top
new players, ccp is always working to make
at the top of the world. that's
tech companies in iceland, Frisk software
the Eve universe larger and more intricate
what the crowd of gamers calls
international, a maker of internet security
and interesting. "it's a big challenge," he says,
this annual gathering at the laugardalshöll
programs. From mid-2001 to early 2007,
"how to make something like this scale up."
arena in reykjavík, iceland. and it is quite
he went from project manager to chief
ccp deploys a new version of Eve
a party. crammed into a room, hordes of
information officer. then, in march 2007, he
about every six months. the latest made
players battle it out in a challenge called
got a call from his old college friend Hilmar
great headway against an annoying
the super ultimate eve online mining
Veigar pétursson.
technical issue: lags, the bane of mmogs.
tournament of awesomeness. elsewhere,
pétursson is a cocreator of Eve and one
as the number of players grows, so do
attendees share war stories over pints of
of the founders of ccp, the game's parent
the number of data exchanges between
beer and wait for the metal band roxor to
company. He offered thorsteinsson a job,
servers and the time it takes to access
take the stage.
and thorsteinsson took it. many people see
the databases. if the process takes too
it's all part of the eve Fanfest, an
Eve as a creative and compelling game; he
long, the game gets sluggish and players
extravaganza dedicated to Eve online,
saw it as an intriguing chunk of code. the
get irritated. to minimize lag, ccp started
a science-fiction computer game with
following month, he arrived for his first day
using hundreds of blade servers-thin
about a quarter-million subscribers
at ccp's sleek headquarters
computers that sit vertically
worldwide. Devoted players have flocked
overlooking reykjavík's harbor.
on special racks, like books
here to see demos of new game features
it was a completely
on a shelf-and solid-state
and meet the game's creators, including
different world. thorsteinsson
drives, which are much faster
age: 37
What he
thorsteinsson, who leads Eve's software
had never thought about
than the traditional spinning
does: leads
development team.
working on computer games
hard-disk drives.
the software
But at the Fanfest, the amiable, softand rarely even played them,
"But you can't keep
team developing
spoken icelander isn't fighting off the fans;
so he spent some time
throwing hardware at the
the massively
instead he wanders anonymously through
catching up. "i started playing
problem," thorsteinsson says.
multiplayer game
the raucous crowd. if he doesn't seem
a lot more games," he says.
so last year, ccp revamped
Eve online.
to mind or even notice, that's probably
"it's research, of course."
its network software. the new
for Whom:
because what drew him to this life was not a
Eve, launched in may 2003,
code, written in the stackless
ccp games
fascination with games but a love of numbers. has been growing explosively.
python language, has less
Where he
thorsteinsson graduated from the
at any time of the day or
overhead and vastly speeds
does it:
university of iceland in 1996 with bachelor's
night, thousands of people
up communication between
reykjavík, iceland
degrees in mathematics and computer
from dozens of countries
servers, the company says.
fun factors:
science. He wanted to get a doctorate in
are logged on, exploring the
Eve also went from a 32-bit
works on cuttingcomputer science, but first he cut a deal
game's solar systems, jumping
to a 64-bit architecture, to
edge game
with his wife, sonja: if she let him go to the
through wormholes, mining
be able to move data more
technology;
graduate school of his choice, she'd get to
asteroids, and blasting away
quickly to and from memory.
attends
pick where they lived after he finished.
opponents in starship battles.
Deploying the new network
conferences
He chose carnegie mellon university, in
players create characters,
software was tricky because
around the world;
gets paid to play
pittsburgh, where he completed a master's
band together in alliances, and
ccp couldn't keep the servers
games at work.
and then a doctorate in "algorithms,
accumulate virtual loot to buy
off-line for too long. the
combinatorics, and optimization." He says
more-powerful ships. some
company managed to make
he loved the challenge: "a ph.D. is a solo
die-hard fans play for days at
the switch in a few hours, and
project, just you and your ideas."
a time, stopping only for a nap,
the payoff was immediate.
while he was still in school, the couple
a bite to eat, and maybe a shower. maybe.
with the network upgrade, space armadas
had their first child, Birkir Örn, and sonja
thorsteinsson says Eve is different from
encompassing more than a thousand
started to miss their relatives back in
other massively multiplayer online games,
players can now blast away at one another.
iceland. after he finished his ph.D. in 2001,
or mmogs. it has a single universe, or shard,
"this is something that no other game
she didn't hesitate to exact her end of the
whereas most games segregate players into
does," thorsteinsson says proudly.
isolated shards. so even in mmogs with
Back at the eve Fanfest, he says he likes
more than a million subscribers, like World of
to meet players and find out what they
Warcraft, no more than a few hundred people
love, or don't love, about the game. He gets
gaMe on: erlundur thorsteinsson's
can play together. Eve, by contrast, has had
a lot more compliments than complaints.
love of numbers led him to a career
more than 45 000 players logged on at the
No surprise there. He's helping to keep their
in online computer gaming.
photo: GíSli dúa
same time, and all of them can play together.
universe fun.
-Erico Guizzo

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum February, 2009
