CCP has posted the results of the candidacy application period for the fourth Council of Stellar Management, and the company has accepted 49 of the 60 applications. The rest were rejected due to passport issues, EULA violations and "Internet lolsters."

According to the post, "the age range of the candidates is between 21 and 54 with the average age of 33 years." Only one female player is running for a seat on the council. You can view the list of applicants here in preparation for the upcoming election, which will be held from Nov. 12-26.

And the hits just keep on coming. The ZAM staff and Mike "Fony" B. have published the third episode of The BFF Report for everyone to enjoy. For those of you that missed the first two episodes... you should probably go and watch them. Gizmo Duck would want you to!

Enough of the banter. In the third episode of The BFF Report, Fony continues his trek through the hero-filled world of Champions Online. This week he takes a crack at travel powers, retconning, and reads some viewer feedback.

Quit slacking and go check it out!

CCP announced today that it will be adding a PLEX timer in an attempt to strengthen its anti-fraud measures in its Pilot License Extension program. According to the post, a maximum 60-minute delivery delay will go into effect for all PLEX added to the system after downtime tomorrow, Oct. 20.

For more information on PLEX, check out the system's EVElopedia page. As the entry states, "PLEX offers an alternative way for people to pay for their subscription without the use of our more conventional payment methods. Using PLEX, pilots can earn game time simply by playing EVE."

While the Dec. 1 launch date for Dominion may seem to be in the distant future right now, it's actually only about seven weeks away. In order to test out the upcoming changes in a live environment, CCP has announced that the team "will be running a series of fleet fights and other mass-tests on our main test server, Singularity."

The tests are tentatively scheduled to begin on Thursday, Oct. 15 at 5 p.m. GMT. However, an issue has been found on the test server that may postone the testing. Keep an eye on the thread for any updates to the testing schedule. If all goes according to plan, CCP is going to need at least 100 pilots (preferably more than 400) on Thursday.

The full announcement can be found after the jump. Also, check out the rules of the test server before logging in for the event.

One of the elements that has always fascinated me about EVE Online is the stability and resilience of the in-game economy. What you may not know is that CCP has a team of economists that work with the development team to provide players with a stable economy unlike some of the other MMOs out there. We had a chance to sit down with the Lead Economist for CCP, Dr. Eyjólfur Guðundsson, to talk about the EVE economy and what makes it so special.

ZAM: First of all, what is Unholy Rage? I mean, there was a discussion earlier on it, but what are the underlying principles of it?

Dr. Eyjólfur Guðundsson: Unholy Rage is simply the name of a task force that we put together within CCP to fight off activities that are very well known within MMOs in general - they're usually called gold farming. In general, it's behaviour where players - but I don't want to say players, because they're not really playing the game - it's the behaviour where individuals use the game as a business for themselves, rather than using the game as an environment to play. This is very prevalent within all MMOs, but the problem is that these entities are usually using tools and additional tools that are not allowed to use to give themselves additional advantages, so they can gain more than a regular player. So that's really what we're going after.

ZAM: And this task force lead to the banning of several thousand people, as I understand it?

And now for something completely different. When you think of CCP, you probably picture ships flying through space in EVE Online, or maybe even wonder what you'll see in DUST 514. Whatever images pop into your head, I doubt a rap group was one of them. Well, say hello to Permaband.

Members of the CCP team formed the group and posted their video for the song "HTFU" on YouTube. According to the link on the EVEOnline Facebook page, the song was performed and produced in house. Oh, and they "spit hot fire." It's true. Here's a taste of their rhymes: "Every day is a fight, there's no room for bloopers. Bugs coming at us like in Starship Troopers. We help when we can, every child, every man. Treat the boogie man to a permanent ban!"

Check out the video if you don't believe me. Actually, wait a minute. If you're at work, don't watch the video yet. Wait until you're home. As CCP puts it, the video's "not safe for YOUR work, sorry--so quit and join us so you can watch it."

We learned an abundance of new information during the CCP Presents keynote on Saturday. After the presentation we sat down with EVE Online's Lead Game Designer, Noah Ward to get clarification on some of the newly announced features including Planetary Interactions, Mining Enhancements and the rise of the Jovians.

Noah Ward: Hi, my name is Noah Ward, I also go by Hammerhead, and I am the lead game designer.

ZAM: First of all, can you just go into a little bit more detail about the sovereignty capture system that's going in?

Noah: It's really simple, and that was the whole goal of it. You just plunk down your clay marker and that's really all it takes. There's a bit of a timer. In order to take it back, you have to have 51% of the gates in the system controlled with these, we'll call them "disruption beacons," I don't know if that will be the final name. Basically you have to have, what we consider air superiority of the space in order to make the clay marker vulnerable.

ZAM: OK, so there will be new planets and stars. Does that have anything to with DUST? Are those in preparation somewhat?