Gaming Industry Strategist and Virtual Community Research Pioneer
Tryggvi Hjaltason serves as Senior Strategist at CCP Games, where he has established himself as a leading authority on virtual communities and online relationship formation through his extensive research on EVE Online's social dynamics. After a career investigating international financial crimes, he joined CCP to study human behavior within virtual socioeconomic structures, coining the term "friendship machine" to describe EVE Online's unique ability to foster meaningful relationships. His research has revealed that approximately 65% of EVE players report forming significant real-life friendships through the game, leading to his development of the "EVE Effect" theory which examines how intense shared experiences in virtual spaces create lasting bonds