EVE General Discussion

Having only played the game for ~5 days I was curious as to what corporations are really like. I got lucky to meet some great guys who plucked me from Rookie Help, but I have a feeling they are in the minority. Then again, I've been in high sec this whole time and have no knowledge of what low sec/null sec corporations are like.

For example, I know some of the big ones are (were?) GoonSwarm, Goonwaffe, maybe a couple other "Goon" corps, Test(?), and a few others. I'm pretty sure those are/were just known for their antics. Are there other corps that actively oppose them, though? For example, during the one or two "Burn Jita" campaigns I heard about, did any other corporations band together to protect player assets in Jita (if anything could have been done in the first place)?

I've heard about other corps that are much more specific so I'm assuming there are corps strictly for mining, PvE missions, PvP, exploration, etc. Think I even heard a couple that dealt in 'tourism,' lol.

Somewhat of an odd question, but thanks in advance for any helpful answers

Corps are like... groups of people with their own special tag on their name and come with their own special chat channel that no one can be invited to unless they are a part of that special group.

It's pretty cool.

Corps are, to paraphrase Charles Dickens in the opening of A Tale Of Two Cities "it is the best of things, it is the worst of things".
It will either be very helpful and fun, or it will be a total skullfu...dgery where nothing happens and someone is always pissed everyone, and/or everything.

Imagine an S&M chamber of steamy verbal man love and spite. We hate each other with love and love each other with hate. And then we drown it all in a sea of microbrews, rum, and hilarious blotto.

That's what my corp experience has been like.

edit: for reference, I'm in a low-sec Faction Warfare corp.

There really is no one answer to this question, as corps are going to be vastly different depending on the people in them and what they're doing. You've got PvP corps, PvE corps, industrial corps, newbie corps, veteran corps, industrial corps, etc. etc. (and frequently these overlap).

But corps are the best thing about Eve. Despite all our bit**ing and moaning on these forums, I think most will agree flying out with others is what it's all about. Whether it's small gang or a large fleet op...

You warp into system and your FC is calling out targets, scouts calling out neutrals or hostiles in neighboring systems as you open up on a Caldari FW corps station with 50 dreads, then afterwards go off with a few of your buddies to hunt down trouble in Amarr systems...ahh that's the stuff.

I'm not saying everyone in the cfc is sexy, but we are.

Corporations are mostly like a bunch of people. To understand further, you need to answer the question, "what are people mostly like," and then do some research into, "how do people typically behave when gathered together?"

The right corporation will mean you can't wait to log in to the game. The wrong corporation will mean you stop logging in altogether. There is no "normal" and leadership styles range from authoritarian & dictatorial through to laissez-faire casuals who just say hello every now and then.

There's the bad. Your average highsec corp is a guy who doesn't really have much of an idea recruiting out of the recruitment channel, taking anyone. Membership is small, inexperienced. No safeguards in place. Not much in the way of working together. There's the dying PVP corp where leadership is away and most members aren't logging on regularly, or the most experienced/useful/sociable pilots have left for more active corps.

You want a good corp because it's just more enjoyable for you. If that sounds selfish... it is. If a corp doesn't make fun for its members it's a bad corp. If membership is having fun, they play, they do things together, they make more fun, they gain experience and are successful in what they do.

For a newbie, it's almost essential to join an established corp with some veteran members that are willing to help you out. There are some success stories of newbie corps doing well for themselves, but they're very rare. A just-starting corp won't do. I think a new corp needs commited vets, not newbies, to get the ball rolling, and newbies need older, veteran corps to get themselves into and experienced in the game.

Then again. I've been in the same corp for my whole time in EVE so far. So I might not have the knowledge to comment.

My corp, CTQ, is a lowsec corp right now. I'm not one of the more experienced or active members. Most of my time logged in recently has been spent in station, undocking mainly for PvE or to help out in a fleet. Leadership's generally chill, but there are some rules. Any rules are for the benefit of the members, though. Also leadership wants to keep a competent PVP corp, so some level of competence or enthusiasm seems to be expected from members. I haven't heard obsession over personal killboard stats (mine's not impressive) or general spaceship losses (**** happens) there'll sometimes be words over a thoughtless, avoidable loss.

Members'll generally putter about doing whatever they want to do. Some of our guys like to PVP around lowsec space solo or with a partner. There's a few guys more interested in PVE. Some probably mine and manufacture, but on alts. I'm generally alt+tabbed out to a DVD if online (this is why i'm poor btw). There's light chatter in comms or in our ingame public chat channel. Talking about fits or the guy Liam just shot. People will grab others from corp to help out with PVE, they'll coordinate in some projects (starbases, maybe manufacturing) or they'll ask for help if there's trouble about.

Other times, one of our guys will fly a bigger fleet around. Some corps/alliances have specified members who are allowed to run certain size fleets. I don't think we have such roles, but in EVE there are not very many people who feel confident in leading other people and risking other people's personal assets. The guy willing to step up to the plate is generally the guy who's able to do the job, though. I haven't seen a mandatory fleet yet. Most of our members will keep a selection of ships in hangar, and when we go out, the more experienced guys and the FC'll discuss the best types of ships to bring along. Or everyone turns up on the undock flying whatever. It depends.

I find flying in a small fleet the most enjoyable part of the game. I'm capable of flying solo, but I don't like it as much. I guess some prefer the thrill and challenge of engaging by themselves for success, and I like working with others for success. Some engagements in a fleet are just straight ganks (why would we let that guy just fly right past us) but the best engagements are against another fleet.

We've moved several times in the past, for reasons. Assets get sold off or trucked around. Members with carriers are kind enough to jump ships and modules off to new places.

We have some close friends in other corps that we'll fly with. We have some enemies around, too, and I guess some enemies that are also friends? Leadership is happy to get along with/goodfight other alliances when there's an amount of mutual respect involved. Lowsec relationships are often like that. We've had some friends where there was a lot of disrespect involved, too. They became enemies without prior notice.

So yeah a corp is just a group of people, in the end, I guess? I'm lucky enough to be with a corp that has some chill, experienced, generally tolerable people.

They're what keeps you logging in and having fun instead of dying alone and quitting over blob and ganks.

Some are generalist and do a bit of everything, others are focused mostly on one flavor of gameplay. All in all, think of what you enjoy in the game and then go looking for a suitable corporation - preferably an estabilished one that has a few veterans that'll make learning how to fit and fly a bit less painful.

We have secretly won Eve.
This secret was so well kept that nobody outside our alliance had even noticed it.
So, lacking anything meaningful to do after that, we decided to reset everything and drop all sov for a while so we could win Eve a second time.