Science & Industry

not really (edit: anymore), since PvP corps can live off the industrial corps racing to zero on prices.

back in the day there used to be some "Indy" corps that held Sov null (though, it might've been before "Sov")

Not really. The reason is that goods produced by corp A are identical to and indistinguishable from goods produced by corp B. Anything A produces B can produce as well, with the only difference being the price at market. Brand loyalty, increased quality of product, all are impossible. Now for very large products like stations or supercaps or the like, for these products theres room to build a valuable reputation, but primarily only because some amount of service is needed, and they're built to order. And even then, these are often built by one guy or maybe a handful of collaborators with dozens of accounts. Furthermore, they also try to keep a low profile when possible, as no one wants to broadcast that they've just started a 3-month build job in a potentially vulnerable CSAA somewhere.

The real famous corps are ones that provide services, not products.

Miners do like community, but they're mining, they're not building. Or they're mining and building, but if so the building isn't something they generally do under a corp banner. If you're in a giant mining op with a bunch of dudes, you're going to get paid in isk unless you're ferrying your ore to station every few minutes.

As for "steady flow of minerals" this has some merit, but its less important than you might think (at least in empire). Minerals from A look just like minerals from B, and both parties want to get the best price. Setting up a courier contract or taking a freighter run to a hub is usually preferable to paying above market prices.

One of the problems with setting up an industry corp is that there's not really much benefit to collaborating on production. Anything you might cooperate with another player on can be done at least as effectively either with alts or buying from the market... so why bother?

You can set up a corp for socialising while mining, or to try to exploit people who'll sell materials to the corp at below-market-value, but the actual process of production is basically a one person job.

Most successful indy corps aren't famous. If you are famous you get war deced until you breakup and reform under a new name or quit. (For the love of Bob never form a corp which indicates it's an industrial corp in it's name or description!!!) In general it doesn't make sense to put most indy activities under a single corp banner. If you are a high sec miner you are safer in the NPC corp as any corp with a lot of HS miners is going to get war deced. The same with hauling. There is no reason to form a corp for building things as corp don't provide better manufacturing opportunities. In fact doing so in a corp means you are at risk of corp mates stealing things. A lot a research does happen at POS which require a corp to setup, but general these are corps consisting of one actual person or a tight group of friends. Some of the corps I've been in in wspace have done research, and mfg in POSes, but generally it's done in another corp for safety. In short there is no reason for an industrial corp to exist, and lots of reason not to do it inside a corp. Even a corp like Red/Black Frog does the majority of it's activities using alts in a NPC corp.

Vanguard Frontiers.

Well, people haul in ships called Industrials. So doesn't that make Blue / Red / Black Frog kind of famous industrialists? Also there's Chribba off course. The guys who made eve-central.com probably also play Eve, but I don't know who they are so probably not famous.

Is N.A.G.A Corporation [NAGA] still around?