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Social Corps

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Sibyyl
Garoun Investment Bank
Gallente Federation
#721 - 2015-05-30 15:38:18 UTC  |  Edited by: Sibyyl
Lucas Kell wrote:
The problem with both of those charts is that they treat it like these are all side by side options, while social groups would be additional features for all players over the top of whatever choices they've made for their actual corp membership. Social groups are an improvement to the dire features to assist with socialising outside your corp in EVE, not to replace corp membership.


The chart is showing the worst case scenario where Social Group/Corp Lite members are NPC Corpies. This is relevant, because you see right there how Corps are getting watered down by both proposals.

And let's be honest. Social groups are not necessary for people in existing corps. People in Player Corps can figure out how to use Jabber, Slack, Teamspeak, Mumble, O.smium.org, Zkillboard, all of the 3rd party solutions that already provide the capabilities being touted as Social Groups. If Social Groups were added, it's because of NPC Corp players.

Corp Lite would be an alternative to corps. This is exactly how it is proposed and marketed.



Edit: Changed O.smium.net -> .org

Joffy Aulx-Gao for CSM. Fix links and OGB. Ban stabs from plexes. Fulfill karmic justice.

Delt0r Garsk
Shits N Giggles
#722 - 2015-05-30 15:52:29 UTC
Sibyyl wrote:

Lucas Kell wrote:
The problem with both of those charts is that they treat it like these are all side by side options, while social groups would be additional features for all players over the top of whatever choices they've made for their actual corp membership. Social groups are an improvement to the dire features to assist with socialising outside your corp in EVE, not to replace corp membership.


The chart is showing the worst case scenario where Social Group/Corp Lite members are NPC Corpies. This is relevant, because you see right there how Corps are getting watered down by both proposals.

And let's be honest. Social groups are not necessary for people in existing corps. People in Player Corps can figure out how to use Jabber, Slack, Teamspeak, Mumble, O.smium.net, Zkillboard, all of the 3rd party solutions that already provide the capabilities being touted as Social Groups. If Social Groups were added, it's because of NPC Corp players.

Corp Lite would be an alternative to corps. This is exactly how it is proposed and marketed.


Yes we can use jabber Slack Fleet up etc. But it is a pain and mostly its a huge pain for the new people. Hence a bullient + calendar etc would make life easier while *not changing anything else at all about how eve is played by different groups*. as in you still have ppl in NPC corps. And for some reason that seems to be objection. The existence of NPC corps?

AKA the scientist.

Death and Glory!

Well fun is also good.

ISD Dorrim Barstorlode
ISD Community Communications Liaisons
ISD Alliance
#723 - 2015-05-30 16:01:37 UTC
Removed some off topic posts.

ISD Dorrim Barstorlode

Senior Lead

Community Communication Liaisons (CCLs)

Interstellar Services Department

Sibyyl
Garoun Investment Bank
Gallente Federation
#724 - 2015-05-30 16:02:59 UTC

Delt0r Garsk wrote:
Yes we can use jabber Slack Fleet up etc. But it is a pain and mostly its a huge pain for the new people. Hence a bullient + calendar etc would make life easier while *not changing anything else at all about how eve is played by different groups*. as in you still have ppl in NPC corps. And for some reason that seems to be objection. The existence of NPC corps?


There is no Teamspeak/Mumble alternative in these proposals. Fleets are dead in the water without voice. Setting up Jabber or Slack once you've set up Teamspeak? Are we really arguing the 2-3 extra minutes are a challenge? The problem you *think* you're solving won't be solved. Getting people into Player Corps should be the explicit goal (and no, I don't mean the bittervet "get off my lawn" NPC Corpies).



The "objections" are twofold:

1. NPC Corps are fine, but being wardec immune isn't (see the npc corp thread to talk about it instead)

2. These proposals are watering down features of existing corps, which will make it difficult long term to get people into corps because of cannibalization by wardec-immune, asset/SOV-free entities that enjoy more or less the same mechanics as Player Corps.

Joffy Aulx-Gao for CSM. Fix links and OGB. Ban stabs from plexes. Fulfill karmic justice.

Lucas Kell
Solitude Trading
S.N.O.T.
#725 - 2015-05-30 16:16:06 UTC  |  Edited by: Lucas Kell
Sibyyl wrote:
The chart is showing the worst case scenario where Social Group/Corp Lite members are NPC Corpies. This is relevant, because you see right there how Corps are getting watered down by both proposals.
I disagree, I think that in both proposals the corp structure is getting added to. With corp-lites to a lesser extent, but they would allow people to take a smallstep from NPC corps to a corp of people theyget on with, then when that group feels they are ready they can then upgrade to a full corp. That's a lot better than the current situation where you have to try to build up as a main corp, already in the firing line. I think if they took that jump when much better prepared they'd do better.

With social groups, it means that you can join a corp but still easily group up with others, giving NPSI groups a massive boost. I think those type of groups really help people move out of their comfort zones without having to fully commit.

Sibyyl wrote:
And let's be honest. Social groups are not necessary for people in existing corps. People in Player Corps can figure out how to use Jabber, Slack, Teamspeak, Mumble, O.smium.org, Zkillboard, all of the 3rd party solutions that already provide the capabilities being touted as Social Groups. If Social Groups were added, it's because of NPC Corp players.
Sure, they do exist but it's much harder and a lot of people just don't bother. Being able to flick through an in-game list and go "ooh, that group sounds interesting - applied" is a much smoother way of doing things. It's like when self-service was added to supermarkets, it's not like prior to that we had the inability to buy items in a shop, it just made a much smoother process for those of us willing to try it out.

Sibyyl wrote:
Corp Lite would be an alternative to corps. This is exactly how it is proposed and marketed.
It would really be an alternative to NPC corps, since the main features of being in a full corp wouldn't exist in a corp-lite. Your table shows contracts as suggested but I'd say even that would be too far. Chat, bulletins, mail, calendar, fits, standings and bookmarks would be as far as I'd like to see it go. I don't think many (if any) groups currently willing to run a full corp would downgrade for just those features. honestly though, corp lites would have no point f they fixed wardecs so that they encouraged wardeccers to go after tougher targets.

The Indecisive Noob - EVE fan blog.

Wholesale Trading - The new bulk trading mailing list.

Sibyyl
Garoun Investment Bank
Gallente Federation
#726 - 2015-05-30 16:23:15 UTC

So the problem you are saying with Corps is (or at least the perception):

1. Corps require commitment in time, day after day
2. Corps require intrusive APIs and other information in the application process
3. Corp loyalty is exclusive, instead of allowing a person access to a "social buffet"
4. Wardecs are broken

Why not address these 4 issues in Player Corps instead of making new constructs to compete with Corps?

Joffy Aulx-Gao for CSM. Fix links and OGB. Ban stabs from plexes. Fulfill karmic justice.

Lucas Kell
Solitude Trading
S.N.O.T.
#727 - 2015-05-30 17:10:02 UTC
Sibyyl wrote:

So the problem you are saying with Corps is (or at least the perception):

1. Corps require commitment in time, day after day
2. Corps require intrusive APIs and other information in the application process
3. Corp loyalty is exclusive, instead of allowing a person access to a "social buffet"
4. Wardecs are broken

Why not address these 4 issues in Player Corps instead of making new constructs to compete with Corps?
Yeah I think thta's a good list to start with. The main issue there is number 3. Having ways to meet up with people outside your normal social groups is a great way to resolve that issue as well as help people move around between groups and do things their corp doesn't necessarily do. A big part missing from that though is that your corp isn't always available when you are. You can't just hop corp for a few hours to do stuff with some other people and having membership of special interest groups is a good way to resolve that.

The problem is that 1 and 2 are behavioural, people choose how much commitment and API info they want from their members, 3 is the thing that social groups are aiming to resolve and 4 is likely to be forcefully resolved when CCP gets around to looking at dec mechanics (I foresee their removal and replacement with entosis link in the near future).

And again, it's not about competing with corps, it's about adding features to the whole game for everyone to use regardless of choice of corp (even NPC ones which like it or not are a valid form of playstyle).

The Indecisive Noob - EVE fan blog.

Wholesale Trading - The new bulk trading mailing list.

Aoife Fraoch
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#728 - 2015-05-31 02:33:27 UTC
This thread certainly has been entertaining. It also makes me miss seeing someone like Psychotic Monk arguing for the high sec shenanigans side of EVE. It would be nice to see someone make a cogent argument from that perspective again.

The social corp/UI layer stuff sounds cool. Though they really should have just called them clubs or associations from the start. Anything that will make it easier for individuals to play with others using in game tools will be great for casual players. And really they are just replicating third party tools but in the game.

This is based on my understanding that with this in place, I would be a member of Blue Republic as a corp, with deployable roles or abilities (however this turns out), tax, access to contracts and so on linked to my corp membership. But with membership in a number of different associations which give me access to their pool of shared fleet invites and fittings.

So I am assuming this means that if I was in an NPC corp, then I can deploy assets and so on as an NPC corp member, regardless of social corp/association/club membership.

The social corp lite, where people can re-badge a micro NPC corp with a name or what ever is interesting, and slightly problematic. However I think the reason is more because of the current state of full player corps. Personally I do not think these wardec immune corps will actually be that popular. After all, why would I decide to be in a corp with an NPC corp level of tax when I can just create a full player corp (or two) for myself and my alt with 0% tax and switch out of it if I get wardeced?

I doubt anyone with a one person corp would use those corp-lites instead. Ever.

And to me this is where we get to the biggest problem. There is simply no reason for most players to stay in a corp that has been wardecced and undock. None. POSes can be taken down, the corp can be held by an alt, and they can always drop to NPC, choose not to login or play on an alt.

At least to me, the most important change that needs to happen would be for it to be a rational choice for a player to fight for their corp. And this would be from creating more benefits for player corps. More reasons for them to exist, simply more stuff that is going to be at risk and actually be worth fighting for.

Advocating for more restrictions on NPC corps or more ways to 'punish' players for not playing the way you want them too won't change a thing. This has been done in the past and it seems to have had no impact. Given that this is a game, even if it does at some point force them to be in player corps during wardec or something, they can always chose not to login, play on an alt or just unsub.

There needs to be more carrots for player corps. Giant vulnerable carrots sitting in space. Though how this will work in reality remains to be seen, as high sec does seem to be over run with large swarms of rabbits...
Tipa Riot
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#729 - 2015-05-31 06:15:44 UTC
Sibyyl wrote:

So the problem you are saying with Corps is (or at least the perception):

1. Corps require commitment in time, day after day
2. Corps require intrusive APIs and other information in the application process
3. Corp loyalty is exclusive, instead of allowing a person access to a "social buffet"
4. Wardecs are broken

Why not address these 4 issues in Player Corps instead of making new constructs to compete with Corps?


Good summary of the status of player corps. And with 1 and 3 we are at the very core of the issue. Player corps are a certain play style in EvE, which needs to suite to their players' RL commitment. Currently this required commitment is high enough, that not every player can just easily manage it. Also these often cited casual-friendly corps, are corps of casuals, who won't haul POS fuel, stock market with doctrine ships, fleet-up every day, take and hold sov, defend against a wardec. If they do, they are not casual-friendly, at least not for those in the corp feeling responsible. Player corps are not some ultimate goal, there is a place in EvE for play styles outside the tight boundaries of a player corp. If the number of players who are interested in this play style exclusively or in addition to the corp life is big enough, why shouldn't CCP help improving their player expierience next after sov play style?

I'm my own NPC alt.

Black Pedro
Mine.
#730 - 2015-05-31 06:33:50 UTC
Tipa Riot wrote:

Good summary of the status of player corps. And with 1 and 3 we are at the very core of the issue. Player corps are a certain play style in EvE, which needs to suite to their players' RL commitment. Currently this required commitment is high enough, that not every player can just easily manage it. Also these often cited casual-friendly corps, are corps of casuals, who won't haul POS fuel, stock market with doctrine ships, fleet-up every day, take and hold sov, defend against a wardec. If they do, they are not casual-friendly, at least not for those in the corp feeling responsible. Player corps are not some ultimate goal, there is a place in EvE for play styles outside the tight boundaries of a player corp. If the number of players who are interested in this play style exclusively or in addition to the corp life is big enough, why shouldn't CCP help improving their player expierience next after sov play style?
There is and should be a place for a casual or solo style of play. The core of one of the problems at least is when that style of play is more lucrative or efficient at earning an income than playing in a corp with other players. If you can make the same amount of ISK or accomplish the same goals without the hassle, risk or cost of forming, joining, building and defending a player run corp, why bother? The problem isn't with casual players staying out of corporations, but rather more with dedicated players choosing to not join a corporation not because they don't want the commitment or social contact, but just because they make more ISK with less risk doing it solo.

Aoife above said it above quite well: player corps need a serious buff. Give players a real reason to be in and defend a wardeccable player corp and the concerns of most people here over societies would go away. Players who take on these risks and spend the time and resources to defend a corporation should benefit from that choice.
Sibyyl
Garoun Investment Bank
Gallente Federation
#731 - 2015-05-31 07:08:48 UTC

Pedro, buffing PC Corps is a pipe dream. Profitability of PC Corps will be judged by the yardstick set by our friends in bluesec.

CCP Fozzie wrote:
We can see how much money people are making in nullsec and it is, a gigantic amount, a ****-ton… in null sec anomalies.




No one wants to buff a bunch of farmers. We have Malcanis's Law to think about, right?

Joffy Aulx-Gao for CSM. Fix links and OGB. Ban stabs from plexes. Fulfill karmic justice.

Aoife Fraoch
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#732 - 2015-05-31 07:26:34 UTC
Sibyyl wrote:

Pedro, buffing PC Corps is a pipe dream. Profitability of PC Corps will be judged by the yardstick set by our friends in bluesec.

CCP Fozzie wrote:
We can see how much money people are making in nullsec and it is, a gigantic amount, a ****-ton… in null sec anomalies.




No one wants to buff a bunch of farmers. We have Malcanis's Law to think about, right?



In that case I guess we still have a question: Why would a rational player chose to stay and be active in a corporation under a war dec?
Sibyyl
Garoun Investment Bank
Gallente Federation
#733 - 2015-05-31 07:30:13 UTC

Aoife Fraoch wrote:
In that case I guess we still have a question: Why would a rational player chose to stay and be active in a corporation under a war dec?


If wardec immunity is removed from the game, and it should be, then you wouldn't have to ask that question.

Joffy Aulx-Gao for CSM. Fix links and OGB. Ban stabs from plexes. Fulfill karmic justice.

Aoife Fraoch
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#734 - 2015-05-31 07:33:44 UTC
Sibyyl wrote:

Aoife Fraoch wrote:
In that case I guess we still have a question: Why would a rational player chose to stay and be active in a corporation under a war dec?


If wardec immunity is removed from the game, and it should be, then you wouldn't have to ask that question.



You are right, no I wouldn't. Then the question becomes: Why would a player login and use a character under war dec rather than an alt or play a completely different game?
Tyberius Franklin
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#735 - 2015-05-31 07:41:40 UTC  |  Edited by: Tyberius Franklin
Aoife Fraoch wrote:
In that case I guess we still have a question: Why would a rational player chose to stay and be active in a corporation under a war dec?
When you have a mechanic that turns the greatest advantages of player corps into even greater liabilities you will never have an answer to that question.

Also Sibyyl, this goes beyond simply being able to be dec'd, but also staying in an organization that is dec'd. When you consider that being in space become a proposition that introduces increased effort or risk, if not both, why would you stay.

Fundamentally all NPC corps do in this case is save effort in having to drop corp for a week.

We could lock players in corps during wars, though 50mill/week seems a small price to place on locking down up to 50 people's ability to exercise corp choice for any reason.
Sibyyl
Garoun Investment Bank
Gallente Federation
#736 - 2015-05-31 07:43:06 UTC

I don't know, how do players operate in lowsec or nullsec or wormholes where there are free aggression rules? Do players not make any income outside of hisec because other players are free to shoot them?

Are you saying a wardec is the end of the world? Being able to be shot by another player makes the game unplayable? Really?

Joffy Aulx-Gao for CSM. Fix links and OGB. Ban stabs from plexes. Fulfill karmic justice.

Tyberius Franklin
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#737 - 2015-05-31 07:48:30 UTC  |  Edited by: Tyberius Franklin
Sibyyl wrote:
I don't know, how do players operate in lowsec or nullsec or wormholes where there are free aggression rules? Do players not make any income outside of hisec because other players are free to shoot them?

Are you saying a wardec is the end of the world? Being able to be shot by another player makes the game unplayable? Really?

Comes down to risk preference. Those who want to accept certain risks do. Others do not.

I'd rather be in a WH or null in some ways compared to a higsec wardec though. In both of those cases every neutral is a threat instead of being in a situation where any neutral could be just a passer by as easily as an enemy scout. Too much potential noise to signal there.

Also you can always aggress the logis regardless of their affiliation.

Edit: Another way to think of it. You enjoy doing something specific in Eve. You also enjoy doing something else in another game but not as much as you enjoy doing the thing you do in Eve. Someone wardecs you preventing you from doing the thing you want to do the way you want to do it, making the other game more fun over the play time you would have otherwise spent in Eve.

Did the game become unplayable? No. It's just that the value of what you stood to gain from it became lower than what alternatives offered for a week.
Aoife Fraoch
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#738 - 2015-05-31 07:53:46 UTC  |  Edited by: Aoife Fraoch
Sibyyl wrote:

I don't know, how do players operate in lowsec or nullsec or wormholes where there are free aggression rules? Do players not make any income outside of hisec because other players are free to shoot them?

Are you saying a wardec is the end of the world? Being able to be shot by another player makes the game unplayable? Really?



No that is not what I am saying.

I guess the point I am working towards is that there needs to be an actual incentive for those who chose to play in high sec space to engage in combat when that is not the main reason they play the game.

I guess we can all agree that getting someone to do something that isn't their first choice is hard, especially when they can always just disappear for a week, without any real cost.

Personally I hope that CCP is looking at structures in space as a kind of a solution to this. Give player corps something they can deploy for a real benifit that they can lose. POCOs have not really done this and POSs seem to be too specialised for most high sec players to care to have.

I am also aware that this high sec corp buff can't be large enough to make staying in secure space a better option that carving out a part of null, with the costs associated with that kind of territorial control.

Personally I suspect some form of structure that can buff activity for the corps members with it's vulnerability linked to the entosis link might be interesting.

In practice though, this will certainly favour larger organisations, as the smaller ones will simply get swept away (see also; POCOs). But given how EVE works, this is not automatically a bad thing. Small corps don't really have much of a point aside from niche or fringe dwellers.

EDIT (forgot to add a conclusion)

Providing high sec corps with something that they might have a chance of defending, that can get removed and can accumulate value over time, making it harder to replace, might make a difference in some cases.
Delt0r Garsk
Shits N Giggles
#739 - 2015-05-31 08:56:00 UTC
Round and round we go. Players that don't want to PvP via pew pew won't. They just wont'. These are the players that stay docked up when wardec or wardec doge. No amount of space stations, shinny UI changes or anything for that matter will change the fact these people don't want war in space. And if you insist on claiming the way to fix eve is to force them to do this, then they will just leave. There are other games out there.

Oh the "eve is a pvp game and stuff they don't want to tough.. PvP is EVE!".. Well PvP is eve but as the trolls a few pages back pointed out, even station trading is PvP when it suits them. PvP via war in space, in particular war in HIGHSEC space is *not* the core of eve.

Now back to social corps. NPSI fleets are here to stay. What is so bad about a some easy to share fits outside a mailing list and a MOTD? The people in NPC corps aren't going anywhere. People in Corps aren't going anywhere. Why not let us fleet and pew pew? Why not make it easier for us to introduce new players to pew pew?

As was said in the csm mins this is *orthogonal to all stuff wardec/corp/NPC corps".

AKA the scientist.

Death and Glory!

Well fun is also good.

Tipa Riot
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#740 - 2015-05-31 09:09:51 UTC
Sibyyl wrote:

I don't know, how do players operate in lowsec or nullsec or wormholes where there are free aggression rules? Do players not make any income outside of hisec because other players are free to shoot them?

Are you saying a wardec is the end of the world? Being able to be shot by another player makes the game unplayable? Really?


You are in Brave and don't know about nullsec life? The wardec is a special snowflake because it's highsec PvP. In highsec you and your neutral logi/scout alts can freely operate protected by concord rules, shooting happens only between corporation members at war. Nobody else in system can help you and pose an additional threat to the attacker like in any other space. This imbalances the risk, because a highsec "PvP" corp, chooses to dec a weaker industry corp to loot their towers, and in practice nobody will interfere with this trapshooting, unless the prey pays protection money. In any other space cherry picking target corps is not that easy and risk free.

I'm my own NPC alt.