EVE New Citizens Q&A

Because that also includes alts etc.
If CCP would look at my characters I own, about 12 of them are in NPC corps. That doesnt mean I like to play solo or dont want to be part of a corp, its because those particular alts dont need to be in a corp and if they were it would just be blowing up membership count.

Dont get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with not being in a corp, but personally I dont see any downsides to it...that is IF you are in the corp that SUITS you. If you are in the 'wrong' corp, then yes there are downsides to it (rules and API). But when you join the corp that fits you, neither the rules nor the API should be an disadvantage as you picked that corp because it suits you, if it does worry you...the corp isnt at fault, your own corp picking abilities is.

And who says you cant have fun playing the game while looking for the "perfect" group to fly with.

And name any other downsides on being in a corp that SUITS your gamestyle. Im not talking about being part of a corp that doesnt fit your gamestyle, if you are with people that match your gamestyle...there arent any dow sides I can think of as the group will think alike.

Want to stress stress on the last thing.

EVE is a MMO, play it multiplayer. That doesnt mean you must join a corp or must be part of a fixed group.
But interacting with others can enhance your gameplay, even if it is just general chatter in a public chat with other capsuleer.

I don't, hence I clearly stated "likely".


You and I are in the minority.


Hence I clearly stated, "Of course there are good corps and bad ones, so don't feel you have to stay in a bad one."


Nothing I've posted in my 5 years can be construed as anything more than my opinion, especially in a thread where the OP calls for opinions.

After having observed the thread for a couple of days its time for me to join in on the discussion as well.

First off, you should have doubts.
No matter what corporation you end up joining there will be disadvantages. It dosent matter how great the corp is, or how well you get along with the members or the leadership, it will never be "perfect".
However, this is true for all routes you can take in EVE, the key is finding something where the benefits outweighs the disadvantages (or at least the benefits are so great that you dont mind the disadvantages so much).
I know someone has already linked this, but im going to link it again to make sure it dident get missed.
This "guide" is supposed to help you understand the benefits and disadvantages of the choices you have once you want to leave the NPC corp. Of course its not "set in stone" as in, benefits and advantages can change from corp to corp, person to person, but it might help answer some of your questions.

Second, its a very good question. While im a firm believer that most people wont be able to fully enjoy EVE without a steady group of people to play with, some simply prefer that play style.
However, you are asking the question before you have really tried either option which leads me to believe that your.. concerned that it might end up badly based on experience from previous games.

In my experience corporations in EVE is a lot different from guilds/cabals/clans/whatever. You become a lot more.. tight with your group, you get to actually know people and talk to them outside of the weekly raid, and there is less off the whole "well you dont have full purple so we dont want to talk to you until you have done enough pugs to get what we want".
This can be both good and bad, depending on your play style.

Some dont really want to get to close to the people they play with and prefer to stay on their own and just observe, others wants to be the center of attention, while some settles for being "something in between". But because of how EVE works, the different play styles, the different leadership styles, its possible to find corporations where you can be any of those things, you just have to look for them.

Third, i would suggest that you do join a corporation. Use the guide linked above to help you, if you join one that dosent suit you at all try another one, and repeat this 3 -4 times spending something like 2 weeks to a month in each corporation to make sure it really is not your thing (unless something drastic happens like they awox you as an example ).

If you at that point still dont feel 100% about being in a corp, leave and start your own solo corporation or just stay in the NPC corp. At least then when people ask you why your in a solo/npc corp you can say "I tried it, not for me, but good luck to you".

And with that, good luck and hope you find what your looking for, welcome to EVE

While I agree with most of what you said, many proactive activities are facilitated by being in a player corporation as well. In fact, good corporations depend heavily on having members who are focused on proactive activities. People who take the initiative to lead fleets, scout out targets, organize operations - these people are all proactive players who form the backbone of a corporation and create content for all the reactive oriented members to enjoy. They do need assistance - they need players to fill out their fleets and assist in other group activities.

The proactive type player that you describe is a different creature than the examples I provided above. Both are focused on pursuing their own personal goals without needing others to entertain them. The difference is that your guy is trying to play EVE as a single player game. He is, at the risk of using the latest buzzword, a bot-aspirant. Guys like that one often play the way they do just because they don't know what they are missing. If they genuinely enjoy that play style, they should look into some of the many fine single player video games available on the market which are better for that than EVE.

So what is the benefit to the individual player? Well, having access to the gameplay mechanics involved in larger fleets or co-operative industry. This does not necessarily mean you will make more money. Maybe you will even make less then what you could make solo... in my personal case this is definately true. But that's OK. I'm beyond that point where everything is about hoarding ISK, I have ISK... what I want is more people enjoying pew pew in our ranks!

At two months, it isn't surprising you'd mainly look into your own benefits. But after 2-3 years things simply... change. I'm more interested in shaping the environment then in my personal benefits. Improving conditions for my corp is more important to me then personal gain. My efforts are steered towards improving the conditions of our lebensraum, keeping the corp focussed, and generating PVP content. My reward consists of acknowledgement, respect, and maybe even some loyalty from other players.

Try and gain those benefits in an NPC corp.

Then congratulations are in order, you managed to not leave the game at the first hurdle. Many people don't even get that far. Making friends ingame isn't the easiest thing around. My personal solution is to ask people to get on a voice comm channel. Its easier to get to know the real people behind the persona they essentially play in the game. Any community has it's share of toxic people. With a game like Eve you really don't want to be stuck with the wrong crowd, so take all the time you need to find a proper corp. Keep socializing, at some point a good oppurtunity will come to pass.

There's no shame in orienting yourself for a couple of weeks, or even a couple of months if you want to explore the mechanics on your own. Advice is nice and will see you flying up the learning cliff very fast, but there is no substitute for personal experience. Mine has pointed out that over time, organizing group activities become the most fun challenge of the game. It's not about such static metrics as ISK or killmails anymore, but about keeping your group engaged. Making plans, setting them in motion, enjoy the colorfull explosions that go with them.

You might have something here. At the moment I'm spending most of my game time struggling with ISK issues and even then I have no real hope of plexing my account short of a lucky miracle. The last thing I need is a corp telling me what I can or cant do, or war targets shooting at me while I'm trying to do it....

Perhaps - as you suggest - I'll feel differently after a couple of years when my financial survival in EVE is no longer my primary concern, although Its really not clear to me how time is going to magically solve my ISK making problems the way it appears to have done for some people.

Is it possible to get kicked from a corp without reason, yes.
Is it possible to get kicked twice from 2 different corps without reason, in less then a week. maybe, but less likely.

I don't say you are at fault, but you were both times possibly kicked from corp for some reason that you just didn't see.
This could be all kinds of different things.


Then about the corps, 2 corps...that isn't by far an good amount to judge the average corporation in EVE online.



Source: EVEwho

This means there are 276,361 other corporations in EVE. Given there are a good amount of alt corps / name keeping corps / holding corps etc, it still leaves a metric fuckload of corps to chose from.


Also, how did you find these corporations, some ways to find a corporation are way better then others. In my opinion the best way to find a corporation is looking here on the forums on the recruitment section and the worst is the recruitment channel. On the forums, if a thread is kept up to date by the recruiter, it shows they take their time in recruitment and usually it's also a sign that they kind of "know what they are doing" - of course exceptions apply to it. Recruitment channel is just a mess of spam adverts every 20 seconds by the same people, which is clearly a sign they recruit for 1 reason, more numbers in their corp / more tax income for the leadership.