EVE General Discussion

Simple really those other power blocs existed for the sole reason of getting and holding sovereignty. Once they lost it the alliance no longer had any purpose. Goonswarm is basically a a giant party with 15,000 of your best friends. Even if they lost it all the tomorrow they would come back. They aren't invincible, but they exist to have fun. The others existed to hold power.

cause there is a never ending supply of douchebags that need a home

I love digital spin doctors. They truly make the reality virtual.

We are a CIA front.

Because, similar to CODE, everyone loves Goons. Even if they love to hate them (which most grr goons people won't admit is how they actually feel). Having someone to complain about/grrr against creates an enormous amount of content.

The PR is part of why ppl join them, before them it was BOB ,ppl want to feel like they are part of the badass crew even though they only bring the milk for their coffee.

I personally dislike goons, I don't hate them since I think they are a symptom of what has gone wrong with EVE the last few years. EVE scales up without any kind of loss of impact, so if you can do something with 10 pilots you can do it 10 times faster with 100. It has been an age old problem that the bigger fleets always won. Goons just took it to another level - it has been unavoidable with the game mechanics we have and CCP should have done something years ago.

I think even though they claim "we only have fun" they really take this spaceship game far too seriously, all this meta gaming and the sheer amount of effort that goes into the upkeep of all the infrastructure is mind staggering.

The philosophy is also radically different to my play style - in goons you are one of ten thousand others and your contribution is completely insignificant unless you are a key member then its probably more a job than a game
So if you like, you could say Goons are EVE in easy mode - you get everything for free, get told what to do, where to be, what ship to fly (its even on contract for you to claim already fitted) - no individuality, no real impact, no real consequence, no point (for me).

Goons provide "content" in form of direction, materials, security, infrastructure and identity with a group for players that would not normally stay in a sandbox game for long periods of time and for that they are great. But I would rather fight against them than join them .

Lol? Just saw how bad you guys lose nearly every engagements on zkillboard... Heck today we wiped both your fleets...

I am thinking my personal mantra that every year I am not older, just more immature. I dont get it when taken seriously, but what they say is good ol smacktalk, fun if in good sport. Even I like mutual smacktalk on occasion

I think the main reasons goons are still a powerhouse is pretty simple.

The entire CFC/Imperium is, in my experience, based around one simple premise:

Never Not Bring A Rifter.

If the best ship you can fly is a T1 EWAR or Tackle frigate, there's a place for you in every Imperium fleet doctrine with the sole exceptions of BLOPS and Capital fleets.

Goons have done a lot of theorycrafting (and field experiments) about how to best weaponise and utilise newbie players with limited skillpoints and they've done this very, very well. The Celestis doctrine known as FuckYouFleet is another example. A newbie with a couple of days training can take their place in a FYF. I'll leave it for those who've been on the receiving end of a hundred newbies crazed up on the power of Sensor Dampeners to elaborate on just what an effective support fleet the FYF truly is.

Throw in the very comprehensive Ship Replacement Policy along with the numerous ISK making opportunities in 0.0 space and it's a tempting organisation to join.

The other main strength is the nature of the SIG (Special Interest Group) system. Pretty much every Imperium member is also a member of one or more SIGs. ******* Squad for the AUTZ is but one example. The benefit here is that members get to know those in other corporations and alliances in the coalition. So, if a corp or even an entire CFC alliance failcascades, the SIGs serve to find new homes for people and keep them within the coalition as a whole.

It's been mentioned, but I'd love to have an IT wing at my small business with the talent and dedication of the Goons' IT'bros.

Having been on both sides (the grrr Goons, and then allied with goons), this is pretty much it. Add on that goons bring in new people and support these new players very well and you have a successful group of players who can come back from serious losses whereas other groups can't.

Look at the BoB corps, they are mere shadows of their former selves (or are even dead). They just did not have the cohesion and culture that goons do. To be quite honest a number of old BoB corps hated each other near the end of IT Alliance.