Starting a new corporation is not an easy task. Even with veterans of Eve, beginning something new while creating the infrastructure, and willing a corporation into existence requires tremendous effort. Combine that with the monumental task of building an alliance from scratch at the same time, and even a veteran is in for an extremely demanding challenge.
My name is Kasken, and I have spent the last two months trying to accomplish just that. I began with a month old corporation and a vision; Eve has become stagnant and toxic. Elitist attitudes and obnoxious alliance chats have become the norm. I started building my own corporation and then my own alliance to create a place in which I could once again enjoy the wonders of Eve.
Ignoring even the challenges of growing and building a corporation at the same time, alliance challenges are extremely intense by themselves. For starters, how does one recruit corporations into a small irrelevant alliance no one has heard of? The same recruitment issues corporations face are faced by alliances, only on a grander scale.
Diplomatic Immunity is my alliance that faced and still faces these issues. We began as a single corporation alliance with no notoriety or member count to speak of. Even as experienced leadership, with contacts around Eve, convincing a corporation to join an alliance that currently has no assets, very little infrastructure, and nothing to actually offer is…beyond challenging.
The question of “how do I grow my alliance?” glares at me on a daily basis. The usual methods were used of course, post on recruitment forums, spam recruitment channel, and reach out to any known contacts. With very little to offer, and Eve’s current “risk averse” attitude, convincing a corporation to take such a huge risk with the potential for such little reward is almost impossible.
Eve has become risk averse in the sense people tend to not want to risk assets, pilots, and gain in-game on a chance of something potentially being better. Over the last decade Eve has grown slowly into larger power blocs. Humanity as a whole groups together for safety and numbers & Eve is no exception to that instinct. People hoard their treasures in Eve, like Gollum and his precious one ring. Convincing someone to part with this treasure in order to promote a chance of future success feels like an impossible task.
Once a corporation is convinced to join and they do so, the long, slow process of building momentum begins. As each corporation joins and the member count goes up, it becomes easier to recruit corporations. Eventually corporations begin to approach the alliance and recruitment becomes almost self-sustaining. This critical mass takes quite a while to reach however. For example, my alliance is not yet at this stage, as several factors play into self-sustainability. Not only must the member count be there, but relevance in the world of Eve, killboard stats, SRP programs, and general reputation all come into play.
The majority of the elements a corporation looks for, especially PvP corporations, when joining an alliance, require significant pre-existing membership. SRP programs are also huge for PvP corporations. In order to fund these programs, an alliance must be able to take and hold “money moons” to support the cost of replacing ships. A group cannot take and hold moons without having the member base to do so. Gaining alliance-level income often results in managing a substantial amount of smaller, less ISK-generating moons as a temporary measure. No one wants to deal with 100 platinum moons to maintain alliance-level income.
Quality over quantity is also a question that must be answered. Mass recruiting corporations could turn an alliance into a Brave-style noob fest, where thousands of members are there, yet all flying Maulus & Atrons. Being overly picky in quality will create an issue where an alliance can fly all the high end ships, but lack the numbers to make them work realistically as doctrine.
Deciding where to draw the line between needing member corporations and the level of skill the alliance requires is a tough thing to do. It is a fine line between keeping the current members, growing, and allowing the alliance to progress in a fashion that works for everyone. Diplomatic Immunity is still struggling slightly with corporate recruiting and maintaining as a result of trying to keep slightly higher standards in order to further our own goals. This is a problem I personally have yet to solve, as I have not found a reliable way yet to convince corporations that taking a chance or a risk is the best way to go. We have a decent recruitment pitch and a solid plan for achieving our goals, but pushing corporations over that edge into taking the plunge is not an easy process. Each group must find their own approach that works. Diplomatic Immunity is still working on this as well, as there is no easy solution.
Another subject that I have personally witnessed can cause major issues is communication. As an executor, I have certain ideas, rules, and alliance level plans. As additional leadership is appointed, if communication is not extremely clear and flowing, people start diverging. It is barely noticeable at first, but as each person continues along their own paths and goals, major splits can occur resulting in bitter arguments that end in a sundering.
It is absolutely critical alliance leadership communicates with each other and their member corporations. Corporations that don’t know or understand the “big picture” start to feel lost, bored, and eventually unhappy. As information doesn’t flow downhill, people lose their way and it leads to the beginnings of the end. That is a death sentence for a young alliance struggling to get its feet under them. Without this critical communication, corporations begin to drift and die. I have learned this first hand. The executor, as well as anyone in leadership must communicate effectively, clearly, and most importantly… often. Leaders must make a conscious effort to keep everyone in the loop, and maintain their understanding of the vision for the alliance.
A fresh alliance starting from scratch faces significant challenges getting off the ground. Odds are stacked against success, and it takes extremely dedicated leadership and players willing to shoulder a huge burden to keep things moving and flowing. Burnout is a strong possibility while trying to build and maintain a startup alliance. Without the amazing directors we have helping us out, our alliance would be in significantly worse shape than it currently is.
Commitment is another key to success. Things will not go smoothly. There will be major obstacles and hurdles. The key is not to give up. Things unexpected will happen. Corporations will not have the fortitude to gut out the rough patches and leave. The alliance leadership has to have the determination to weather these storms, and still keep building and progressing regardless of the setbacks. Diplomatic Immunity lost a major corporation and two smaller corporations to Triumvirate. People thought we were ‘fail cascading’ because we lost roughly a third of our member base.
I could have closed our doors and said, that is it, DIP is done. Instead, we now own sovereignty in five systems, including two stations. A new corporation is in the process of joining, and we’re in discussions with others. Leadership that is in it until the end, working for it knowing how difficult it will be is completely critical. Regardless of who joins or leaves, I for example, have put billions of ISK and real world money into the alliance for IT services. Commitment is key to making sure an alliance succeeds and continues along the planned vision.
Is the end result worth it? That is for each Eve player to decide. For me, as a bittervet, this was my chance to finally and fully make my mark on Eve. It is giving me goals and a reason to continue playing again. I absolutely love the challenge, and as hard and frustrating as it is, I currently wouldn’t want it any other way. Creating a corporation and alliance from nothing is an extremely difficult, but very fulfilling proposition that must be undertaken knowing the inherent extreme difficulty. To any and all who are willing to go this route, I encourage you, but without the ability to dedicate a significant chunk of personal resources and time, it will fail. However, if you can get it to succeed…
