EVE Blog Banter #22: Corporate Loyalty

Welcome to the twenty-second installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month topic is brought to us by L'Dene Bean of Nitpickin's who asks: Why, and how did you pick your corporation? Is your loyalty solid or just until a better placed organization "recruits" you. The shorter version:  Who holds your Unshakable Fealty and why?

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        I've been playing EVE for nearly nine months now, but I still feel like a newbie. Call it a disciplined newbie. My initial corporation was a real-life group of coworkers playing together. We made a pact to train up characters in specified roles and kick some ass as a tight-knit group.

        That was the plan, anyway.

        Turns out that many of my coworkers were either too impatient, too bored, or too disinterested to continue playing EVE. My CEO moved on to join Dreddit, and left the corporation in my hands. I continued on solo. I became a decent mission runner, eventually able to handle Level 4's alone without a problem.

        Then I hit a mental brick wall. What was I trying to accomplish? How the hell did I end up here? As a solo pilot with his own corporation, there isn't much to accomplish. Running missions is about as boring as grinding daily quests in World of Warcraft, which I wasn't about to pick up again. I kept telling my bored coworkers that all they needed was a good large-scale war to pique their interest, but I wasn't taking that advice myself. Then my former CEO contacted me and invited me to join Dreddit with him. All I needed was a Reddit account. I figured, what the hell. I've had enough of highsec. Let's make it interesting and jump straight to null. So that's exactly what I did. I sold my highsec assets, I resigned from my corporation, and I flew to nullsec in a Reaper with nothing more than the ISK in my wallet.

        Out here I've had a blast. But the question brought up in this banter interests me. Is my loyalty to Dreddit solid? For the moment it is. I won't consider myself a decent fighter pilot until I have a year's worth of additional Perception skills under my belt - right now I feel inadequate because I can't fly the ships I want and I can't fit them the way I want. Dreddit allows me to feel relatively safe in nullsec, with it currently being the largest single corporation in the game. It's like EVE University with a vengeance. Would I ever leave it? Maybe, but not for now.

        Overall, I feel that EVE corporate loyalty is a lot like real-life company loyalty. If you're not happy with it, it's hard to get them to change things, and you're usually better off leaving; though it's never wise to tell them that.

        Of course other cultures have other views. The Japanese are fiercely loyal to their companies, to the point that the ultra-capitalist Caldari are modeled after their practices. A salaryman is referred to his job title before his name. They stay in the same company for life. They take care of their company, and their company takes care of them. Rather than fire a bad employee, the company is compelled to work things out with them and come to an agreeable solution.

        We Americans are much more selfish. A bad employee is a liability to a corporation, and they will gladly cut their losses. A person working in a job that does not treat them well or pay them well will seek out another.

        EVE is much more harsh.  You can do a lot more damage to an EVE corp than you can to a real company without being sued for it - theft, espionage, sabotage, conflicts of interest, corporate coups, convincing other employees to leave, working for competitors after you quit, etc. Likewise, a vindictive corp can wardec you after you leave it, or even hire a mercenary group to ensure you never have a safe trip outside a station again. Loyalty goes both ways.

        My personal view on corporate loyalty is that EVE is primarily a game meant to entertain me. Thus my corporation must be entertaining and engaging. However I will not be able to devote a lot of time to it. I already did the game-feels-like-a-second-job thing with World of Warcraft. EVE is a social game, so it is both the individual people and the group mentality that will be judged by my loyalty, combined with the ambition of what I want to do. If all of those match, then things are cool. I'm in a learner's corporation with plenty of people who have similar attitudes. I feel I'm in a good place so far.

Other responses to EVE Blog Banter #22:


Nitpickin's: Who holds your Unshakable Fealty and Why?
The Elitist: Corp Loyalty (Oh how original)

A Scientist's Life in EVE: Corporation Loyalty - Brothers and Sisters till the end?

Evil Silents: Corp Loyalty

Progression's Horizon: Loyal til Underverse Come
Chocolate Heaven: Arise Lady Chumpington
Diary of a Garbageman: Corp (dis)loyalty
Interstellar Privateer: Not a Nice Game
Sarnel Binora's Blog: Corporation Guilt?
EVEOGANDA: Corp Loyalty
Free 2 Kill: Where Does Blood Run Thickest?
A Mule in EVE: Loyalty Isn't For Sale
An Amarrian Capsuleer: Corporation Cooperation
A Merry Life and a Short One: Lie Back and Think of England
The Reformed Anti-Pirate: Loyalty
Drifting Through the Stars: Corporation Loyalty - Brothers and Sisters till the end?