An Amarrian Capsuleer

Blog Banter 29 - Hooked

2011-10-05T05:25:00.000-07:00

"EVE Online is renowned for it's depth. Its backstory, gameplay and social aspects are all qualities that draw players in. What does immersion in EVE Online mean to you?"

When I saw this question posed, the first thing that came to mind is "When playing Eve Online, when are you not considered 'immersed?

The charismatic leaders of large power bloc alliances are no more and no less than that. You look at another pilot in game and pose that they aren't who they say they are. Interactions with others is often a result of who we are and what we do in Eve. Here are my two examples:

1. The construction worker in Real Life who happens to play Eve doesn't receive social status or power in the game because of what he does for work. His status in the game depends on who he is in Eve Online. Though that job may not be on par with what the average man does in real life, his role in Eve may be far different (Corporate CEO, for example). This encompassing of one's self in a virtual world has the power to unlock qualities and traits in ourselves that we never knew we had in the Real World.

The super celeb's in Eve, those that run the lotteries, the exchanges, the third-party platforms (the veritable 'Oil Barons' of New Eden) may collect massive amounts of isk and command respect across many regions. Though most of these people are self-proclaimed unemployed children living in their parents basement, such information about their outside lives carries no weight in the in-game world. Unemployed and child-like all they want, it doesn't change the fact they've achieved their status and power in the game, and any affairs that must go through them (lotteries, high-dollar item-exchange) are unaffected by RL

To put the two pieces together and draw the conclusion, immersion denotes that one immerses one's life in a virtual world. In that case, I feel that immersion is not the right word at all. The light-hearted term I would pick would be "happy distraction."

When I log in to Eve, though often riddled with the challenges that a Corp and Alliance CEO faces daily, I am not dealing with my team at work, my family, school, drama on facebook and all. I log in an I'm Ranis, though not a roleplayer, I respond to that name. I behave as I would if I were a pilot in New Eden, either consciously or not. When I log in, I'm someone else - which makes Eve a happy distraction from all the bull.

The way I see it, at least I'm not playing World of Warcraft. =)

Blog Banter 28 - The Creators and the Created

2011-09-09T11:21:00.000-07:00

In recent months, the relationship between CCP and it's customers has been the subject of some controversy. The player-elected Council of Stellar Management has played a key role in these events, but not for the first time they are finding CCP difficult to deal with. What effect will CCP's recent strategies have on the future of EVE Online and it's player-base? What part can and should the CSM play in shaping that future? How best can EVE Online's continued health and growth be assured?

I think the question is not so much about how the creators of a video game are going to best interact with their consumer-base, I find that this question has bigger implications. The EVE player-base is critical to CCP's success. Without those who play the game, the company fails. From a player-standpoint, when a company stops providing the best product for its consumers, its time to find a new producer. Thus, it makes sense that CCP created the CSM.

When the CSM has difficulty dealing with those it is present to deal with, it creates a strange situation for CCP. Lets remember that the CSM is groundbreaking, an idea that (to my knowledge) has never been done before. No other video-game producing company has gone to such lengths to hear-out their players. The idea alone used to be enough to keep some people going with CCP. "They care about my opinions, which is why they have the CSM."

CCP needs to be clear - the CSM is, for better or for worse, the embodiment of the entire Eve Online Player Base. If CCP smites an idea of the CSM, or worse, a concern that the CSM brings up, then they are in turn smiting the entire Player Base.

I think that the CSM should be as key a portion of the CCP team as the Design team, artwork and story teams, etc. For something to break ground with CCP in a release, the CSM should have a hand in it. But as such, CCP need to broaden the CSM horizons further. If E-Online's continued health and growth are to be assured, then CCP must ensure that the CSM consists of people from ALL walks of Eve Life, not just Goons, Test, BDeal, and the ebil Russians. There needs to be input from smaller alliances, corps, and new players - what will cause Eve to grow is these smaller groups being able to grow with ease, rather than having tools in place to sustain the big-guys. Ideally, it should be harder to maintain super-alliances... but that is a different topic altogether.

If Eve is to continue to be a cutting-edge game that we all know, love, and hate... then CCP needs to ensure that the game is taking some directional advice from the most important people around in the universe - the players.

CCP, always be ignorant of your players wishes... unless you're literate. Never be literate. #sarcasm

S.O.V.

2011-07-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

You know its been crazy, both in real life and in 'Eve Life' when your alliance gets sovereignty and upgrades it to strategic level 3 before you can even post about it on your blog that has been tucked away somewhere on the internet.

For all the shit I've given CEO's in the past who have held sov, let me apologize now. It's a lot harder than it looks.

Keys to Being a Successful CEO

2011-04-14T03:27:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years, I've learned a lot about being a CEO. You need to have eyes in the back of your head, be diplomatic, this, that and the other.

I think what caught me off guard as being a CEO is the large amount of time you need to be focusing on recruiting. Even after you reach your desired member count, your recruiting does not stop there. It goes on for retention, morale, and rewards.

Basically, for any new CEO's out there, ensure that you have someone in your corporation that is assigned the recruiter roles, and that you are communicating with that person about your personnel requirements and expectations. "One out, One in" is a common rule to maintain personnel levels, another one for expansion is for every 1 player who leaves (for whatever reason: inactivity, RL, they want to pirate, ect) you bring on two new players to replace him. This way, turnover turns into growth. The problem is if these people are leaving due to morale, you will be recruiting 10 times harder than you need to.

The Three Keys to Retention:

Active Recruiting

Recruiting can be done in dozens of different ways, and doesn't have to be tedious. Pitching in as a team and doing recruitment drives really helps to balance the work load, and if you're focusing on quality over quantity, you will have a solid member base in no time.

Active Member Base

A member base that is online frequently and that does ops together, communicates using voice, and learns how the rest of the team works is more likely to be successful in helping to retain an individual than almost any thing else.

Efficient Problem Resolution

If problems arise in your team, and they will, the key is to resolving them swiftly. Most CEO's I know get blindsided by problems they didn't even know existed. By mandating that each member of your Leadership Team have an open door policy about issues, as well as providing an anonymous email address or feedback form, players will be able and comfortable coming to you with their concerns and will thus feel like they aren't a wallflower within your corporation.

---

Take this advise as a guideline. There are too many things to keep in mind when being a CEO. Best thing is that if you are diplomatic and you always approach new situations with an open mind, then you should do fine. When you hit speed bumps, they hurt. You just gotta get back up and keep on truckin'. And when the going get tough, the tough grab Corona's and head to Providence.

The Overview

2011-03-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

Who else remembers the blog-post by Kirith Kodachi about the new Overview?

Basically, its about how different ships should get different icons in the overview. I know it made it to the Test Server. How long is it going to take CCP to release this to the live server?

In addition to this, I remember them talking about a Beta Tested NeoCom. I run a mac, and their is no option to activate a new neocom.

CCP - Please spend more time bringing the Mac Client up to par with the PC client. The software and hardware are superior on a Mac, why cant the client be superior? Or screw superior. How bout 'on par!'

<3 BFF4EVER!

Amarrian Proverb #158

2011-03-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

If you, upon meeting another man, speak with force in your words, you will knock him off his feet. Losing balance, he will want to push back with force in his tone and verbiage as well.

If you, upon meeting a man, stand side by side with him, you will see his point of view, and he will yours. You both will be able to walk together to a destination, than stand in one spot pushing each other back and forth.

The Human Resource

2011-03-18T10:22:00.000-07:00

It's easy to get drawn in as an industry player by an array of different resources for production; minerals, ores, ice, gas. All serving a purpose to drive us in New Eden to the inevitable pewpew while in constant pursuit of the almighty isk.

Its equally easy to get distracted as a PvP'er by the never ending hunger to lock down the perfect target with you and your buddies, say the word and extract tears as someones hard-earned ship vaporizes into a cloud of gas, fumes, and essential fluids.

I've made the observation that Corporation's in New Eden tend to underestimate EVE's most valuable resource: The Human Resource.

Many corporation's get a solid group of players and think "That's it. We've recruited. Lets go blow shit up/mine/rat/mission." Down the line, however, these people will tend to run into a very real problem. By fault of inactivity, Real Life, family agro, burn out, or conflict, your people may very well fall off the map for you.

Many CEO's, myself included, have neglected the idea that major businesses in the world have long considered a principal rule-of-thumb: one-out, one-in. This meaning that once you lose an employee (or in our case, a player), you immediately begin the process of replacing him.

Now everyone here knows that recruitment and HR management (Yes, I used that term) in EVE is not so simple as to be governed by one rule. But this is a good starting point for CEO's who may have let recruiting and personnel management become a back-burner issue. I highly recommend that CEO's make this a top priority. Allow me to explain.

Last month, Genesis Invictus was hit hard with a war that came from within. We were wardec'd by a member of one of our member corps. The individual was frustrated at some of our policies and our handling of certain situations. While most of leadership, myself included, felt his concerns with overly critical and unwarranted, he felt that it was a very real problem. We, as an alliance, failed to provide adequate means for this individual to have his concerns seriously considered. As such, he hired a merc to wardec us without us knowing.

The Merc was very good, and long story short, he was able to cripple our industry wing and our navy that we had put together. Due to poor HRM infrastructure in our alliance, a grievance turned into something that put our alliance on life-support.

Currently we are getting things back on track, but due to poor investments in recruitment and HRM, we are now finding ourselves back to square one, recruiting new players, posting our recruitment ad in the eve-o forums, ect.

The moral of this story: its critical to consider the most valuable and potentially lethal resource that we have available to us in this game. Other Human Beings.

For those out there that feel that corporations in Eve are just pixilated internet spaceship groups of strangers... for the most part you're right. But there is a new, very real aspect that many of us are exploring as CEO's. The idea that in order to be a successful internet spaceship support group for wayward gamers (corporation for short), you need to have a functioning and effective Human Resource Element to the organization.

Interview with Candidate Ms Pacman for CSM6

2011-03-07T21:21:00.000-08:00

Earlier today, I had the chance to interview Ms Pacman, current candidate for CSM6. She appears to share some core values, but on her platform, there were vague points that I wanted to address. In the following interview, she does well addressing my questions.

Although there are some topics that I think are too ambitious at this current time, the premise that she is ready, willing, and able to see past disagreements and come to stronger conclusions is why she will most likely have my vote come voting time.

Here it is:

Thank you for your willingness to answer a few interview questions. As you know, CSM is growing more and more important for players in EVE and the issues are piling up. The following questions are to make my readers understand what exactly will be done to fix the broken aspects of this game.

1. You say you want to increase the value of null sec by increasing Neo/Tech moons. How you do think this will impact the player base? How will this make null sec more attractive for Empire Organizations?

Technetium and Neodymium, two moon minerals in two very geographically specific regions, own them and you own the game. You make so much money from them that your pvp players effectively fly for free. An outsider in empire can't compete with that. They never have to take a break because the money flows so easily. By seeding more of these moons all over null sec the value of these moon products will go down. As an example: I personally own the Hulk BPO since 2005. In the beginning I could sell Hulks on market for 550M isk.

Later in game Invention got introduced and the Hulk price went down 120M isk (back then) as a result. In addition: Currently it is even not profitable to produce hulks or other T2 ships when you have to buy your materials from the empire market. When there will be more neo/tech moons going to be seeded through all of null sec the same will happen as that happened with my hulk sales value. So what it does is that the current null sec power alliances their isk printing neo/tech moons will become less valuable and so their dominating power (caused by this form of income) will drain out.

Also as a result that market prices will drop in empire everyone will get the opportunity to make better profit on selling T2 ships or to buy a T2 ship in empire from people that got a T2 bpc from their agent. How null sec will become more attractive for empire corporations has to be seen in a bigger picture. There is more than one measure needed to make this work. To get a better insight people should read my page at evelopedia: http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Ms_PacMan_(Character) In order to make the whole idea work in my manifest there will have to be implemented a kind of transition period serving both nullsec and empire.

2. You state in your manifest that you want to make it harder to maintain coalitions of alliances. How do you plan to attack this issue? What changes will you be proposing?

Coalitions of Alliances is the axis of all evil in game and is the main reason why empire corporations and small alliances cannot settle themselves independently in null sec. The only way to get access to null sec is to join an existing null sec alliance but your corp will be used as cannon fodder. Coalition of alliances causing blob wars and are the reason there are lag issues, making it much harder to maintain coalitions will solve a lot what lag and ‘blob’concerns. How to fix: First of all to make changes to the overview. If you are in null sec everyone not in your alliance will appear red but this won’t be enough as the power alliances have enhanced methods outside of eve but a good side effect of being red to your coalition partners outside empire en low sec will be that they no longer will be able to use eachothers jumpbridge networks, make use of eachothers pos’s.

3. Renter-space is a problem that most of us agree on. How would you end it, seeing how it is acceptable through current game-mechanics?

Ending renter-space will need a transition period, serving all parties involved. Perhaps with my solution it will even stay possible to rent space but with a total different setup and on a way smaller scale. At least during the transition period the renting of space will have to go through ‘rent slots’. A rent slot will affect a system that is under sovereignty of an alliance. The alliance will have a limited number of rent slots that they can offer to corporations that are not member of the alliance (3rd party corporations). Rent fee’s will have a limit this way and extravagant fees like 5 billion a month will be history. 3rd party corporations will appear , say, yellow to the landlord alliance and vice versa at the overview. (in my manifest there is a larger setup plan about this matter) I agree that this does not completely answer your question about seeing how it is possible through current game mechanics but again it will be the pack of solutions provided that will aid in this. When power alliances no longer have exorbitant income from neo/tech moons rent space as it is today can no longer be guaranteed by them, concerning regional stability.

4. You want to eliminate power blocks and vacuums. What is your definition of "Power Block?" How would you end them?

My definition of a power block is that it is currently impossible for small alliances to fight their way into null sec and claim some space after victory. My pack of solutions and the transition period will cause that Very Large Alliances will dry out. Smaller but more alliances will settle in null sec that will bring back ‘fun pvp’ instead of the annoying daily mandatory cta’s.

5. What methods would you bring up in Iceland that would help give empire corporations and alliances a fair chance at settling in null sec?

Most of CCP´s resources are currently not invested in Eve. CCP perfectly knows what the problems are in game they won´t need me or that to tell them. I do think however that they are unable to think out of the box and that’s what we will have to do with CSM-6 working on an enhanced edition of my pack of plans, presenting them the total solution, worked out based on few programming time.

6. Finally more of a question for entertainment. Who do you want to win the next Alliance Tournament?

The alliance tournament has become a toy for the oil barons and sheiks of Eve. I hope in better times that your alliance will become 2nd in the finale against my alliance.

Last day with this face...

2011-01-17T23:55:00.000-08:00

So with the new year brings new faces. I felt compelled to post in Ranis' final hours as being the hooded, mysterious amarrian that has seen so much in New Eden.

From the rise and fall of ITO, the creation and rebellion in GalSpan, and learning all the lessons from TIC and NBS, and boiling it all down into my most successful organization on any game or platform. Ranis' face has been the face that coincided with much good and plenty of bad.

I dont know how I feel about making his face viewable via the new character creator that is being deployed right now as I write this.

I guess there are perks to it, but still. Ranis' cartoony looking face has been iconic in the rise and fall, and eventual rise of many corporations. I feel that with this change, a part of the past is disappearing.

Talking wont change it. Just felt the need to have my reservations put on the record.

Sleep. Homework. Food. Eve. Sleep. Work.

Six words to sum up the next 48 hours.

First Post!!!

2011-01-14T06:12:00.000-08:00

First post of the new year. I know its late. But I've been busy in game. Not necessarily a bad thing. =)

I promise to keep posting more and more. I've sorta fell off the boat as of late, but now I'm back on board, and ready to get things rolling.

What to expect here soon...

First, a post relating Human Resources and Personal Development to the Eve Online Community.

Later, (or sooner) look out for CK's Blog Banter Post. I have it, but it isnt finished. It will be and I'll be throwing it out there here soon.

But now, I will give you something to work with. Its this years very first Track of the Week. I've gotten such good feedback thus far from the TOTW bit, so we're gunna stick with it.

The track: Summertime Rolls
The artist: Losers
The mix: Hybrid Soundsystem Remix

And finally, this blog hits a milestone. 1,000 visits! Thanks for the support and motivation to keep doing this.

Fly safe, and expect posts as soon as tomorrow!

BB#23: Incarna

2010-12-16T13:04:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the twenty-third 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!

With Incursion giving us glimpses of what Incarna will have to offer (the the Character Creator), this month's topic, by @Minerpewpew, comes just at the right time. He asks "What are your thoughts on how Incarna will effect the current EVE Online social dynamic?" I'd like to see this questioning go a bit further. How will this affect EVE's player base? Who will Incarna attract? New players to the genre? Seduce old players back into the game? Will we see new players come in that will never leave their station? Please explore to the best of your abilities!

Incarna: No Results Found
Incarnate:

–adjective

embodied in flesh; given a bodily, esp. a human, form: a devil incarnate.

personified or typified, as a quality or idea: chivalry incarnate.

flesh-colored or crimson.

With this being said, this, from what I can tell, it going to primarily affect people who are Role Players or who RP from time to time (like myself). Incarna is giving these people more tools to create live-fiction (my nice little saying for Role Playing). I know that its going to difficult for myself to avoid the temptation to imagine meeting with hostile CEO's in a neutral station to form NAP's.

I feel though that the effect it will have on me and my playstyle, is that there will be a slightly higher connection with those who play with you. They are going to no-longer be represented by a mere avatar; a snapshot of some grainy, cartoony-looking character from "some time ago." They are actually going to be represented by a body, one that they can move around and manipulate.

As a CEO by career in EVE, I find it enjoyable to work with other players who immerse themselves a little more than usual. Its a little more entertaining for me to work with players that have a form of composure in the game, rather than drunken tyrants that run their corp off a "strikt kode of booze and tits." People like that have a composure that sometimes you may find difficult to spot right away until you are in channel with them. Incarna may add dynamic to that, seeing how you will be able to spot these people who may be tea bagging the floor of these stations, running in circles, and behaving strangely, because now they are represented by a human figure walking through a station.

Going back to the dictionary definition of Incarnate, I think incarna will personify those whom may not align to your play style by allowing them to represent themselves poorly in public view. For example, "That guy is GoonSwarm Incarnate" or "...USHRA Incarnate." I can see some of these terms becoming insults in the future.

But who knows. Eve is much like the real world, and throws curve balls when you least expect them. It could have a much more neutral impact, or it could indeed keep people in stations. After all, why fly in space when I "can lose my shiny Navy Issue Apoc."

To sum it up for all the tl;dr folks...

Incarna will impact RP'ers more than anything in my opinion.

But I welcome your feedback! RanisGarr@gmail.com

Tune of The Week #2

2010-12-15T20:05:00.000-08:00

Tiesto vs Deep Dish - I Will Say Hello

I couldnt get a better quality.. but I love the song. Enjoy!

Seeking help...

2010-12-08T13:37:00.001-08:00

Alright, I'll just lay it out, no dancing around the topic.

I would like to find a script, code, or applet that will let me create a marquee like the one Eve-Metrics uses on the bottom of their home page.

Anyone have any idea how to accomplish this? I might just have some cash (ISK) put away to donate to someone who can help out.

Please email me at RanisGarr@gmail.com

She went down with her ship and her... crew?

2010-12-04T17:37:00.000-08:00

As I went over in my last post, I bought The Burning Life yesterday aside from concerns that points of view in the book would conflict with my own points of view about the RP side of EVE. After reading onward while at work today, one of these concerns came to light.

Crewmen.

I have always imagined a Starship as being something operated by a super powerful human being immersed in a shell filled with goo (ie - a capsuleer). What gave the wonderment of capsuleers for me was that we/they fly in pods that were (in my mind) capable of doing things at a far more powerful and effective rate than we can possibly imagine now. One pod, less than 3 meters tall by 2.5 meters wide could provide all the operational power and capacity to command a ship that is up to many kilometers in length.

The Burning Life has its own views.

They state that a ship is piloted by a capsuleer and that the ship has a crew that runs the most basic of tasks; cleanup, ect.

Now I know I am going to get the comment here eventually from the guy who finds 'it clearly states in paragraph 5, section XIII of the 28th Chronicle that capsuleers depend on their crew for many functions of their internet spaceships!!!!!!1111oneoneoneeleventyone!' But my concern is that there is no real in game function for a crew... why even consider having them.

Other than to satisfy the Trek-Geek in all of us that wants to imagine commanding our carriers into battle from an actual bridge.

But that feels like another game, and another universe, for me. Im going to keep reading on with the book, but with you reading this from your computer/laptop from [insert city/state],[Country Here] , My concerns have been voiced!

=) If you've read the book and have an opinion about this topic as well, please let me know, without spoiling anything please.

The Burning Life

2010-12-03T20:36:00.000-08:00

Just picked up "The Burning Life" today. I'm not sure what to thin about it as I have heard mixed reviews about the book. A corp mate of mine has been reading both this one and "Empyrean Age" and says he likes The Burning Life better. Too much NAMBLA in E.A.

Beforehand I couldn't see myself reading an Eve novel. Something about the idea of reading other people's perceptions of how the fiction of the game might or should be bothers me. Or at least it did. Reading through the first couple of pages I already see references to something that makes me ease up on those reservations though.

"Holoposters"

Like digital picture frames I guess.

One way or another, I guess its about seeing someone's connection to the game and how they perceive how 'life' might be if the game were anything other than fiction. It cant be any different from reading my fellow bloggers' fictional posts or having them read mine.

Guess I caved. Might as well enjoy the ride.

CK has my support

2010-12-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

To all the crazies that want CK to turn in his intarwebz, shove it. CK is a great guy. We need more of his intarwebz and less of the trolls that have nothing better to do. Keep up the good work CK.

Tune of the Week

2010-11-14T10:45:00.000-08:00

Some of you may know me in game or in real life.

Those of you that do know Im a DJ, Producer, and avid fan of dance music. That, and I have the best taste in Dance Music... ;-)

That being said, Im going to start a new bit on my blog called the "Tune of the Week"

Here we go. Listen and ENJOY!

Myon & Shane 54 - Kippenvelmeter (Armada)

Bogged Down

2010-11-11T12:50:00.000-08:00

So, waiting for my next edition of EON to be shipped to my door, and got curious. I know they put an article for "healthy gaming" more or less, so I was wondering.

Is there any way to balance (effectively) work, your friends/family, and EVE?

I ask because I've begun dating someone, applied to go back to school (Which starts soon) and I work full time. Adding to this, I am CEO of a corporation in EVE and soon to be an Alliance CEO.

I play eve for fun, and managing large organization of real people is fun to me. I dont spend every moment of free time on EVE, but I sure dont spend as much as I used to. My concern is, with adding a significant other and school into my 'work/home/friends/eve/eat/sleep' routine that I might burn out... either that or go postal.

The logical answer is 'spend less time on EVE.' Not going to happen... I spend a couple hours every few days on EVE, and spend just as much time with friends, family, ect. I guess to change the question in order to get the answers I'm really looking for I'll ask this...

"How do you make EVE fit into your busy schedule?"

I look forward to your answers. Email to RanisGarr@gmail.com or comment them, and perhaps I'll make a new post breaking one of these answers down.

CNN... of New Eden?

2010-11-03T05:28:00.000-07:00

I've been watching a whole lot of news (its elections in the US. What can I say?) lately and I've been reading a bunch of the in game news.

I want to open up a can of worms for questioning. We all know the in-game news corporation The Scope is the leader in bringing us news about 0.0. But how hard can it be to lead the news industry in EvE when you are the news industry.

Should there be competition with The Scope from the player base, whether in the form of a joint Blog with multiple authors, or an actual corporation that dishes out real information that pertains to what the player base wants to read about or talk about?

Please give feedback either in comments or by submitting them to RanisGarr@gmail.com

On The Current State of EGO

2010-10-30T16:59:00.000-07:00

Good evening followers, friends, and random people who may be reading this on a feed somewhere far far away.

I would like to take the time to post current thoughts on the state of EGO Alliance.

From what I have seen, an alliances goal, first and foremost, usually is to group people together to accomplish a goal that, on their own, corporations and individuals are unable to accomplish. Its what led IT to become over 5000 players strong, its what led CVA to govern an entire region, and its what drove Goonswarm to... do whatever significant thing it was that Goonswarm did.

But what Im seeing from EGO is a group of very talented players, who lack numbers and a definitive goal. I think what could drive this alliance into the major alliance stage would be a simple, measurable goal to achieve and strive for. It doesnt have to be big or fancy or elaborate. Something simple, like "Become the largest alliance in Eve," or "Annex __________ Region."

Hefty goals, but they give people a sense of what they are working towards.

Without goals like this, people log on to their subscription MMO and dont really do anything that is meaningful to either their corporation or alliance. The exception to this rule would be the inner circle of people who work together almost daily in the alliance. They may drive for....something. But what impact does that have on achieving any type of 'end game?' If it has anything to do with it, its minute at best.

In my honest opinion, Arrogance needs to find a temporary home that is easily accessible by others, recruit players to not only our corporations, but our alliance, and then set our eyes for a bit of 0.0 somewhere in New Eden, and then go for it. Hot drops, caps, camps, bubbles, everything.

Ambitious, maybe? But I wouldnt be where I am today if I took an overly cautious approach to everything.

Blog Banter 22: Corporation Cooperation

2010-10-26T09:12:00.000-07:00

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?

Well, first off, let me say that I am excited to post about my first Blog Banter. I’m lucky as this one caught my eye. For anyone who knows me either in real life or in EVE, you will know that I am fervent about organization and team building. I think it stems from what I do in real life. I am fascinated by the level of cooperation that Eve almost forces people to achieve. With that being said, I didn’t pick a corp to join. None out there really appealed to me. I have always been a self starter and I wasn’t going to let Eve be any different.

I’ve formed many-a-corporation in my time in Eve, and I viewed each of them as a sort of trial-and-error. My first corporation, The Interstellar Trade Organization (ITO), failed due to poor foresight in the flaws of the structure that I laid out. The next one, GalSpan Inc (GLSN) failed because of a coup d’état. Each of these failed for very solid reasons and gave me valuable lessons as I moved forward in Eve.

My current Corporation, The New Eden Trade Union is nearing one year in its existence. We have already seen many ups and downs, war decs being some of our best moments, and RL issues taking some of our best away from the game would be considered a down-side. But to answer the question laid out: Who holds your Unshakable Fealty and why? My answer would have to be those who step up and help move our corporation forward.

I have made many friends in real life from this corporation, something that has never happened before with any other virtual organization. A friend in game, John Brutorin, after only 6 short months in NETU, ended up (by complete chance) moving to Colorado (Where I live) and now works with me at my real life job. I am both his supervisor in game and in real life, and Im glad to have him as a friend. Another example of this would be a corpmate of mine who I found out lived 5 minutes from me, and who ended up becoming a very close friend.

It goes beyond that though… people in Eve who show a passion for the game and who also yearn for fellowship in an organization have my loyalty, not only as a friend, but as their CEO. I owe it to everyone in that organization to not only be a resource for them in game to allow them to have fun and achieve new goals, but also to be a resource for them as a real friend. That friendship between the people in this group is what sets it apart, and is ultimately what makes Eve worth playing. As I have read in peoples Blogs for many months now, the point of Eve is to "Do stuff...with people."

Kinda long and cheesy, but I think it was a good topic and my answer for this first Blog Banter was dead serious.

If you guys want to learn more about our group and see what we’re all about, let us know.

www.netu-eve.com

Something CCP should Consider

2010-10-16T15:43:00.000-07:00

So recently, I have been toying around with new mail clients, trying to separate my eve-related email, game mails, and recreational information from my personal email which I use for, well, just about everything. I downloaded a new client, ThunderBird (If you havent tried it, I HIGHLY recommend it. And if you know me, thats a big deal. Im very picky about software), and it works very well for keeping stuff separate. While I was toying with it, I came across a great idea that (although probably several years away, if at all possible) would make the game so much more integral into my offline-time.

As if any of us need that to happen. =)

CCP should begin developing a way to funnel a players in-game Evemail into an offline, 3rd party mail client, such as Outlook, ThunderBird, Entourage, ect.

This way, instead of having to go through the whole 'log on to evegate, click, click, click... wait... then look at evemail' we would be able to get it sent directly to us while we are offline.

I want other people opinions on this. Let me know what you think. Maybe if its a hot enough idea we can present it to the CSM and possibly get it on CCP's radar.

Leave comments or email ranisgarr@gmail.com

Thanks guys!

Bounce Back, Part II

2010-10-15T10:17:00.000-07:00

A quick little update on progress on my corporations bounce back from this slump we are in.

In my last edition of Bounce Back, I posted a few goals that we need to focus on in the coming weeks. They included:
-Getting Evals up again
-Getting Green scores in evals
-Discussing census results with leadership
-Staffing Personnel Department
-Assigning TL's and CTL's to fill vacancies

Lets break this down a little bit further and evolve our direction to better fit what we have learned.

1. Getting Evals up again

This one is important. It measures our progress in an honest way, which lets us understand where we need to spend more time fixing problems, and where we need to recognize those people for doing good work. Evaluations may be a pain sometimes, but they show leadership and TM's alike that we are tracking our progress and that we care that progress is being made. To modify this from the last post, I would add "And make the evals available for all Team Members to see."

2. Getting Green scores in Evals

This one is a given. Green scores mean we are doing very proficient in certain aspects in the corporation. Currently, we have an overall score of probably 4 or 5 (out of a compounded 8 points total), so we are sitting at a Red overall score. In all honesty, this will be fixed when people can step up to the plate, and help us to get recruitment, mining, production, pvp, missioning, training, ect... back on the road.

3. Discussing Census Results

This one was a little hasty on my part. Yes, a very good goal for long term growth, but it hindsight, it serves no direct benefit to getting us back on track in the now. Discussing these results is just going to tell us what our corporation already knows. We have a lot of work to do. Still going to keep this goal, but taking it off of our immediate to-do list.

4. Staffing Personnel Department

Probably the highest priority as of right now. I, as CEO, have a lot to work on, from alliance discussion and directional talks, to managing the corporate decisions, direction, and execution as a whole. It would be far too taxing to add "recruiter" to that list of tasks. That is the whole reason we formulated this department in the first place. NETU's Personnel Department is the most crucial department to our corporation's success in coming out of this slump. That being said, I am keeping this as a top priority.

5. Assigning TL's and CTL's

Equally important to just about everything else, as we need leaders to split the workload to take the overall pressure off one-another to complete complex tasks. For now, however, we have an experienced group of DTL's and myself which can take on the more high-level tasks for now (CTL level). We can, however, use Team Leaders. The difficulty in this task is finding people in NETU that have the time to take up an officer-level position. These positions are not overwhelmingly difficult. I work 40 hours a week, preparing for school full time, and I am the CEO of a virtual organization, yet I can still make it work and have fun.

We need to put it out there that you dont have to give up fun and enjoyment in order to be a leader in NETU.

I close this out with a copy of the letter used to stir up interest in helping us move forward. Once again, I will continue to analyze what is work, what isnt, and why.

Taken From: NETU Corporate EveMail
Issuer: CEO of NETU
On Behalf of: NETU Personnel Department
MessageName: The Promise

From: The Office of the Chief Executive Officer
To: The Members of the New Eden Trade Union [NETU]
Subject: A Promise from NETU Leadership
Team,

NETU is nearing its first anniversary, and we have come a long way. For anyone that remembers, we began in Hek as an industrial powerhouse. We moved to Hentogaira to pursue Industrial interests, making hundreds of millions in liquid ISK and assets. Shortly thereafter, we moved to Devoid and Domain to write the next few chapters of our existence. Now we find ourselves in Galente lowsec preparing for 0.0.

Its important for us, as leadership, to recognize who and what led us to this point. The answer is simple: You. Without people working hard and genuinely believing in our corporation, our leadership, and our fellow TM’s, we would never have reached this point in our existence.

That being said, we have a lot of work to still do in order to achieve our goal of becoming the best corporation ever. We have positions to fill, tasks to complete, and projects to work on. Its going to be a hell of a ride, but the end result is more than worth it.

Tayt Sylus, Lyntt, and Myself are incapable of running every aspect of this corporation on our own, so we invite you interview for one of the many open positions in the corporation and help us move this corporation forward. And we back this with a promise endorsed by all of us:
If you dedicate your time, your effort, and your experience to help make this corporation more fun, successful, and profitable, this corporation will become dedicated to putting the time, effort and experience we have into making you more successful and profitable.
Nothing accelerates the gaming experience in EvE like being able to make a difference in the community of players you are affiliated with. I know this first hand, as I have witnessed this first hand, many times in the past five years of playing EvE Online.

Do you want to have your corporation and alliance talked about in the in-game news? Do you want to hold space in 0.0? Do you want to have alliances coming to us for that capital ship they want built? Or how about having the bragging rights of being a corporation with 100+ players with 0% inactivity?

It starts with You.

You have the word of all three members of senior leadership in the New Eden Trade Union, that if you want it, we will help you get it. If you would like to learn it, we will teach it. If you help make us a better corporation, we will help make you a better player. Drive change and growth, and see the same in return from us.
Get started with your higher career in EvE. Contact any one of us, and we will get the ball rolling in the right direction.

Best of Regards,

Ranis Garr
Chief Executive Officer
New Eden Trade Union
“A Ship is Safe in Harbor, But That is Not What Ships Are For.”
~William Shedo

Bounce Back, Part I

2010-10-04T23:21:00.000-07:00

In the recent months here's what went down...

I took a break after the pressure of being a CEO (The mails, the convo's, the questions, the demands, the this-that-and-the-other, ect) got a little tough in conjunction with increased stress at my RL job.

Upon my return, here's what it looked like. Inactivity was way high, people logging on was infrequent, and people doing things with one another in the corp wasnt as impressive as it was just a few weeks back.

I look at this as an opportunity for my own development. There are lessons to be learned here, and I want to record them, so that if this happens in the future, I know how we went about dealing with it, and if it was successful or not. This series is going to be called "Bounce Back" and will be broken into parts.

What we have established so far:
-Using our corporate census, we identified people who expressed both interest and willingness in leadership positions. We will interview these people, and move them to fill our personnel department.
-Lyntt and Tayt have been moved up from CTL's to a new position of DTL (Divisional Team Leader). The corp has been split into two divisions, each with a primary-function department, and an "off-site" department, and have been assigned 'numbers.' D100 and D200 (D100 to encompass Navy and Logistics, D200 to encompass Indy and Personnel).
-Steady recruitment of players has begun, and we will take some of these guys who have interest in helping the corp, and set them up (in the future) as recruiters.

What we need to work on:
-Getting the Department Evals back up and running
-Getting scores green again
-Setting up a meeting to discuss census results to identify where we need to spend the most time working on our weaknesses.
-Staffing our Personnel Department
-Carefully assigning TL and CTL's to the departments that have vacancies (which is all of them. *Sigh*)

We already have a new guy who said during casual conversation, that he would do "anything to help the corp," so I'm looking towards eventually moving him into recruitment. I would really like to get a part of the Personnel Team dedicated to finding new and inventive ways to recruit, so that they maintain our growing and diverse corporation... and taking people onboard who have experience and who know how to take a joke (aka - thick skin required).

Side note: Mumble? Not really diggin' it. Im a bigger fan of vent, just because of look and feel. Sure there is some more functionality available with mumble (ie - the quieting of ambient sound when someone is talking) but vent is more universal - and more potential recruits use it anyways.

So overall, the topic of the next week or so is going to be manpower and recruitment.

Will post with updates, key learnings, successes and opportunities, what works, what doesnt, and why, as well as future action steps to help move our Bounce Back forward.

Also, check out our new and improved website - www.netu-eve.com

Ushra'Khanvicts

2010-07-24T11:02:00.000-07:00

So we know that UK disband today (or as I view it, was taken over by "hostile-friendlies"). I think this is probably one of the most important and beneficial things to happen to New Eden since the disbanding of Band of Brothers and Goon Swarm.

The Ushra'Khan have been terrorizing Providence for years now, under a guise of "freespace ideals" which everyone knows to be false and inaccurate. Their previous home of Catch, and their new toy "New Providence" will serve as a blood-soaked hunting ground for the next week or so as Sovereignty starts to shift hands.

Now that UK are gone, we can bet that we will see a bettering of the situation in Providence. UK have for many years been (viewed?) as the catalysts and causes of many of the problems (big and small) that Providence has faced.

Although I have no faith what-so-ever that Apocalypse Now will EVER take advantage of the situation in Providence, I would like to call upon leaders of Amarrian Friendly Organizations to start taking up space in the Region, and begin to restore it to what it was just 6 short months ago.

I cant speak for anyone but myself, but I applaud HYDRA for the work they have (allegedly) done over the past few hours. But most importantly, I applaud Tarac Nor, for being brave enough to take action against the terrorists in UK. Tarac, your work will echo throughout New Eden for years to come.

Amarr Victor

Planetary Interaction and Providence

2010-06-08T01:25:00.000-07:00

So, with the "Great Planetary Land Rush" looming within the next few hours, and with the intense politics that are happening in Providence, I have been left with little time to post in past history. Here is an update with what is going on in my life as a capsuleer.

Providence politics have been rocky at best. Providence is beginning to look more like any other nullsec region of space and less like the "New Providence" paradise that the invaders made it out to be. Agony and others have adopted NBSI policies and UK and Atlas camp gateways in and out of providence, making logistics difficult. In order for further support for our 5i system to get there, we are relying on backwater routes or jump-drives.

Other news includes the fall of Paxton Federation. Paxton was an ally of CVA and of Apoc, and their loss (even though I have little experience working with Paxton), will have ripples of effect that we have yet to see happen.

On the Empire front, Planetary Interaction begins tomorrow morning, and our PI-Team (PIT) will be spending most of the day getting settled with our new planetary gold mines. Part of our PIT organizational work is that we are going to setup an office nearby to where the majority of our members are setting up their PCC's. This is to help make logistics easier for them getting their products to the PITHQ so we can get it from there to our Corp HQ.

I have to cut this post short as my melatonin is kickin in. Will do my best to get posting on a regular basis again.

April Showers Bring...?

2010-04-26T01:57:00.000-07:00

So with the war in providence simmering down, Apoc and CVA making their plans for the future, and with NETU growing and expanding at a rapid pace, I think its time to open a new high-office position in the Trade Union.

NETU has finally hit a 60 member mark with 7% inactivity rate. Excellent by any corporations standards. The Navy Department has finally hit green status, after being red for the past month. Our Indy CTL is on an LOA of his own, so I have had to step in as CTL of Indy. We're setting up a new Planetary Interaction Team (PIT) to be launched with the release of Tyrannis, which has a moderate level of pre-launch preparation that needs to happen (which, until we can appoint a TL for that group, I myself will be coordinating). Our Intell and Logistics Department is growing and developing bigger and better plans for the future, and the Personnel dept is even expanding to a sustainable level. Keeping that in mind, real life might be making a turn for the better for me, as a position has opened up at my job that I most likely will get promoted into. That being said, this is a lot of work for just one person to oversee.

Im lookin into drawing up and opening a new high office in NETU: Vice-CEO. I have a few candidates in mind, but ultimately, I would like to select the people who I would trust in that position based upon performance, loyalty, drive and experience. Then Im thinking of putting those candidates up for election by the shareholders. That position will answer to myself and ultimately, the shareholders (as the position will be appointed by the shareholders with my confirmation).

My time in Eve will be reduced, but not diminished, thus the need for a new Vice CEO has become apparent.

Also, I am planning on appointing a corporation diplomat, seeing how NETU is developing relations, good and bad, with other entities in New Eden. This diplomat will take some of the pressure off the shoulders of the Leadership so as to allow us to work and focus on our corporate tasks.

In all honesty, the New Eden Trade Union has developed to a level I never would have imagined upon its conception. The need for divided work is becoming crucial to our success, and our growth in the very near future with become equally important to our longevity.

Of all the players I've interacted with in the past 4 years or so, none have even come close to comparing to the fine individuals I call my friends in this corporation. We have become more than a group of players, we have become a family, and one that I hope to see grow and thrive in the coming years.

Genesis Freehold

2010-03-26T01:49:00.000-07:00

Ranis walked down the corridor of the new office his corporation had opened up at Tzvi's 24th Imperial Crusade Logistics Support Station. As he rounded a corner, he got to the doors of his off-site CEO quarters. The door whized open, and he walked through. The workspace was far more spacious than the HQ Office he was used to at Riavayed. He set some of his paperwork down on the empty desk, and pulled up a communique on his NeoComm from the NETU CTL for Intelligence and Logistics.

"The Tower is online, and the assembly arrays have been onlined as well."

This news came as a relief to Ranis, already exhausted from moving several ships to the area.

This constellation had been looked at for strategic and intelligence reasons in the past, and was determined unsound due to faction warfare going on in the area. Due to the conflicts dying down a bit, it was deemed safe to setup a medium control tower in the area in order to further both the Navy and Industrial goals of the corporation.

Ranis closed the NeoComm and picked up a display pad on the top of the stack now sitting on his desk. The display pad outlined Tower Schematics, online structures, and plans for its use. Towards the end of the file being displayed, it showed mineral quotes for a large scale production operation the New Eden Trade Union was about to take on. Ranis forwarded these mineral quotes to his CTL of Industry, hoping to get started on production as soon as possible on the massive project. The ship, scheduled to launch from Union Shipyards in about a month, would be a monument to NETU's growth and expansion from its relatively young age.

Rounding the side of his desk to settle in his chair, Ranis sank into the Heimatar hound-hide seat, and began to write up a short press release to his corporation.

"Genesis Freehold, the name of our new low-security base, it a testament to the hard work of all of you. We have overcome many hurdles, and will continue to overcome hurdles in the future. Genesis Freehold is the embodiment of all of our members collective will to succeed, to drive forward, and to continue to prosper in New Eden. I am proud to announce Genesis Freehold as being our new monument to our own success."

Closing the file with plans to work on it later, Ranis glanced down at his NeoComm. A transmission had been waiting for his approval. He leaned back and opened the channel. Vampire Nocturnus' face appeared, a cool confidence that oozed through the screen made Ranis raise an eyebrow.

"Good news," said Vamp. "Production has already been planned and we have already begun to secure the belts in the area. Mining teams are moving into the area."

"Perfect. The Orca will move in shortly as well. Coordinate with Devildog and the Team Leaders in his department to help get production moving," replied Ranis.

"Already on it," Vamp replied.

"And one more thing," added Ranis, "lets begin moving our Navy into the area. We want to begin to secure locations for planetary control in the near future. We will need to have a Control Tower Network setup within the coming months to ensure production and profits begin flowing. I have a shareholders meeting in the next 48 hours."

"Sure thing," replied Vamp.

Ranis closed the transmission. He thought back to the last time he was at the City of God. The short prayer he whispered in that moment was being answered. God was on his side.

Public Relations

2010-03-19T03:44:00.000-07:00

(IC Post, 3Psn)

Ranis sat at his desk analyzing the latest survey reports for the Control Tower that was being planed for the area. His desk was less messy that it he was used to seeing it. Able to focus on the present task of a Tower setup, Ranis felt like he was accomplishing something. For once.

The doors to his office whizzed open. A pilot with the call sign "Devildog" entered his office. Devildog was a tall, well built Minmatar pilot, CTL of the Industry Department. Although strange to see a Matari citizen holding such a high position in a corp run by an Amarrian Religious Reclaimer, the sight didnt bother Ranis. Devildog's previous CEO has sent a communique referring the Matari citizen to his corporation. With a detailed and highly decorated officer, referral in hand, docking at NETU Head Quarters, Ranis felt reluctant to give the man a chance. Once a slave, Devildog had proven himself in the Caldari-Gallente war. That in its own regard was enough allow him admittance.

"Good evening, Ranis. I have some troubling news," the officer said, as he handed Ranis a report.

Ranis skimmed the report, and in a few short moments, his eyes narrowed. The report was from a former CEO of a New Eden Trade Union Trainee. Recently out of the university, the report pointed out that the pilot in question had wasted no time in engaging in piracy activities, and was potentially targeting NETU for his next hit.

"What's the pilot's location?" asked Ranis.

"Riavayed V - Belt I. Currently mining in a Retriever," replied Devildog.

Wasting no time, Ranis immediately opened a direct channel with the CTL for Intelligence. "Vamp, I need a full background on this guy, and I need it yesterday."

"On it," replied Vampire, a well equipped Intelligence officer. "Why? Whats up?"

Ranis sent a data cluster to Vamp's on board system.

"Nice, Ill see what I can do," said Vamp.

Ranis closed the channel and issued a low-level alert to the NETU Navy Department. The signal, although subtle, was enough to let the CTL of that department to know that there was a problem.

"Lets go, we dont have much time," said Ranis, as he and Devildog rushed through the corridor to make it to the dock where their ships awaited them.

Ranis entered his clone, and had it lifted into his Harbinger. Fully fitted for combat, Ranis's Harbinger was the product of a year of trial and error. As he undocked, he issued subtle orders to his Navy on low level frequencies to have them prepare to spring a trap. As his ship arced toward the belt and took off, his display flashed three times to signal the Navy was moving into position. Upon entering the belt, Ranis screen flickered, signaling the intell report had been complete. Initial results indicated the intell was positive, and this guy was a snake.

The shipp roared out of warp and Ranis initiated a passive target on the pilot in question. Signaling to his fellow pilots that the plan was in action, Ranis began warp scramming the individual as he announced to him the allegations being brought forward.

The individual responded with confusion and shock, perceived to be a normal reaction for a spy to give when caught. With a short time passing with no response, Ranis gave the Navy the order to fire. Missiles and Lasers blazed through the space between the pilot in question and the 3 man gang that formed. Within seconds a light flashed, signaling the destruction of his ship. The smaller of the three ships began a warp scram, as the pilot continued to act confused. Shortly thereafter, the pod popped, as the pilot woke up lightyears from his start location.

"Good work boys," stated Ranis, as he gathered the online CTL's in a group transmission. "Get him on the line," barked Ranis, and within moments, the pilots face, still fresh out of the clone vat bay, appeared on the screen. "You are being charged with intent to commit criminal activity against the New Eden Trade Union in a time of peace. An investigation is underway," stated Ranis in a calm and collected voice.

"Im fresh out of the academy. I didnt do anything," said the confused and dazed pilot.

"Our intell reports show differently, and in the end, will tell the whole story," Ranis replied.

Outraged, the pilot demanded a representative. Ranis transmitted the contact info for the alliance CEO, as requested.

"This is a matter of internal security, and you have the right to arbitration. Until that time, you are not welcome in Amarr space."

The screen flickered black, and the pilot's face dissappeared. "Vamp, get the investigation underway. We need to have a full report for the public. We dont want to appear to be attacking graduates. Ill issue a press release here soon."

"Already on it," replied Vamp.

Ranis turned his ship and headed back to HQ to write up the release. Although an interesting turn of events, Ranis knew that this could get complicated quickly if the correct action wasnt taken quickly.

"Until the investigation closes, this is a matter of internal security, and we will only release some of the information to the public," announced Ranis to the group still in the comm window.

All of them agreed, and the proceedures began. All of the sudden, Ranis remembers how much he hates dealing with PR issues.

(To Be Continued)

City of God

2010-03-17T01:08:00.000-07:00

(IC post, 3psn)

Darkness surrounds what, in his mind, is just a body in a gel-filled pod. Ranis' has never really gotten used to the sensation of being in semi-suspended animation while in-pod. The hum of his Harbingers engines gently vibrated the ship, as he warped through the darkness of the system, Shastal. Once a holy place of worship, Shastal lost some of its awe and wonder as Amarrian culture seemed to focus more on how to expand the Empire's borders into Minmatar space and down into the lawlessness of Providence. Still, Ranis remembers coming here via InterBus transit lines, many years before he graduated from the Hedion University. Since his childhood, it has provided a sense of comfort.

His ship's engines lulled, as his warp drive began to slow. His neural displays flashed on and displayed a view of the Amarrian ancient site, the City of God. A shadow of its former glory, the City of God is a representation of all the Amarr are, were, and will be. The images being transmitted to his neural network dont do the sight justice. Ranis' thoughts' drift to what he remembers of the past years he has spent as a capsuleer. His class-mates back in Sehmy at the Hedion University are all successful people, from CEO's of mega-corporations, to major contributors to the market systems in the regions they currently inhabit.

Ranis begins to reflect on his accomplishments in New Eden. Although measurable, he is proud of what he has done thus far.

* * *

Refocusing his neural network on the ancient site, he suddenly is aware of where he is. Unbeknown to himself, Ranis finds that he spend several hours floating in front of the massive colossus. The power levels dimmed on the ship, as Ranis cut power to some of his on board computers. The pod goes quiet, and in that moment Ranis remembers a verse that was spoken to him out of his temple on his homeworld:

"Therefore, the lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden
He drove out the man,
And he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, Cherubim
And a flaming sword that turned every way
To keep the way of the tree of life."

This verse was the most memorable part of Ranis's upbringing, and provides him with much of his courage and will to continue life as a capsuleer.

Suddenly, the ships systems light up again. The ship turns and arcs towards the gate and the engines fire, thrusting him in the direction of the gate. In the time spend here, Ranis has noticed a few new evemails that he needs to address. Fortunately this site is only a short distance from his Headquarters. That thought provides all the comfort and faith in God that he needs to see his fellow pilots through even the worst of times.

The ship warps off into the distance, leaving Ranis feeling at peace.

Hardball

2010-03-15T22:17:00.000-07:00

(I.C. Post, 3Psn)

The screen on Ranis' desk flickered in his office in Riavayed, signaling yet another evemail to be read. The station was cramped. The Hedion University station's hallways are busy with students rushing through the corridors, eager to pass their gravemetric training, in-pod simulation, and their in flight assessments. Ranis' desk is a mess. System charts and analysis, freight manifests, meeting notes, training assessments, production queues, and battle reports from the conflict going on in providence littered the already small workspace. He moved everything aside and activated his display screen. It was debriefing from a pilot in the Navy department.

Ranis glanced over the briefing. Its long and detailed, covering an incident involving the loss of a New Eden Trade Union vessel. Reading the more detailed portions of the report, he discovered that the operation involved alliance members with in close range of the reporting pilot. A hostile had taken down one of his ships in plain view of the fleet. According to reports, the fleet reacted in a passive manner, taking no action against the aggressor. Although cordial, the debriefing had an undertone of frustration.

Troubled by this transgression, Ranis began to make the arrangements with alliance leadership to discuss the issue.

Resting his head in his palm, he sighed in anticipation of the lengthy proceedings about to happen. Already dealing with rising tensions between New Eden Trade Union leadership and Apocalypse Now administration, Ranis knew this was going to be a bumpy road. The meeting that had taken place in Riavayed had already caused problems with his corporation, as things didnt go as they had hoped.

Ranis took a deep breath and opened his NeoComm and opened a channel with the current Corporate Team Lead of Personnel.

"John, get in contact with this pilot," he said as he transmitted a datacluster of information, "we need to get everything he knows about the incident if we are going to make a strong case."

"Got it," John replied.

"Things could get bumpy here soon. Have a report ready for the meeting tomorrow."

"Sure thing," John said. "Is everything okay?"

"No," Ranis replied "but it will be."

Ranis noticed his NeoComm flicker again, this time, a transmission from an alliance leadership official popped up on his screen.

"I'll get back to you John," said Ranis as he closed the current channel.

Not expecting to deal with things so soon, Ranis took another deep breath. "Good evening, I was just about to contact you..."

[NETU] Trainee Program

2010-03-12T02:50:00.000-08:00

So, I've begun an experimental Trainee program in my corp to allow us to work better with the very few brand new capsuleers we hire. The program works like this:

We are going to start running pvp/mining training ops, requiring certain skills, ship fits, and for the pilot to have read a certain amount of material on the subject in order to join up. For example - pvp frigate tactics training would require the pilot to have successfully done the tracking and missile guides (available on the forums). We would require that the pilot be able to us (T1) MWD's, Webs, Scrams, and we will provide small faction ammo to them and possibly produce their ship. They fit it, take what they learned, and apply it on the real battlefield as we take on targets in 0.0. In the end, we do a debriefing and find what works, what doesnt, and why. This will also be an open forum to discuss what the fleet did well and what we need to improve. Each pilot will complete the lesson (or not) based on what the FC/CTL for the operation decides. People who fail the operation are people who fail to grasp the target concepts that we are trying to get across. People who pass are those who understand the ideas and concepts we are trying to teach.

In addition to this, I've opened an office in our area that allows us to base these TM's out of, and give them exclusive access to skills, mods, equipment, ammo, and the like. This will keep our HQ public hangar from getting crowded and messy with dozens of mods that not everyone will use.

This is also because I've lifted the ban on trial accounts, and the CTL - Personnel will begin recruiting starting Monday. Hopefully this will kick our numbers back in the healthy area that they used to be in.

For now, we will cap out our member count at 55.

Side note: I added my alt to the corp today. He is purely a RnD, Invention, and Rev Engineering Alt to provide a cash flow for both my main and my alt.

Dont want to get too sidetracked with this post, but there is so much going on. Keep an eye out for the update on how the Trainee Program turns out.

Fly safe out there.

Keys Principles of Leadership Mastery

2010-03-09T20:55:00.001-08:00

Hey guys. If you've talked to me for any length of time, you know that I'm working on my leadership development skills in real life. As such, I'm reading a book on leadership. Some of this can be applied to myself and other leaders in the corporation. Here are some Key Principles of Leadership Mastery:

-When the leaders say the people are not following, its the leaders that are lost, not the people.
-Leaders get lost because of isolation, arrogance, or bad judgment. But above all they get lost because they because they become preoccupied with imposing their authority instead of truly leading.
-Leadership is helping people achieve a shared vision, not telling people what to do.
-Loyalty to leadership relies on the leader's connection and understanding people's needs, wishes, and possibilities. Solutions to leadership challenges do not lie in the leader's needs and wishes. Leadership solutions lie in the needs and wishes of the followers.
-Loyalty can't be built by simply asking or forcing people to be loyal.
-Before expecting anyone to follow, a leader first needs to demonstrate a vision and values worthy of a following.
-Any specific type of leadership inevitably attracts the same type of followers. In other words, for people to embrace and follow modern compassionate, honest, ethical, peaceful, and fair principles, they must see these qualities demonstrated by their leadership
-People are a lot more perceptive than most leaders think. People have a much keener sense of truth than most leaders think. People quickly lose faith in a leader who ignores those two facts.
-Often people have answers that elude their leaders. Leaders, therefore, should solicit, ideas, opinions, and suggestions to gain buy-in and cultivate loyalty.
-A leader who makes mistakes should come clean and admit the errors. People will generally forgive mistakes, but do not appreciate leaders that are unwilling to take responsibility for their actions.
-A leader should be brave enough to negotiate when lesser people want to fight. Anyone can resort to threats and aggression, but being aggressive is not leading.

This is meant as a reference and a good read for those of you who want to take an active role in your development. Im here to help develop all of you as leaders, if you so chose.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

Providence Times

2010-03-08T03:09:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about a way to gather information, news, updates, and special announcements and compile them into a news feed - The Providence Times. It would take simply a small website, a news ticker, a few correspondents, and some time (as always). Could be a fun idea, and could possibly generate some passive income to those involved. Best case, its an income stream that provides vital news to those in the providence region, and at worst, it could be a lot of fun.

Possibly take Kierah Garr (I think thats how I spelled her name), an alt character of mine, and use her to found the not-for-profit Providence Times News corporation. That, or i could operate the whole thing off of Ranis.

Still in the idea stage, but we will see if anyone else is interested to partake in the adventure.

Changing Course

2010-03-07T20:15:00.000-08:00

So in my last post, I wrote about the possibility of declaring war on Atlas as a means of protecting providence. The meeting took place, and although wildly off topic, I managed to make my point:

The only way that we can help in the most effective manner is by war dec'ing Atlas and take the fight to high sec.

Now my position was met with very fair arguments. The war in high sec would disrupt our industry guys who don't fight at all. It would also require a ton of organization, that of which we lack at the present time. And overall, Formula doesnt allow for war decs. Its against his policy.

Now these being fair points, I cited a few points that other CEO's were making in the meeting. We have no clear direction as an alliance, and (in many peoples opinions) it stems from a lack of clearly set mid-term goals. CEO's noted that its hard to get operations together, and I made the point, "do the people see the overall goal behind these operations?" The answer was no, so I proposed a clear, short to mid-term goal that is achievable that also rallies both spectrums of the Alliance Community: The Protection and Defence of Providence.

This goal that was presented allows for indy guys to build discounted ships for alliance pvpers so that we can better defend our regions of space, and calls for PvP'ers to join up and help -7- defend Northern Providence, begin disruption fleets to break enemy lines of movements and logistics within the region, and to give our guys the experience they need to become veterans of the PvP community.

Shortly after our meeting ajourned, we were called to help -7- defend KBP from a 30 man gang that was in the area. Our short notice led to a powerful fleet of 50 various subcapital ships being brought to the area (Its was helpful that KBP is only 4-5 jumps out from our HQ).

Ill give these alliances leaders until the next meeting to see if they are taking the information given seriously and are acting on it to further ourselves as an alliance. If not, well, we will act then. If so, then its fair to say I played my part in helping the alliance move forward.

A side note, Im going to meet with my CTL of Industry and see about getting a Carrier on the production lines by mid June (roughly the time I plan on being in a carrier. :)). With a touch of luck, we can begin building up the APOC capital fleet, and start putting ourselves out there as a major contender for this area of space.

Providence

2010-03-07T03:05:00.000-08:00

As you know if you keep up with the GalNet posts, or the Scope Reports, Providence is burning at the hands of AAA and U'K, and now Atlas are in the picture. My corporation is involved in an alliance, Apocalypse Now, and we are the fourth largest corporation out of the 18 corps involved.

Now let me get to the point. Atlas is currently JUST trying to cause as much damage as possible, and if they succeed in burning down Providence, then my corp will lose its opportunity to join the Providence community and further our goals of being a major player in the eve online market system, as well as become a pvp presence to be reckoned with.

In 10 hours or so, my alliance will be holding its monthly CEO/Director meeting. It is at this meeting where I will present a proposal that could at best, cause us to disrupt at Atlas at a high cost and at worst, get my corp removed from our alliance.

My proposal will be to declare a high sec war with Atlas to disrupt their logistics in and out of the providence region. By blocking supplies from getting in and out, and by disrupting the carebear functions in their alliance, we will (hopefully!) create a big enough distraction to allow Sev3rance to counter the assault on KBP, and regain their footing.

I expect there to be a large debate about this, seeing how Apocalypse Now doesnt engage in wars (meaning, they dont war dec people). My goal in 10 hours is to emphasize the historic importance of this course of action, and the role it will play in getting our name out there, and sending an ultimate message to Atlas: Providence is NOT Geminate.

The overall goal is to show them that they cannot come down here and do to Providence what they did to Geminate.

Now, I sleep. Cant go into one of these meetings without lots of sleep.

An Introduction

2010-03-07T03:01:00.001-08:00

This blog will be done both in and out of character. My name is Ranis Garr, and I am an Amarrian Capsuleer. As a character that is older to the game, I have quite a history.

I am a CEO, an Investor, a Producer, a Capital Pilot, a Leader, a Student, an Idealist, and a Reclaimer. I believe in the Amarrian principles that call for a fervent faith in God. Slavery is a tool that we use to build up our empire, and I support the Amarrian right to bare slaves.

This channel will let me keep track of what I'm doing, what I'm involved in, who I interact with, and will also allow me to keep a record of the outcomes of my actions, as well as record my own history, and the history of my corporation, New Eden Trade Union.

Stay tuned, as I already have much happening in the here and now.