The Recruiting Challenge

For some reason, recruiting in EVE Online seems to be particularly challenging. Maybe I'm setting the sights of the corporation too high, but I'd like a crew of dedicated, consistent, mature players who are willing to help the corporation.

What I tend to struggle with as a CEO is how to grow a corporate culture that encourages the members to work closely together. Part of this may be that Portsmouth Defense Industries is my second corporation, created after nearly a year running. One of the biggest differences is that new players really need each other - their characters aren't very skilled, and New Eden can be a dangerous place. In marked contrast, the pilots who were newbies last year are now flying highly-specialized and deadly ships, know their way around the universe, and can make a reasonable stream of income flying solo.

So, what is it about a corporation that will both help the newcomer and provide value to the experienced pilot? My guess - a common goal. With the first corporation I ran, we had a common goal from Day 1: To build a starbase in 0.0 on our own merits. That worked wonders for focusing our activities. Perhaps the challenge now is not in recruiting, but in providing an experience that both new and old pilots will find engaging.

Corporations as Communities

Running a corporation in EVE means you're in charge (more or less) of a self-contained community within the larger nation of the game. The CEO is responsible for defining the rules of the community, why it exists, and what differentiates it from every other corporation out there. In a world with a limited player population and low exit barriers (24 hours and a player can be on to their next corporation, see ya!), encouraging people to become and remain members of a corporation can be very challenging.

This is especially true when a corporation first gets started. Unless you've got an already-strong network of pilots willing to join you, finding new pilots is hard. Corporations started by new players have (arguably) the least to offer new members. Limited experience, limited assets, and limited skill points mean that a new CEO may have to recruit exclusively from the newer players.

If your goal is to start a new corporation, decide early what kind of corporation you want it to be, and then join a corporation like that. The "Recruitment" channel in game is a neverending series of advertisements for possible employers, so it should be fairly straightforward to find one that meets your needs. In this case, your goal is to learn how to run a corporation. Join a corporation, learn what you can, what makes sense, what doesn't. Is occasional piracy acceptable, or will it get you expelled? Can you see your new corporation getting war-decced by a hostile corporation? How does it get handled? Smack Talk in EVE can get you killed, or griefed to the point of having to start a new character. PvP in EVE is often NONCONSENSUAL (or as some say, it *is* consensual - you agree to it when you log in).

It is possible to just "start a corporation", but it comes with its own set of risks unless you've got some close friends willing to share the ride.

Tips for being a CEO in EVE

The wife-aggro blog had a great post last week about being effective as a guild leader in WoW. I got to thinking about it, then started drafting a companion blog for EVE CEOs. It's about 12 pages long so far, I think. May have to post it in a few sections. I'm even planning to include a guide for corporate charter development, although it may be a separate entry.

Why Corporations Need Directors

It's a simple answer, really. Unless you're independently wealthy and/or have *zero* out of game life, it's not possible to be online running the corporation all the time. For any corporation that is planning to grow beyond the initial few pilots that founded it, a strong group of leaders is absolutely critical.

Directors perform the following critical roles:

• They're online when you're not
  
• They can recruit new talent
• They act as a reality check for your more insane ideas
• They provide ideas for how to run the corp
• They've got the rights to keep things moving when you're not around:
• Vacations
• Work day
• Sleep
• Other (yeah, I know, this is a heresy) hobbies
• Family
• Natural disasters (my community got hit with a tornado, was out of power for a few days)
• They provide motivation when you're burnt or lacking motivation yourself
• They expand your network of in-game contacts, especially older players (note: players, not characters. With account trading on the rise, we're seeing more high-sp characters with new player owners - not so valuable.)

There's a darker side to having directors, of course. At least, there's a potential for some serious down side, but not markedly more than the tales of dishonest CEOs or other long-term corporation members. The downside is that directors, because they have access to everything in the corporation, can shut a corporation down if they turn rogue.

My answer? Recruit very carefully, and don't forget that EvE can be a harsh instructor. As recent events (as of this writing) have shown, even long-term in-game friends can turn out to be untrustworthy.

Corporate Ennui

Is it ennui, or just a momentary lapse of energy? Got the word yesterday that a key member of the corporation is thinking about moving back to a former corporation. The member in question is primarily a mission runner, and is in a different time-zone than a lot of the players. It will be a real kick in the teeth if they (the player in question has multiple accounts) leave, both because he's a skilled pilot, and because he's a cool guy.

The other thing I've been noticing, now that I'm on my second corporation, is the difference in the feel of this experience versus my first time through as a CEO. The first corporation, Portsmouth Shipyards, got its start because the CEO and directors of the corporation I was in at the time disappeared for a few weeks. The gang of new players (me included) just recently recruited to the corporation felt abandoned, and we wanted the ability to chart our own course. After hemming for a few days, we opted to start a new corporation. Five of us got together, and as the character with the most skills in corporation management, I got the post of CEO, and the other 4 took directorships.

It was a very exciting time, and we were all just getting into the game, with so many paths ahead of us. For nearly a year (actually just a couple weeks shy) we stuck together, recruiting new players, never getting much over 30 characters in size (some alts there in the mix). During that time we built battleships, got war-decced, did huge mining ops, partnered with a 0.0 alliance for access to their space, and eventually joined a 0.0 alliance on our own merits.

After a while living with the realities of life in 0.0, I came to realize that it wasn't a play style that fits my schedule. I don't have unbroken hours to spend on hunting enemies, or coordinating system-wide mining operations, or deploying POS infrastructures. This was a semi-difficult decision, and it meant leaving the corporation, as we had several Starbases deployed. Also, some of the other players wanted to stretch out to other things EvE has to offer - some went to piracy, some stayed in 0.0, some opted to create a newer, smaller corporation.

Contrast that to this new corporation that I've started. A few of the old band have joined up, along with some newer players. Now that I've "been there done that", and am experimenting with advanced content (such as invention), the pull of mining ops isn't so thrilling. Grinding missions for standing with research agents is time-consuming, and my skills are focused in small-ship combat, so standings increases are slow.

Also, the old corporation had a full 5 directors (including myself) acting as checks and balances, and providing recruiting and management. Perhaps I need to promote a few more folks to director, to start recruiting in other time zones.

Big Trade Concept

Tech 2 Battleships are coming. As soon as someone invents them. Now that invention has arrived, any new Tech 2 items are presumably going to have to come from inventors willing to invest the time and ISK into getting an inefficient copy of said Tech 2 item.

When Revelations I released last November (almost a year ago already, wow!), the new Tier 3 battleships were selling upwards of over 500 million ISK in the first week or so after the launch. For those of you counting, that's about 4 times the eventual market price.

Given that T2 items in general trade for many multiples of what it actually takes to manufacture them, it's reasonable to expect that the new T2 battleships are going to cost quite a bit.

A rough calculation:
T1 Battleship: 100 million
Brand-new-toy inflation of 4x: 400 million
T2 build inflation (at a very conservative) 10x: 4 billion ISK.

Do I think someone out there will pay 4 billion to be the first in their corner of space to own that brand new Black Ops battleship? I'd like to find out.

Crashtastic Patch Day Fun

Revelations 2.2.1 (I think) was deployed today, and apparently it's too much for the poor cluster to bear. Not so bad when I'm docked doing trade management or other mundane activities, but extremely frustrating when in the middle of a mission with a brand new Battleship. Hope the poor ship is still there when I log in tomorrow morning.

Yes, that's right. Not going to ride this down time out, actually going to go to bed at a reasonable hour, and hope that the ol' Scorpion is recoverable in the morning.

P.S. Got a big trade idea brewing, but can't talk too much about it yet, in case other people get the idea too.

CCP Announces Revelations 3 Content

New ships are always exciting, and after over a year living with just a few screenshots of the improved graphics engine, dubbed 'Trinity', I'm counting the days until those beautiful ships glide across my screen for the first time.

Here's the link to the devblog (Sep. 11th, 2007) that describes the content of the upcoming release.

Time to start training Battleship 5, I think.

Life in a Small Corp

This is an EvE-Online related blog. In case you don't know, EvE Online is the runaway hit Icelandic sci-fi Massively Multiplayer Online game. Click the link if you want to read more about it. It is, without a doubt, the most addictive game I've ever played.

So, why "Inventions of a Small Corp CEO"? Glad you asked. My main character (Adhar) has specialized in damn near every aspect of the game, but recently I've been most interested in the game play opportunities presented by "Invention". Combined with the fact that I have been a small corporation CEO for very nearly my entire experience in EvE, and there you go.

EvE has been called the most beautiful spreadsheet in the world, and to some degree, it's true. The level of detail behind even the most mundane of transactions is enough to qualify for a minor in Economics. That complexity is a major factor in what attracts me so strongly to the game. Invention is the process of manufacturing the most advanced items in the game. Prior to the release of the Invention at the end of 2006, the only way to acquire Tech 2 items (the advanced stuff) was to buy it on the market. Only the most fortunate players had access to the T2 blueprints, and the prices reflected a very clear cartel approach to pricing.

Recognizing this imbalance, CCP released a way for players to control their own destinies, by providing the tools to "invent" blueprints for the manufacture of many (most) T2 items. It is this complex and time-consuming set of skills and activities that comprise the Inventor profession.

It's been about 9 months since the release of the invention skills and tools, and the design is paying off, I think. Prices for most T2 items are reaching some level of equilibrium, indicating that the cartel pricing is being greatly affected by the many inventors. More about that later, though.