MMO BinA Geek's Look at Massively Multiplayer Online Games

I have played more than a few online games, and I have been in many bad groups and a few good ones. When I first started playing EvE again, I only did so because my cousin was willing to play too, thus giving me at least one other person I could interact with in game that I could trust, and enjoy playing with. We worked together, building up our assets and enjoying the various options the game opened up to us. Eventually, we started reaching the point where two people wasn’t enough, and so we started looking at corporations.

Corporations in EvE are the same as guilds, fleets and other grandiose names for what is essentially an expanding and contracting group of players that pledge temporary allegiance to each other.

I searched high and low for what I thought were corporations that would fit our needs in the game, only to be disappointed many times. They were either not as “set-up” as they made it seem in their recruitment, or they were too focused on one aspect of the game to provide longer term enjoyment for me, as a multi-specialized character.

Eventually, I got lucky and found a group of players from when I used to play the game, and we joined up with them.

In the end though, I realized that a good corporation for me, is one where I can trust those within the corporation to help me look out for my best interests, while also using my talents to help out the corporation as a whole.

A good corporation puts the needs of its members first, thus building trust. A good corporation should be multifaceted, allowing players to explore various things in game, or with the ability to easily provide expansion into other interests.

Of course, these are just a few thoughts from my own experiences, and I am sure that most players would have different qualifications on what makes a good corporation, fleet or guild, so let me know in the comments below.

I didn’t really play EvE Online today. I was really excited about an operation that the alliance I am in was going to be involved in, but my excitement was short-lived as I was told, in not so many words, not to come. See, they have a very specific fitting that they like to use for fleets performing certain actions, and I don’t currently have the skills to run that set-up.

It is really frustrating to me to have these limitations put on me as I try to play a game. Having other users set rules on how I can interact with a game that has nearly no rules is frustrating, but as part of a corporation, that is part of an alliance, I have to make certain sacrifices in order to have access to amazing events, technology, and parts of the EvE Online universe.

One of the biggest things that people have to adjust to in EvE is the breadth of skills available in the game. It isn’t like most games where you choose a class, and then you are stuck being that class for your entire existence. Things in EvE aren’t so set in stone. My character used to be an industrialist. I used to mine, haul ore, refine ore, and other such tasks. Now, I have spent months learning how to effectively use my character for combat, and while it is not yet near the upper echelons, it is quickly becoming more and more effective at this task.

Had you asked me when I first started playing, if I’d ever be interested in PvE or PvP, I probably would have laughed at you, as I had more interest in mining, inventing, and manufacturing at that point in my online gaming experience. Choose your skills wisely though, as a focused player, has better opportunities within the right corporation or alliance.