Tuesday, February 15, 2011

7 Tips For Finding the 'Right' Corp

Ever gotten cozy in a corp only to have most of them stop playing (or have some sort of random drama cause them to disband.)?

Finding a corp that fits with your play style can be one of the biggest challenges in EVE. You can be vigilant about posting on the forums, chatting in local/recruitment chat...even tossing out a few inquiries to friends, and still not come up with something that truly 'fits.'

Having been a recruiter for a medium sized alliance (and corporation), I also know all the tricks in the book...all the things that recruiters say to make their corp look fun and exciting, etc. I also know how corporations and alliance go through phases...phases of lesser inactivity and boredom, phases of power-pvp and round-the-clock ops.

From my experience as both a recruiter and recruit, as well as observation in general, I've compiled the following seven things to be aware of when looking for a new corp:

1. If the corp is actively recruiting, there's about a 90% chance that something is wrong with them. Face it. The active corps are the ones too busy to spend time recruiting. It's the healthy, active corps that dont NEED to recruit to find new members...they get friends of members, people that hear about their activity and how awesome it is to be in the corp...etc.

Corps that are actively recruiting are usually having difficulty with a) inactive membership b) drama that made a large portion of the leadership/members to leave c)overall lameness/noobness or d)newness.

2. Beware the copy pasters. Copy pasters are usually a)recruiters who are looking for quanitity over quality, b) recruiters who are getting paid to recruit people c)ceo's who are trying to boost numbers due to inactivity...etc

3. Dont ever join a corp that requires payment to join, or payment to stay. Because that's just stupid and 99% of the time it's a scam.

4. Pay attention to the recruiters who convo you in game...and obviously are giving you their full attention by having a meaningfull conversation. Those are the golden ones who are as interested in finding out if you are right for them as you are interested in finding out if they are right for you.

5. Put killboards into perspective. Once you've been in a few corps, you know what to look for. It usually doesn't matter if they die a lot...looking for overall activity in relation to their size is VERY IMPORTANT. 5-10 kills a day would be considered pretty decent for a small 10-20 man corp, but seeing that on the kb of a 500 man alliance should make you wonder how many alts those 500 members really are.

6. Research. Research. Research. See what other people say about the corp. Are they cool? Do they have a reputation for being whatever it is you are looking for?

7. Ask if you can fly with them (if possible) for a little while before actually joining their corporation. Corporations who have nothing to hide or be ashamed of are usually willing...and they are usually greatful for the chance to check you out first also!

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