Tuesday 1 May 2012

Rule #1

I am always amused, reading through corporate recruitment threads, about how much effort some CEO's put into the architecture of bureaucracy for a corporation in an MMORPG. The active letter of that abbreviation being G for Game.

When I had enough of BUGRY 1.0, I went to nullsec and joined Obstergo, which was a similarly laid-back devil-may-care flying fool kind of corp; competent pilots, low dramas, PVP oriented, light touch management. Of course, Obstergo was just one corp in NEM3SIS. a sov holding alliance, and as these things go, sov holding alliances attract empire builders. Empire builders, in a business management sense, are terribly keen on inventing roles, responsibilities, committees, subcommittees, management and representative councils, et fucking cetera. NEM3SIS. was no different, having a management council, a representative council, and a three-tiered system of Fleet Commanders autorised to take out roams, fleets and drop capitals. It was all very complicated and I didn't give a shit, I was there for the good fights not the long times.

I have no problem with CEO's in EVE having a few rules for the corporations. You need rules; total anarchy is of course, not a corporation. You need a common purpose to bind you together, and rules to determine how you will be bound together. Even something as simple as the CEO setting a tax rate (or not) will determine the behaviour of members and is a de-facto rule (ie; you'll pay 10% tax, and I will embezzle shit). Beyond the basics, there are corporations which invent arcane, baroque rules, titular structures, even dispute resolution systems, at day dot, and then begin recruiting people who want to fit the corporation  structure. To each his own, of course; if you like being ruled by Nazis you join these kind of corps. You also probably like being spanked on you bottom and being caled slave, but w/e girlfriend.

As CEO, aside from ultimate responsibility for making sure there's shit to do, I also have to decide in a roundabout way how to run the corp, how it will be run, and what the ties that bind will be. This involves setting some rules. The first rule, and most important, of Sudden Buggery the corporation is that if you get tackled in a wormhole whilst doing PVE, no one is to help you out.

This may sound harsh, but for a start, you didn't spam d-scan enough. You fucked up, deal with the consequences. Secondly, reacting to an "omg I'm pointed" on comms generally results in a half-assed disorganised rush to help, with people straggling in to be picked off one by one. It escalates what should ideally be a cheapass drake being lost into a billion or multibillion ISK loss of multiple ships, as the guy tackling you is rarely alone.

For example, last night I found a hulk mining. I had to ninja-launch combats within d-scan range of him, twice, to probe him down, and then I tackle him with a Cheetah. As usual, the cavalry came along to help - surely a Rattlesnake can take out a pesky Cheetah, right? Well, not if the Cheetah has a significant rapefleet backing it up. End result, 2B ISK Rattler loss compounded atop a 300M Hulk loss. Yawata's pod was 512M and Halle's was 62M. Total was around 2.9Bn ISK versus 360M if Rule #1 had been adhered to.

So, yeah, there's rules for a reason. Sudden Buggery, however, will always have practical, sensible rules designed to prevent derp and maximise fun.

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