3 ms·

ex-TEST director reporting in. It is, indeed, supremely impressive when looking at the infrastructure required to support an alliance of 5000 people; in TEST, f

ex-TEST director reporting in. It is, indeed, supremely impressive when looking at the infrastructure required to support an alliance of 5000 people; in TEST, for example, we have our own software developers and an ops team that keeps systems like voice chat, forums, wikis, killboards, and more running 24/7. And then there's the management / organizational side - juggling 20+ corporations, each with their own cultures, leadership, and focuses, and herding the cats towards battles. (BoB forced members to join battles, TEST incentivized battles, two methods with the same end goal.) In my tenure as Director of Training, we set up systems where brand-new characters could get free ships, equipment, and skill books and a channel for asking questions. It was nearly a full time job just managing the influx of new players. Ultimately, it fell to the wayside once I moved across the country, and come to think of it, I've been paying for a subscription I haven't actually used in many months...

alex_c 13y ago
Heh, I've most likely played with you (Dreddit member since day 1 - for non-Eve players, TEST was started by Reddit players and is now one of the largest alliances in the game). I haven't played in almost two years, but watching a single corp grow from nothing to an entity that changed an entire game universe has been incredible. The truly fascinating part was seeing first-hand which forms of organization and motivation work, and which ones don't. Specifically, how a laissez-faire organization with relatively few rules in a very hostile game world managed not only to avoid falling apart, but rise to be a superpower against established entities with much more defined and rigid structures. I think TEST's biggest advantages were a shared identity and relatively strong culture (for better or worse) that emphasizes fun over winning , and practically non-existant standards for accepting new players combined with very strong training and bootstrapping (as opposed to more picky corps who either didn't want to bother with newbies or were afraid of spies). And maybe a bit of manifest destiny. Throw in support from a very similar but much more experienced and established ally, a lot of propaganda, and you have something that's very tough to beat in the long term. I can ramble forever about it, I really am fascinated by how much complexity Eve allows. That game has to be a sociologist's or organizational behaviourist's dream come true.

alex_c 13y ago

Heh, I've most likely played with you (Dreddit member since day 1 - for non-Eve players, TEST was started by Reddit players and is now one of the largest alliances in the game). I haven't played in almost two years, but watching a single corp grow from nothing to an entity that changed an entire game universe has been incredible. The truly fascinating part was seeing first-hand which forms of organization and motivation work, and which ones don't. Specifically, how a laissez-faire organization with relatively few rules in a very hostile game world managed not only to avoid falling apart, but rise to be a superpower against established entities with much more defined and rigid structures. I think TEST's biggest advantages were a shared identity and relatively strong culture (for better or worse) that emphasizes fun over winning , and practically non-existant standards for accepting new players combined with very strong training and bootstrapping (as opposed to more picky corps who either didn't want to bother with newbies or were afraid of spies). And maybe a bit of manifest destiny. Throw in support from a very similar but much more experienced and established ally, a lot of propaganda, and you have something that's very tough to beat in the long term. I can ramble forever about it, I really am fascinated by how much complexity Eve allows. That game has to be a sociologist's or organizational behaviourist's dream come true.