Whether your organisation is a benevolent welcoming democracy or a brutal autocracy, you don’t want a new recruit who doesn’t gel with the people, culture, and cause. The stakes are particularly high in EVE Online, given the risk of betrayal. How do you know if a would-be corpmate shares your lofty ideals? If they’ll get along with their colleagues? And that they’re not a mole working for your rivals?
We asked the EVE veterans at Just About EVE Online how their corps decide if a new recruit is a good fit. The important, obvious point to make is that it depends on the corp - its goals and its ethos - but there’s still plenty for recruiters to consider in their answers, which range from concise mantras to vibe checks to comprehension tests. We’ll start from the top.
No jerks allowed
In MacGybo’s experience, those corps tend to be self-policing:
“Everyone deserves a chance. Folk who don’t fit in are found out pretty quickly and move on. There are certain behaviours which will never be tolerated though. Any form of bigotry is a nope. I’ve always welcomed spies too; it means more in-game content. This approach won’t work for all corps, but for the ones I’ve been in, it’s always led to a pretty good group of players.” Original post
Trial by fun
“One thing is for certain when you join Fun Inc / Even Better With Friends, there is no trial by fire!”
FUN INC represents NPSI (Not Purple Shoot It) fleets, meaning applicants will have likely already flown with them extensively. “It’s a win-win situation for the candidate and the corp as there are no nasty surprises.”
Like MacGybo’s corps, FUN INC fosters a “culture that’s chilled out and all about fun. No BS, no politics, no drama.” And so far at least, it seems to be working. They boast of a very high retention rate and only one instance, ever, of admitting a recruit with a “prickly personality”.
In their original post, FUN INC goes on to list their community code of conduct, also featuring MacGybo’s ‘don’t be a jerk’ rule. However, their most important rule is one that nobody should have any trouble with: “have fun! The clue is in the name.”
Sink or swim
“Stay Frosty was founded in May 2013 as a casual solo and small-gang pirate organisation, dedicated to old-school PvP and its advocacy through major player-run events like our annual Frigate Free For All. In that spirit, I adapted the Pirate Code that KaJolo had adapted from other pirates - all the way back to Lord Zapp and the M0o Corporation, which was the very first pirate group in New Eden. It has continued to evolve and mature over the past decade.” Original post
They’ve lived by that code for over a decade. It’s been so successful that CCP has used it to determine community responses to harassment and other player conduct issues.
“While many pilots have stayed with us for our entire history or for years at a time, many more have moved on to become leaders and exceptional pilots all across New Eden. And we take a great deal of pride in their accomplishments and the standards they help set wherever they go and under whomever’s flag they fly.”
Rixx credits their longevity to their code and a sink-or-swim attitude to new recruits. They are pirates, after all.
“If you have the passion to become a pirate and the skills needed to do so, then you are welcome to join [...] New players either thrive as part of our group or they do not. We are not a teaching institution, but we are willing to teach if you are willing to learn. We are not here to give out ISK or free ships, but there are always those who will help if you need it.
“Piracy is a cauldron. If you can survive and thrive within that cauldron, then you have what it takes to fly with us and ‘yarrr’ among the stars. (Oh, I like that, I just made that up.)”
Hallo und willkommen in unserem corp
If candidates answer those questions well, “then they’re a good fit in our books.” Original post
Sense and sense-of-irony
Next, they need to have some common sense: “They have to be able to click on a Discord link, read, understand the basic instructions on the form, and then fill it out. You’d be surprised how many fail even that.”
The next step looks to the recruits’ actual answers: “The test is about small-gang PvP and fitting theory. People need to have a decent grasp of what makes a well-composed ship. If that baseline can’t be met, there will be annoying situations in the future.”
Finally, if they’ve proven themselves in the theory test, it’s onto the practical: “If their answers are decent, you invite them to roam with you for an evening to see how they fulfil their role. Are they getting lost all the time? Do they know what to do on grid?”
If they fly well, then they’ll be taken onboard on a trial basis which can last weeks or even months. As in real-life recruitment, who you know can be as important as what you know. greybill admits that someone vouching for you can help your chances “depending on the reputation of the person the vouch is coming from!”
A little more conversation
With each corporation taking radically different approaches to recruitment and leadership, nervous recruits should seemingly stop worrying about whether they suit the corp, but rather if the corp suits them. To coin a phrase, it’s not if the horse is a good fit for the shoe, but if the shoe is a good fit for the horse.
Some text has been edited for grammar and brevity. You can find the submissions in full at the original bounty post.
Image Credit: Razorien on Flickr
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