List the pros and cons of joining a corp or alliance!

Pros: A corp, especially a small corp of good players can give you great support and really accelerate your learning of the game. This has been my experience with my Corp with <20 people (active players). We have a blast, go on roams, and they've really upped my play quickly. They are associated with Goonsquad.

Cons: Being associated with Goons has been a really, really mixed bag. They can be organized, such as the war effort where they are crushing it.

But around their own home base, enemies gate camp all the time, and they're a Charlie Foxtrot. If you dare complain, you get laughed at at best, or told to go join Horde. This wasn't by some minor player either. Don't get me wrong, are some Great Goons, but it is an old, old Alliance. Think "Old Republic"... and there's a lot of rotten players in there too. I suspect you'll find that in all of (the alliances) though.

Pro: It gives you people to quickly, and easily, join a fleet with. This can be both fun, and profitable. They also give you the ships and the fits, so you aren't out-of-pocket to do this. They also have a huge amount (overwhelming really) of info on character building. Luckily, they also have chat channels where you can chat and sort out some of the information overload.

Con: You are an Instant Target. Regardless of what group you join, they have Enemies. Once you join them, you have Joined a Gang. All their enemies, are YOUR enemies, and will gank you, just for being associated. And for fun. In theory, your Alliance supports you against your enemies; in practice, unless you are in a fleet, you are a target for their roams (fleets) and you are unlikely to get any help if jumped. But if you are on a Roam, neither will they. Usually.

Take all of this with a Shaker of Salt. It is my Opinion, and Mine Alone. I've been playing about 3 months.

Pros: Being able to join a corporation and alliance allows you to expand your player base in generating contacts, people who you could fly with for weeks, months and in some cases years to come. This comes in handy when you want to start delving into the much deeper PVE stuff that requires fleets of ships, and planning for these becomes a bit easier. Then there is the world of PVP where you can start delving into the world of war decking and territory claim/expansion creating some great moments in the game that you will be a part of especially if it makes EVE headlines.

Cons: There is the time conundrum, as these corps and alliances do effectively run like a business time is money. Players may be required to partake in specific events at awkward times, which this becomes more important when looking at wars for space and your part of a Corp/alliance that plays in a completely different time zone (think USA players with a central European country player, it would not likely work). Then you also have the issue language barriers, you need to be able to speak the language of the group. And of course if you have to disappear for a while for real world stuff (which i had to at one point) you could return to you being booted from your corp and losing your stuff with no means to get it back.

Pros:

People to chat with
Activities to take part in
PvP battles that are epic
Access to higher-level content.
Making friends that can last a life time

Cons:

People to P*** you off
Being told what to do
Being told what to fly
Long hours sat around in null sec waiting for something to happen
People betraying you for their own personal goals.

Just a few pro's & cons.

From my point of view, Eve is a game that is build by its community, so there are mostly pros for joining a corp or alliance. I think you need to find a group of others to play with on the long run, but that does not necessarily have to be a corporation or alliance. There are many groups and communities that greatly value friendship and working together such as the NPSI organisations or ingame chat groups.

The pros of flying with a group are in my opinion:

• to be able to share your experiences,

• to learn from others,

• to belong somewhere,

• to have shared goals

• and even to gain real friends.

The cons would include:

• the amount of time it takes to grow with the group,

• a certain lack of self determination (the reason I'm not in an alliance)

• and the difficulty to find the right group

I am still always happy to encounter pilots I flew with when I was a very young player and I met people I would consider real friends on my way in New Eden. On the long run, other people to fly with are the reason I log in and I would advise every new player to find a group, a corp or a community to fly with! Take your time and find the right people, but they are out there and will greatly increase your fun per hour.

After all, the best ship is Friendship!

I am going to add this caveat right at the front - not everyone needs to be in a corp - but community and identity gives people the passion and desire to login to take part in contnent and to make eve more vibrant. To me, finding the right people is tough - you can continue as a solo pilot doing your own thing in eve, but with friends is where eve really shines.

Pros

Community, belonging and vibrancy - ie. Your space within space

Shared objective and goals

Show your value, and share your knowledge

The cons are more difficult to list, as it depends what position you resolve yourselves to within your coporation or alliance. If a line member, there aren't really too many cons - everyone knows that RL > EVE - and for anyone (corp CEO or line member or alliance exec) that says otherwise, means that setup is probably not going to be right for you!

Cons

Can be time consuming as a more advance line member