Every player has a role to help them meet their goals.
And those goals are met via your corporation.
All EVE Online players are divided into groups known as “corporations.” Simply put, a corporation is a collection of individuals organized with a particular purpose or goal in mind. Corporations are comparable to “clans” in most other online games.
Alliances are groups of corporations.
Corporations consist of anywhere between a single pilot or hundreds of pilots. Alliances work the same way, encompassing anywhere from two to dozens or even hundreds of corporations.
Corporations and alliances are run much like companies or teams are organized and run in the real world, with a single leader or board of directors crafting policy, rules, operations, and incentives for the corporation members to participate on or by which they are guided. A tax rate can be imposed on any income over $100,000 received by pilots of the corporation, and this tax helps to fund corporate operations and pay expenses (like rental fees).
Corporations establish their legitimacy by setting up “offices” in stations or headquarters in Citadels. Both allow the corporation to gain a foothold and set up station hangars to store and share items and ships between members. Some members may be assigned certain roles in the corporation that gives them access to certain items or features (such as auditors to review records, access to item boxes and hangars, and the ability to recruit or remove members). Alliances operate in similar fashion, and can claim sovereignty and territory in null-security space.
A pilot can join a corporation simply by reviewing a corporation’s profile page and clicking “Join.” Much like a traditional job, a pilot’s application may be reviewed by a recruiter, who may contact the pilot with a series of questions. Joining alliances requires some more finesse and political engagement. Diplomatic representatives and CEOs will often engage each other in dialogue to discuss joining or forming alliances. In the case of null-sec alliances, the dialogue will be more in-depth and may come with concessions, business deals, or territorial exchanges.
Once you join a corporation, your profile and employment history will change to reflect your enlistment into said corporation. You may have access to certain parts of the corporation’s office and hangar if those are available. As a corporation member, you will gain access to Corporate chat, allowing you to communicate directly with your corporation members. If the corporation is part of an Alliance, you will gain access to Alliance chat, and any hangars and structures the alliance has set up, if the access is permitted.
As a corporation and even alliance member, you will be able to participate in alliance fleets and operations. Some major alliances may even impose a certain number of hours of flight time as a requirement for remaining in the alliance. Participation in fleet operations for some null-sec alliances is a requirement to maintain enlistment.
Goals and missions of corporations vary between groups. Some may be mercenary bands which hire out their combat services to those in need of protection (or removing their adversaries). Others may be industrial groups of miners and manufacturers. Others may be social groups who mostly talk and roam the stars. Others may be pirate bands who engage anyone who is foolish enough to stumble into their space.
Corporations and alliances are as diverse as the player base, and all share one major goal: bring pilots together, to fly together, and to play the game that has made all of us immortal.
