EVE-Mag.com

Political Structures: Reaching for Liberty

Published on 27. Feb, 2009 ... written by Securitas Protector, Tags: Columns, Political Structures

My alliance, Liberty., disbanded. Normally, no one would care, and maybe no one does anyway, but there are a few lessons that one could learn from how we went from an alliance with control over an entire region with 500+ players to nothing in a matter of a month and a half or so.

So, what did we do wrong, and what rules can we make out of it?
To start with…

Never overextend yourself as an alliance – don’t take more space than you can hold.

First of all, Liberty came in and took Pure Blind by storm, even though we only had maybe 200 members at the time. Sure, it was some feat, and it’s very tempting, taking a whole region by ourselves(with some help) like that, but ultimately it was a very bad decision in the long run. Even at our peak member count, we could not consistently patrol our space and defend our outlying miners and ratters. This made it so that ratting in any of our systems was a dangerous expedition, and even in our “home” of P-2, we couldn’t evict raiders, simply because we were spread too thin.

It is very important to regularly have gatecamps and operations within your own space, to reassure your members that it is in fact, your space.

Always utilize the space you have.

Secondly, except for a few possible exceptions, we did not utilize our space to it’s full extent. Mining operations were few and far between, as were ratting ops, or even PVP ops in general. If we ever ran complexes, I never really heard about it. Don’t get me wrong, Liberty was a great alliance and great fun to be in, but even when we had an entire region under our dominion, it just wasn’t used to it’s fullest extent. I feel that if we had continually ratted and mined and built things while in Pure Blind, perhaps we could have resisted the eventual invaders with much more strength.

Host operations and many of them

Always keep your pilots engaged and doing damage to enemies, it makes them feel important and as if they have a purpose. When I was in Liberty, ops were few and far between, even to defend our own space or gatecamp. The more busy you keep your pilots, the more they feel as if they are in an alliance worth their time, ISK, and energy.

Keep participation up

Always be sure to keep your pilots engaged, and to have punishments(that are actually carried out) for those who do not participate. Often someone would call out an op and attendance would number less than 50% of online, active pilots, even those in the same system as the rally for the op; they simply didn’t come because they were ratting or “doing something more important.”

Communication, communication, communication

This might seem like an obvious one, but always keep constant contact between Alliance leadership and the grunts on the front line. Having a sense of where you are today, what your purpose is, and where you’ll be tomorrow is important for any pilot. Often, new moves were announced or carried through with some pilots staying behind or leaving POS’s or other assets behind. New policies and initiatives were carried out without widespread knowledge.

Ventrilo and/or Teamspeak are great tools for communication, as well as forum boards and alliance mail. One of the things that Liberty did do right is mandating that ALL pilots had to be on Teamspeak ALL the time-although even then, communication was limited at best. I often found myself doing things without knowing why or how this was going to advance our cause.

Choose your friends wisely

When we did move into Pure Blind, we were surrounded by the massive, extremely powerful Northern Coalition, and faced an IRON that no longer held space. Although we were allowed to stay for some time, this was a recipe for disaster. We did form our own small coalition, but when it came down to it, most of our friends did not stay with us and in fact turned on us. Thus, when the NC supported IRON’s bid to retake Pure Blind, we fell in a matter of days, perhaps a week at most.

Keep your players excited and in touch – stay together

After we were kicked out of Pure Blind by the NC, we had a quick period where we were in Empire, not much was going on, and people were leaving by the droves. Perhaps some of them were simply dead weight, but after nothing eventful happens for a few weeks, it’s hard to blame those who leave. After a few weeks in Empire, we did move to Fountain as renters, however, not everyone moved and Liberty was split, with some players left in Empire and some who moved to Fountain. Ultimately this led to a less cohesive alliance and further breakdowns in communication.

In conclusion

To clarify, I’m not attacking Liberty or it’s leadership at all; we had some great people in charge, and that’s why we got as far as we did, I’m glad I was a part of Liberty while it lasted, and if it ever reforms I will not hesitate to rejoin. However, in retrospect, we didn’t always make the best decisions, which is to be expected – nobody’s perfect and as alliances go I feel that Liberty was a great one, but I’m laying down our mistakes here so we can all learn from them. I know I, and many other ex-Liberty members, already have.