The question we pose to our fellow bloggers for the first installment of the CKIAGFEBBC is, “What is the thing you hate/dislike most about the player run corporation you are in.”
Advanced Planetary Exports:
As you may have guessed, APE is mainly involved with industry, manufacturing, research, and some PvP. It's the executor corp of the Intergalactic Exports Group alliance, which compasses eight other corps. Our CEO talks about camaraderie and mutual respect between the corps, but it has unfortunately become tired rhetoric that has caused more than a fair share of corps to leave, having our member count slip to about three-fifths of what it originally was. Origins of the corp and alliance's regression can be traced from three specific problems.
The first problem has to deal with the location of the operations. When I first joined APE, it was based out of Sigga, in the Genesis region. There was low-sec access for mining and PvP, and the high-sec space was fair enough. However, there was no ideal trade hub in the area, and you had a go a long way to get to a good one (diodixe or jita). Corps based around these areas that were forced to come down into the pocket had to give up good standings, and restart with the local NPCs to get what they had previously. For several corps, this meant a reduction in the amount of isk that was made for a period of time, and if there was a war dec, then it could be put on hold for quite some time, which leads me into my next point, PvP.
Whenever there is call to form a fleet, it usually is comprised of members from APE, and maybe a few others from alliance, but usually only about a quarter of the members in alliance will participate in wars or roaming gangs, which chaps my ass. Yes, a lot of them mine and manufacture, but it doesn't take that much to fly a tech 1 frigate, cruiser, hell, even an industrial for tackle or ECM, and it's not that expensive. Sure, it's probably going to be lost, but it could decide whether or not the field is held in a engagement. What is sad is that these are people who have been playing for a year or more, and are cowering in stations or at POSs, complaining about getting ganked, while they have around three or more times the isk that I have, it's ridiculous.
The last problem that plagues APE is the lack of a general direction for what the members are supposed to do, and what specific niche each of us fall into. This stems from the three moves that we have had in the last couple of months, which were the result of our relations souring with other alliances. From Sigga, we moved out to the Forge, and from there, The Vale Of The Silent, where we occupied a small pocket. That fell through and now we're back in Amarr space in the Domain region, playing with ourselves until something happens. The "meetings" that have occurred throughout our escapades this bring up good ideas, but these are never brought to fruition. This wall of empty promises has started to become more foreign than reassuring.
In no way I am saying that APE is terrible, it's a great corp with some legit people from around the world. I've had some great times for the five months I've been with it, but to keep it from failing, there has to be some sort of unity and participation from it's members, and not just some tag line to say you belong in a corp that heads a decent sized alliance.
List of participants:
