Posted - 2007.09.20 21:28:00 - [1]

 

Edited by: Kelduum Revaan on 20/09/2007 21:28:42
First, apologies in advance for the rather long post. I like to avoid being to verbose when I can, however the situation does dictate it somewhat.

Secondly, an introduction for those of those who aren't familiar with us - Ivy League is the alliance of Eve University, a neutral training corp founded over three and a half years ago, as the learning curve for new pilots then was actually steeper than is is now (believe it or not!).

Throughout this time, we have taken new pilots, trained them in various aspects of EVE, everything from PvP to Industry, and let them free into the great wilds to make their own name in the galaxy.

The instructors and management of E-UNI get no remuneration, and the small tax on bounties and mission rewards, along with donations from well-wishers and our directors, keeps the wallet in a generally positive position while we provide free skillbooks for members and maintain our network of offices in the starter stations.

Anyway, finally, I get to the point...

Recently, we have been the targets of a number of wars - while not exactly something we run and hide from, these do disrupt lessons, and typically restrict recruitment, preventing us form getting on with our mission of helping the new pilots.

In the last couple of months, we have somehow managed to attract around half a dozen wars, and we are somewhat at a loss to explain the sudden surge, as we previously went quite some time with no wars at all.

• We maintain a strict neutral stance - We do not get involved in affairs of others, and are strictly NRDS.


• We have strict policies regarding the do's and don'ts simply to avoid any issues, and discipline members who step out of line.


• We don't have multiple billions in the wallet - some people mistakenly believe we put the noobs to work in the Veldspar mines until we all have Titans.


• We are open and approachable - We have a public channel which people can drop in if they have any problems, and we have contacts on the Alliance info.

After speaking to representatives of the ones declaring war, the reasons have been invariably similar. Among them, in no particular order, are:

• We have around 1300 members - This is not entirely true. While we do have 1200 members on the books, we have around half that in active members (obviously Eve isn't for everyone), and far fewer in experienced PvP pilots.


• It would be fun - So far I haven't heard a good explanation for this, to be honest. Either they like to fight larger groups, and prefer difficult odds, or they are after easy kills of one week old pilots.


• Belief that we can (and in fact would be willing to) pay protection money - This really is a very puzzling concept. As mentioned, we don't have billions in the bank, and a volunteer teaching corp cant exactly rake in the ISK, when most of its members have less than 2 million SP and little more ISK in their wallets.


• We will fight when we need to - Although we aren't a PvP training corp, and don't claim to be, it is a large element of Eve and we will fight when it is called for. We do have a few experienced FCs, and occasional 'live fire' exercises are beneficial.

The only other things we have come up with is that we seem to be a nice easy empire target, and the recent entry in the Fourth Alliance Tournament raised our profile sufficiently so that we have become a target.

So, I am opening this up to the community. Are there any other reasons anyone can think of for anyone to declare war on a neutral volunteer teaching corporation? Is there anything any of our members did which we should know about? Or, is it simply 'for fun'?

--
Kelduum
Diplomat, Ivy League
Director, Eve University