Thursday, February 04, 2010

OUCH is readjusting itself

OUCH is no longer a member of the alliance we were part of. Things went chaotic very quickly after the alliance executor decided to create a new corp and effectively go his own way. He tried to drag OUCH along for the ride, and I was torn between doing what I felt was best for OUCH and the goals I had for it, and doing what a number of corp members wanted - which was to follow the new corp.

In the end it got quite messy after I ended up vetoing his attempts to take control of OUCH's destiny. He then tried to manipulate OUCH members into following him instead of me, and used comments taken out of context to 'prove' to everyone in OUCH how much of a bad idea it would be to stay in OUCH.

If one were so inclined, one might suspect he was even paid by some other training organisation in the game to do what he could to destroy us, as it looked like that was his intention. His attempts to manipulate OUCH's failure were very, very obvious. But it's a good thing I don't believe in such conspiracies.

Politics is a funny creature, isn't it?

Like anywhere in this world, there are people who will fall for the manipulations of others, and so it is in OUCH too. A number of members have left OUCH to follow the one that tried to destroy it. I wish them well.

I remember a time long ago when I ran another corp called Black Scorpion Ltd. I had a trusted Director who put so much into the corp to help it grow, but then he didn't agree with how I handled a war so he provided intel to the enemy in order for the corp to die in a screaming heap. I won that war, and I found out what he did and kicked him out.

Every time I think I can trust someone in this game, they prove to me that I can't, and that I shouldn't have in the first place. Corp thefts, political drama... It's all such bullshit.

So no one can be trusted any more. It's a real shame, but such is the nature of this game.
They fuck you and fuck you and fuck you, and just when you think it's over, that's when the real fucking begins!
- Conrad, The Game
So no one has full access to hangars any more. No one has access to the corp wallet. No one gets any major assets given to them for corp or personal use without first providing a signifcant collateral so that it's not in their interest to steal it. They get that money back after returning the asset.

I'm talking about freighters, in this case. The corp is still giving away free ships to its members, and that won't be changing in the short term, although we'll be moving to a different business model soon. Basically, any ships that get donated to the corp will be given to its members to fly and use for their training or personal use. Any ships that the corp builds for its members will be sold to them at 80% of retail value. So we'll be working on a combination of donated items handed out for free, and built items sold cheaply.

I rcognise this past month has made me cynical about the people behind the characters in this game, but that's not going to stop me from driving forward with the goals for OUCH. The nullsec training continues, and now even stronger than ever.

What we're left with is over 150 members who are committed to the ideals of OUCH. We've had our 'trial by fire' to see who is loyal and who's not, and I'm impressed with what's come out of it.

We have our blues in the area, who are happy we're staying. There will be continued training operations, along with joint training and PVP operations for the purpose of training and clearing out our own territory. We have 2 POS's for moon mining to help bring in an income, and we're looking at a third POS for building and researching over the next few weeks.

The corp is being restructured to facilitate a more focused and dedicated approach, and a lot of people are working together to help make that happen. In just over a month I'll be ready to create my own alliance, and our blues can come together under a single umbrella.

Our future looks bright! Where's my shades...

7 comments:

  1. Good luck. I've been following your travails for some time now.

    "So no one has full access to hangars any more. No one has access to the corp wallet. No one gets any major assets given to them for corp or personal use without first providing a signifcant collateral so that it's not in their interest to steal it. They get that money back after returning the asset."

    Those are all good policies that really should have been in place at the start. I think you got lucky to have learned that lesson so cheaply. A lot fo corps have completely failed based on ineffective or non-existent security policies.

    "What we're left with is over 150 members who are committed to the ideals of OUCH. We've had our 'trial by fire' to see who is loyal and who's not,..."

    If an organization or organizations is determined to undermine your efforts, I would not be so sure that your "blues" are true blue. Have a good time and fly as safe or unsafe as you wish, but I would not completely trust anyone when you believe you have an active competitor. A good counter-espionage branch should remain a priority and dare I say it offensive counter-intelligence operations are also your friend.

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  2. Yes, it's all a conspiracy against you.

    It has nothing to do with bad management or a lack of communication. It also couldn't have anything to do with reneging on promises made. I'm sure those had no bearing in any decisions made by the students. Right?

    No, it must be Eve Uni or some other training corp doesn't want you moving in on 'their turf'. That seems a far likelier situation. &_&

    How about instead of divining conspiracy theories you just own up to the mistakes you made instead of insulting the people that helped get OUCH where it is today? It's disrespectful and is making it very hard to view you in a good light. There's a lot you're doing right, but you really screwed the pooch (and a few of your students) on this one.

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  3. The only real mistake I made, which will never happen again, is put myself into a situation where I feel like I have to answer to someone else. It never leads to anything good.

    You can't please everyone all the time, so I don't bother. Those that try are idiots. Those that expect someone to try and please everyone are idiots too.

    OUCH has goals and a vision. Those that support it will continue to be part of OUCH, and help make OUCH better and stronger. Those that don't support it are better off finding their own destiny.

    Yes, mistakes were made, but that's part of the game, and part of learning and growing. "OMG! Our CEO made a mistake! Right, that's it - I'm leaving!" I don't need that crap, so I'm glad this experience has occurred to get rid of those kinds of people.

    Those that don't like how things are run are always welcome to leave, and I encourage them to do so.

    Out of 180 members we lost maybe 20 to the manipulations and attempts at destabilising the corp. I know that's a significant number for some corps, but was about 11% of OUCH's total. Seeing as how we gained 180 members in about 6 weeks, I don't think 11% of the corp jumping ship to follow someone else is a big deal. It just means they didn't share the same vision, and that's ok.

    11% of an average corp of about 40 members is 4, just to add a bit of perspective.

    So, I hope there's not going to be any more petty bickering on this blog, because if there is, I'll just have to delete such comments. It's my blog after all.

    Also, I'm not sure why you mentioned Eve Uni, as if I did, unless it's some misguided attempt to continue trying to cause trouble for me and OUCH. There are a lot of training organisations in Eve, so stop trying to make this about only one of them.

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  4. Latro, you raise good points, and I'll keep them in mind. Thank you :)

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  5. I bring up Eve Uni becuase of the recent post you made about how Eve Uni trains carebears (they totally do too) and your reference to "some other training org".

    I wish OUCH the best of luck in their future enveavors.

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  6. Hey Ouch. I saw this post via the Eve Blog pack. Id like to assure you Agony has had nothing to do with anything that would hurt your corp. I can tell youre very dedicated to this. And quite frankly the game needs more people like you. We have to turn people back from classes because they fill up so fast. Im not saying that to try some backhanded recruitment here. Blackclaw is very dedicated and anyone getting trained by him is going to get his best. Youre just going through some of the same growing pains we have gone through. We were and still are, on the receiving end of alot of criticism for having the audacity to want to train people pvp skills. We wish you the very best. Agony would like to have a more collegiate relationship with the other teaching organizations in Eve. If youd ever like to discuss a problem and see how we handled it just pm me in game. Not saying how we handle things is better.

    Fly reckless
    Rocinantae

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  7. WTE members, will you please refrain from posting inflamatory items here on BC's blog?

    Thanks.

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