EVE Online at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

Fixing Morale

The best way to motivate your people is to enable then to win victories (especially in PvP). If this is impossible, you may want to give them goals. They can be lofty goals, but there should probably be goalposts, including ways and means that the players can work toward the final result.

• Moving to null-sec space (usually by renting from an alliance or living out of a POS).
  
• Building a supercapital (perhaps a Nyx or less realistically, an Avatar).
  
• Accumulating enough planetary interaction materials and minerals to build a station in null-sec.

I have been in corporations with all of those goals. Unfortunately, most of them never took any real steps to actualize them. As the months and years went by, the members in these corporations drifted away in favor of groups that were actually working toward their goals.

The best way to motivate your members toward these goals is to explicate in as much detail as possible the plan to realize them, and then regularly update how much progress is being made. Graphs of ISK collected, checklists of materials needed, whatever it takes.

A word to the wise: I don't know precisely why, but building a station is one of the most motivating things in EVE Online. People like the idea of leaving a permanent mark on EVE, and like the idea of customizing space. Everybody can make use of a station. Everybody sees how stations are useful. If stations are being built, then CEOs aren't spending the money on ships that only they can fly, or on private projects that do not really pay out dividends. Stations have relatively fixed costs, and you can work toward them by stockpiling the materials, buying the part BPCs, and by setting up planetary interaction colonies that produce the goods needed to construct them.

Big Solution #1: Start A Splinter corporation

Starting a new corporation from scratch is terrible. Effective EVE Online corporations need to grow organically, with friends inviting friends until it reaches a critical mass and snowballs into a group with serious numbers of pilots. If you try to force it, you get disinterest pilots that never quite get around to moving to where your corporation lives, or amateur-hour carebear trash that can't ever be self-sufficient, even when carebearing in high-security space.

What you can do is thumb your nose at the sky, yell "screw this leadership" and create a new corporation with your friends from an existing corporation. This skips the awkward "is this ever going to be a real corporation" phase and transplants an already functioning group of personnel into a new situation. Hopefully with more motivated leadership and the removal of less effective players from your midst, the new corporation can get back to doing what it does best, and continue growing and thriving.

This may involve problems if your former corporation has existing diplomatic ties. Will the new corporation be able to make the same friends as the old corporation? Or were the existing diplomatic ties contingent on people that have not joined your splinter corporation?

Other problems might arise based on territory. If your corporation operates in high-sec, the old corporation may well declare war and cause operational problems for you. In low-sec or w-space, you may find that your usual stomping grounds are no longer safe, and that former allies that know your every trick are ready to make your life more difficult. In null-sec you will need to worry about sovereignty, starbases, station, and possibly having your rental agreement revoked (if applicable).

All this should be carefully considered before you form a splinter corporation, and only carried through as a last resort.

Big Solution #2: Step Up To The Plate

Another general fix is to be a leader in all but name. Get organized, get active, and help your fellow corporation mates help themselves. Run roaming PvP fleets or mining ops. Set up courier services for your fellows, bringing them equipment from Jita or wherever. Give away blueprint copies from your private stash.

If people are logging into EVE Online to participate in corporate activities, they will be more engaged, happier, and have a better appreciation for their corporation. The worst enemy of a corporation is boredom. Fight boredom, and save your corporation.

Big Solution #2: If All Else Fails

Well, you gave it your best shot, but a dead horse can't run in a race. If the corporation is really in a nose dive, and it is hurting you just to deal with this week's corporate drama, it may be time to exit. Depending on your personal preferences, it may also be time to kick your failing corporation while it is down! If there are unsecured goods, take them. If you know that you are on your way out, take out loans from other members of your corporation. EVE Online is a dog eat dog world, and it is probably best to help put your now-hopeless corporation out of its misery with a few final nails in the coffin.

That's all for now. May you never have need of this guide!