Can Anything Stop the CFC?

Now that the Fountain war is all but over, TEST has decided to pull back to Delve, and 6VDT is behind us, I look to the future.  But I'm not sure it's very bright.

For as long as they've both been around, the HBC and CFC have had a quasi stalemate, neither organization making or attempting to make any all out assaults.  That all changed once TEST left HBC and Odyssey rolled out, of course.  We're all

well aware of the current events in EVE right now, so let's not dwell on that too much. Instead, let's speculate on what these recent events may foretell for the future of EVE.

According to Dotlan, TEST alliance is still the second largest alliance as far as sovereignty, as far as outposts go.  They lead the members list by a pretty decent margin, too.  So how is it that CFC was able to roll through a slightly larger force relatively easily?  Well, finances, for one.  A lot has been spoken on TESTS financial state recently, so we won't dwell on that much either.  In fact, TEST probably won't be mentioned much more from here on out.  I just wanted to make a comparison between the strengths of TEST and CFC, at least on paper.  Now we'll talk about what that means for the Goons.

If Goonswarm & Co. can take on the largest single alliance, crippling and marginalizing their existence in a few months, is there any hope for any other alliance?  Granted, at this point there doesn't seem to be any real reason for CFC to launch another offensive anywhere else in the galaxy, but what if there was?  What if another alliance, equal to the strength of TEST (or maybe even larger), held something of value to CFC?  Could they ever hope to hold it?

Purely from recent events, I'd say no.  The logistical strength accompanied with the numbers and activity of CFC seem to be too strong for any real opposition to rise up against them.  An organization would have to appear overnight that is immediately as powerful as the CFC to have a chance; they'd squash any rising powers that they viewed as a threat before they could actually become a threat.

Now, personally, I'd love for nullsec to be a fractured environment, dozens of equally small entities fighting tooth and nail over valuable resources.  But I think nullsec organizations are a lot like the mafia: they're ready to fight, ready to kill, but they'd rather split the profits and have peace if it means the Dons can still rake in the money with little real threat.  I don't know if there's ever a way that nullsec groups will not gravitate towards a unified front, trying to deflect any potential dangers to their income stream.

But even if they all group together, how could they possibly resist the CFC?

What is the True Measure of a Mercenary's Worth?

I'm sure many of you are aware that Poetic Stanziel wrote a "humorous" blog comparing Noir. Mercenary Group to one man in Gallente faction warfare.  He claims that Noir.'s high cost to hire is not worth it since one man can wrack up more kills in faction warfare during 30 days than the entire Noir. Mercenary Group alliance can in three weeks.  Clearly this is a straw man argument.  But, some people may genuinely wonder why Noir. Mercenary Group can consistently charge large amounts of ISK for a contracted service.  Well, let's see.

Let's start first by focusing on Delve, the location of the most recent NMG contract.

Education Overload

When I first volunteered to help Noir. Academy, we had just lost the CEO.  I originally only offered to help with recruitment, that is to say I volunteered to interview applicants and post the results.  I didn't feel I had time to do the actual training; the schedule took a lot of work and effort to maintain.  Despite only offering to lend a hand in the most simple of ways, I was soon tapped to become the replacement CEO.  Quite a far cry from bottom rung helper.  That really didn't bother me, though. I had just started this new gig where I was being paid $9/hour to play ARMA 3.  I only did 20 hours a week, which was enough to pay my bills and rent and stuff.  Pretty sweet, right?

So even though I quite unexpectedly found myself in a position to play EVE a lot I was still wary of that schedule that was already in place.  At this point, we had gone through three CEOs.  Nidia Masters was the first, helping get the program running.  He was there for the longest, too.  Next was Cass Dyson.  He was in charge for a little less than a year.  And lastly there was Linetel, who I replaced.  He also was in the CEO position for around a year.  The program had changed a lot since Nidia was the CEO.  It was a one month program back then, the program I went through.  It had evolved, turning into a longer, more in-depth program over the years, which I felt was good.  But like I said, I was wary of the overhead that was required of leadership to keep the program running smoothly.  There was a different event set six days out of every seven that had to be planned, initiated, run, and recorded; there were quizzes that had to be written, graded, and recorded;  there were contracts that had to be planned, coordinated, run, and recorded.  No wonder so many people had burned out before me.

Commitment Problems

Ever since I first realized that people blogged about games I was interested in doing the same.  For me, it started with Warhammer Online, which was also my first real MMO that I got personally involved in.  I led a fairly successful, well known, and respected guild that focused on the high-end PvP.  We weren't as big or strong or have as much weight to throw around as a few of the others, but we were definitely up there.  I tried to blog once a week concerning that game, but I didn't keep it up for long.

Fast forward a few years and I've finally been involved with EVE Online like never before.  I'm logging in a lot, I'm really enjoying it, I'm understanding what's going on, finally.  So, I figure I'll start blogging again.  This was back when I was a pirate (back when people thought pirates were still a viable career path), and I figured I'd have a lot to talk about.  What an adorable newb I was.  In reality, my pirate corporation didn't do much more than gate camp hours on end with no action.  I wrote a few blogs before my interest waned.

Another few years fast forward.  I'm watching the Alliance Panel at the 2011 Fanfest.  I see Alekseyev talking about Noir. Academy.  I had just resubbed a month or two earlier, but saw myself already falling into the same downward spiral I entered every time I tried EVE.  So I joined, hoping it could save me, and sure enough it did.  Renewed and reinvigorated, I tried blogging again.  No luck.

A year or so later I left Noir., not excited about the direction the corp was heading in terms of its alliance choices, and joined faction warfare.  Many members in my corporation blogged, so I thought I'd try my hand, too.  I posted a few times, but found faction warfare boring.  I rejoined Noir. just as we were leaving Black Legion, which was my main issue when I left.  Since my most recent blog, this one, was for faction warfare, it quickly fell unused again.

Well, here I am again.  The blog is going to focus mainly on my thoughts as the CEO of Noir. Academy, the program that got me, finally, heavily invested in EVE in all its glory, frustration, and joy.  I've been the CEO of Noir. Academy for about five and a half months now, and I've definitely learned a lot.  Maybe this is the position I've needed to be in to be able to blog efficiently, just as I needed to be a part of Noir. to play efficiently?

We'll find out together.