Most of my material related experiences in eve, be they corp theft or betrayal for profit, have not really affected me massively due to a paranoid practice of compartmentalizing collective and personal wealth so very little can actually be stolen. The big change in this occurred in 2009, when I was Executor of New Eden Retail Federation - a scrub renter alliance clinging on in Fountain renting from Talos/BoB and locals (alternating depending on who claimed to be the current landowner).
System management went pretty well, our membership grew and trade was pretty well stimulated as our logistics team only ran weekly ops, so providing local goods was essential to our 'meeting rent' and making profit. Issues started when people couldn't make their rent contributions. Seeing this as temporary, I and some friends foot the bill on the understanding we'd get a portion of our money back (we knew they wouldn't pay us back in full AND make more rent). The caveat is that we would need to be more involved in what they were doing, or they would have to let us know they cannot make rent in advance, rather than trying to hide it.
This led to a massive furball of a situation, essentially leading to a wannabe illuminati starting up among those corporations unable to meet their tiny obligations to the whole, while the three core corporations managed to keep them in null AND profit. Despite no sanctions, continued 'loans' to pay their share and no threat of recouping the money, the political and social landscape got pretty toxic as people started to blame each other for various things beyond our control (Panda Team had started harassing the region with Titan bridge attacks, so people less experienced in evading such drops felt insecure). Unwilling to be 'lectured' (as they put it) on how to make money, advice on avoiding cynodrops fell on deaf ears, and ships started to die in droves. The little respect we had from our landlords was only maintained by fighting hard and providing capitals for Talos' wars, as our losses got mentioned frequently as a reason for Panda's continued interest in the region.
In the end, every corp and alliance meeting turning into a giant blame game didn't suit me one bit. I transferred command to the main military corporation, ensuring people would think twice about hitting each other on the way out and withdrew my corporation from the region, then the alliance, offering free jump freighter services to any who needed them. Good stack of profit, lots of lessons learned, but thoroughly put off of high level internal politics as a result, simply because the lack of candid admission early in the 'debt crisis' some corps were in, resulted in an inquisitorial culture springing up just to find out how much the 'big three' were having to put up for the rest of the alliance. Fortunately no friends lost, as the walls were raised pretty early on, and so I never really got to know the individuals largely responsible for rabble rousing.
Off the back of this my interest in piracy, wormholing and general trading grew, so it was formative, but at the time a constant source of stress, knowing I was going to be chairing a volatile and generally unpleasant meeting of shamed, blame-gaming and unfulfilled spaceship men and women on a weekly basis.
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Topic: Your Most Horrible Experience In EVE (Read 22937 times)