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[Hali]

tl;dr Players can and should be allowed to join any NPC corp, and it won't break Eve.

Since the release of Faction Warfare, CCP has proven that player and even entire corps can fly under the banner of an NPC corp of their choosing, and that this has no serious consequences to the IP, the server, or any other part of the game.

And so I propose that this should be expanded, to allow players and player corporations to join virtually all NPC organizations, with perhaps the exception of CONCORD and Jovian corps. This has been a desire of almost every role-player within the game for quite a while, and could lead to greater immersion on the part of the larger Eve community.

There have long been a number of player corporations and even alliances which identify themselves with one or more NPC corporations, either as part of serious-business RP, or just for laughs. Some, such as VETO and Ghost Festival (Guristas and Angels, respectively) work on reputation alone. Others, such has Lai Dai Infinity Services and the Caldari Independent Naval Reserves, have actually made their chosen NPC organization a part of their name. This sort of immersion should be encouraged, as it helps integrate player organizations with the Eve IP in a subtle yet indelible way.

This could be expanded even further of course, allowing a slight acceleration of Loyalty Points for players that do missions for their chosen corps, or special corp-vs-corp mission chains in proper cyber-punk tradition, but these would just be add-ons really... the Name is the thing.

Though one potential drawback might be that Live Events characters would not be so instantly recognizable when posting on the Intergalactic Summit, this could be alleviated by merely displaying a stylized star or some other symbol within the post header, to signify that they are indeed a CCP controlled character. Overall, everyone would react to them in the same enthusiastic fashion as they already do..

Finally, it shouldn't be very hard to do:

After consulting with Chribba and some other veteran players in my research, I found that this was already the case at one point, with players able to join any corporation in the game, even Concord. This didn't protect them from being Concordokken'd at all, but they were able to do it. At some point though, CCP decided to change this, and so everyone not in a player corporation was shunted into one of a few default corps, such as Perkone or The Scope. Changing this back won't likely require much effort, and might even be considered among the 'low hanging fruit' category of CSM requests.

[Casiella]

I suspect CCP will not implement this because they want to drive people away from NPC organizations into player corps, as that step has a significant correlation with player retention.

[Ember Vykos]

I suspect CCP will not implement this because they want to drive people away from NPC organizations into player corps, as that step has a significant correlation with player retention.

That pretty much. I would like to be able to choose your starting school from more than just your own races though. It would make my backstory a bit easier since my char wasnt born in the Federation, but I'm just gonna ignore that bit and go on. 

[Ghost Hunter]

I suspect CCP will not implement this because they want to drive people away from NPC organizations into player corps, as that step has a significant correlation with player retention.

In whose favor?

I greatly disagree with the notion that players should not be allowed into the various NPC corps because of a reason as lopsided as that.

If players want to be in an npc corp, period, then they will be in one regardless of its name or fluff. Furthermore, many of the options in player corps are needed for any level of complex designs, so NPC corps are detrimental to people more often than not except for the saving grace of war dec immunity.

My personal example with TS-F and True Power. Would I have tried launching TS-F in proper if I and others could join True Power? Maybe. I have aspirations for things that require player corp mechanics, so I am in a player corp. If I didn't, I most likely would have just joined True Power and let those who wanted to come with tag along.

If the option to choose an NPC corp because it'd fit your style hurts player retention, that seems to speak of a bigger problem than the NPC corps to me.

[Casiella]

I just mean that joining player corps and all the stuff that surrounds that (social bonds, etc.) correlates very highly with players sticking with a game. Same holds true in any MMORPG, which is why guilds matter so much in WoW and such.

CCP has shown recently with features like the NPC corp tax that they want people to move into player corps rather than NPC corps. Whether or not they've reached the right conclusion, I think that's the decision they've made and will stick with for the foreseeable future.

[Major JSilva]

The CSM priority is null-sec since Mittens is now the CSM chairman man, not to mention its now controlled by the NC

So when they go to Iceland in a couple months and have a sit down with the CCP rep and talk what they want prioritized and suggestions, there gonna look at the list. Time Dialation vs. Joining NPC corp you want.I want time dialation, hell there are many things that need fixing before an idea like this came to light.

[Z.Sinraali]

I would be okay with this (my IC boss actually was in Thukker Mix for like 4 years), but I agree with the analysis that CCP will never, ever do it.

[Lyn Farel]

I still support/endorse this product, even if they won't.

[Casiella]

In fact, I'd suggest that for supporters of the four major factions, you have an approximation of this already available to you with factional warfare. Your corp can have the nice "Member of Minmatar Republic" or similar logo, the same as any NPC corp.

Ghost Hunter and Naraka and such are admittedly left out in the cold by this.

[Orestes]

I suspect CCP will not implement this because they want to drive people away from NPC organizations into player corps, as that step has a significant correlation with player retention.

Well, it stops being an NPC organization at the point players join it, doesn't it?

Or perhaps by player corps you mean 100% player-run, all the way up to the CEO. But then I'd say that even without CEOs and Directors there is still a lot of potential for emergence, player-driven content, and all the other things that help retention.

[Ghost Hunter]

In fact, I'd suggest that for supporters of the four major factions, you have an approximation of this already available to you with factional warfare. Your corp can have the nice "Member of Minmatar Republic" or similar logo, the same as any NPC corp.

Ghost Hunter and Naraka and such are admittedly left out in the cold by this.

They could honestly ghetto the faction war system over into a general Allegiance system pretty easily. Extreme standings penalties or artificial targeting lock out mechanics could write off the issue of a player shooting their own doods.

All that for a little pretty icon next to the corp logo that says you're part of that faction. Man that'd be awesome.

[Casiella]

I'm not opposed to any of the proposals here. On the contrary, I think that there's a lot of potential.

I'm just saying that it might be a challenge to convince CCP of the proposal, at least as it stands. Now an allegiance system, in which a corporation or alliance could throw its support to an NPC faction or corporation, that might get more traction.

You'll have to work around the CSM, but that's okay. They're only one avenue, after all.

[orange]

Since the release of Faction Warfare, CCP has proven that player and even entire corps can fly under the banner of an NPC corp of their choosing, and that this has no serious consequences to the IP, the server, or any other part of the game.

Faction Warfare allows individual players to join 1 of 4 NPC Militia corporations in addition to the 1 of 12 Schools or 1 of 12 holding corporations.  The NPC Militia corporations are not particularly different from the holding corporations or school corporations.

Faction Warfare allows player corporations to join 1 of 4 NPC Factions (ie NPC Alliances) and fight on their behalf.  The mechanics are different and the NPC Faction does not behave like an Alliance might (letting your enemy dock in your stations for example).  I don't think anyone has tried to claim null-sec sov on behalf of one of the fourt empires and I don't think you can.

There have long been a number of player corporations and even alliances which identify themselves with one or more NPC corporations, either as part of serious-business RP, or just for laughs. Some, such as VETO and Ghost Festival (Guristas and Angels, respectively) work on reputation alone. Others, such has Lai Dai Infinity Services and the Caldari Independent Naval Reserves, have actually made their chosen NPC organization a part of their name. This sort of immersion should be encouraged, as it helps integrate player organizations with the Eve IP in a subtle yet indelible way.

There are three cases here and I will start with the "easy one."  CAIN (and PIE) is a member corporation of the Caldari State (and Amarr Empire) and fighting on its behalf already. I do not think CAIN is interested in folding itself into the Caldari Navy corporation.

VETO & Naraka. (Ghost Festival) both are alliances, but perhaps they would be interested in closing their alliances given the opportunity to do what CAIN or PIE can do now with their respective faction.  There are others interested in being able to sign up for just that with other factions as well.  So, perhaps joining an NPC faction should be looked at and what mechanical hurdles/benefits/downsides should exist.

LDIS would lose capabilities it uses by folding into any NPC corporation under the current mechanics.  If there was a way to join the Lai Dai family of corporations (Lai Dai, Top Down, & LDPS) and gain some small benefit beyond what can be acquired via standings grinds, we might pursue it.  We might also "rejoin" the Caldari State if there was more to it than FW. 

What could be of benefit to everyone would be an mechanic/entity in between corporation and alliance/faction.  Lets call it the conglomerate.  A conglomerate can not do certain things, like claim sovereignty or rent station offices.  But a conglomerate provides some of the more immediately useful mechanics of an alliance, like common standings & wars.  LDIS might in this case join the Lai Dai conglomerate, which the NPC corps are part of along with some other interested corps.  An NPC conglomerate would be part of an NPC faction and be subject to any wars it has on it*.  This would let alliances like I-RED, VETO, Naraka., CVA choose to desolve form a conglomerate and join there favored faction.  Did I mention I envision the NPC faction PC corps & conglomerates being able to claim sovereignty in null sec for their faction?

*Dealing with making the schools "safe" and changes to the holding corps likely required.  Interbus as the new holding corp for everyone with a really high tax?

[lallara zhuul]

As always with EVE, with a proposal like this the first thing you should do is think how could it be abused?

I don't even want to go there.

Then how could it be used in propaganda wars?

I don't want to go there either.

Bad, BAD, idea.

[Alain Colcer]

What could be of benefit to everyone would be an mechanic/entity in between corporation and alliance/faction.

This.

You are a capsuleer, not an employee of a major NPC corp, which btw, hires regular people as employees and hires your services for as contractor doing mission runs. Such relation is good and maintains the status quo between normal people and podders.

But the creation of a mechanic to "flag" your corporation or organization aligned to a certain faction, imposing restriction and providing benefits, sounds much more appealing in my view. This could be a big step to revitalize low-sec:

A "corruption" expansion portraying a fight between empire factions and pirate factions for the control of the border zones.

If i'm not mistaken this was already mentioned a couple of times in the Eve vegas gathering or the eve-o forums.