Cmdr Sy
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Posted - 2006.04.10 21:17:00 -
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A working knowledge of 0.0 politics is key.
0.0 Alliances have wildly different flavours. They range from tiny groups to entire civilisations, from the territorial to the nomadic, from the business-oriented to militaristic, from civilian bureaucracies to dictatorships and dare I say it, personality cults. Some strive for stability and avoid conflict, others fear peace as a sign of decadence and decline, and maintain a state of existential war, seeking out enemies where none exist, to maintain their vitality.
Some alliances are not formally registered at all, but are a close-knit community of corps which look out for each other.
Alliances are dynamic entities too, spending some of their time in the ascendant, confident and proud, some of their time in a state of collapse, cynical, weary and disillusioned. Some have their moment just once, others rise and fall in cycles. Many will move through periods where these characteristics vary from one month to another.
The attitude of an alliance to newcomers also varies with their fortunes. At times, some will hold recruiting drives where they sign up any sizeable industrial/PVP corp willing to risk the relocation and agree to the terms of their stay (POS in a particular system, NPCing in a particular set of systems, mining and refining at a particular station with restrictions on POS, NPCing, etc, possibly undertaking a share of gatecamp duties and so on). At other times, the industrial wing may be ejected, recruitment cease and the alliance downsized to a hard PVP core. Enforcement of KOS orders on all neutrals usually becomes far more rigorous, rather than being an opportunistic activity.
Often an alliance will mount a long military expedition, leaving their industrial base at the mercy of interlopers until the fleet's return. Sometimes a war fatally wounds an alliance and a swift decline follows. Thus an alliance member who does not have the luxury of affording to fight for their space, through a twist of fortune may find himself homeless, with assets stranded in hostile space.
These are things for which you have to prepare, if you are serious about actually living in 0.0 for any length of time. Read the forums, listen to chatter, find out which alliance is doing what. When you are ready, choose wisely, but bear in mind that you may be joining on the eve of a collapse, and you should have an insurance policy or two ready in Empire.
And one day a situation will come, as it did for me when I was 6 months into the game, where you feel safer and more satisfied deep in your 0.0 than you do in Empire. It is a beautiful feeling, and that is when you will have won EVE. 
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