If you were to ask the average Eve player what is the most valuable resource in all of Eve? It would be curious to see what response you would get. I'm sure many would immediately propose that is was Technetium and its derivatives or other rare moon goo. Some may suggest that certain Null Sec regions with good ratting belts, DED sites, and anomalies are the most valuable. Others may argue that expensive or powerful ships are the most valuable.
My answer to that question would be simple, its the players and pilots themselves, the Human resource. Without active pilots no Alliance could achieve any of its goals. In the current state of the game, the success of any one battle usually rests with the side that can rally the most troops. This has almost always been the case in real world history also. Sure, technology advantages can act as force multiplier, as well as disciplined training, and tactics. But given an equally equipped and motivated force those with greater numbers and resources usually prevail thru attrition. In Eve the technology gap is not very small, even between a Drake and Tengu, its not enough to prevail with significantly fewer numbers. The success of CFC and HBC are testament to that. Aside from just the combat potential of a large membership, there is also the scaled wealth generation both for the alliance thru taxes and the individual income for the pilots themselves. Simple math tells us 1000 pilots each with 5bill have more wealth than 100 with 10bill.
You may suggest that I'm just pointing out the obvious, that any large alliance is stronger that a small alliance. It is obvious, yet I'm astonished at how many Null Sec alliance/corps don't seem to get this. There are many sov holding alliances/corps, that have a disdain for newer pilots or have such restrictive entry requirements that only the elite can enter them. Many of these corp/alliances consider themselves as Elite PvP centric and set the entry bar high either thru SP or killboards stats. Rather than growing their alliances in the same way as nations they are more of an exclusive club, where being a member is a form of status. In fact letting the average bad pilot into there club degrades its worth. Not every alliance acts this way, CFC and HBC are looser in there entrance requirement but they still have their own forms of exclusion in terms of culture.
The so called Elite PvP alliances often complain of the blue blob tactics and the state of the game, and often when they lose space they declare they don't care about Sov anyways. We can all see thru that, of course Sov matters, its a human condition to want a homeland, even nomadic cultures. I believe the age of the Elite PvP alliance is now in its final decline. The recent collapse of AAA is the perfect example. AAA was one of the most skilled PvP alliances to ever exist and only the best performing corps could remain. Like a care salesman at the bottom of the sales list, if pilots or corps don't perform, they get the boot.
I was previously a member of another PvP centric alliance called NulliSecunda, and I would describe them as an average alliance who aspired to be like AAA. They had very skilled FC's, and well thought out fleet concepts but for all that eliteness combined with support of an even greater AAA eliteness, they were woefully ineffective against the "blueblob" HBC and CFC. They were trounced out of Delve/Querious in a matter of weeks. Nullisecunda has regrouped and formed a new coalition N3 to consolidate the south that AAA has vacated. There coalition is a collection of some of the best PvP alliances in the game. Unfortunately, I don't think they will be successful, the Elite PvP model is not tenable against the model that the HBC and CFC uses.
HBC and CFC are more successful simply because they have more active pilots. Their hold on the memberships is due more to a combination of space communism and Internet culture. However, one thing that I believe all these alliances have in common is that they do not respect their membership. When a new alliance forms that respects its members, is openly accessible, and allows members to share in the resources within the sovereignty, then we will have an alliance that players will flock too and a power bloc to contend with. I hope to form my own alliance in that model.
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