A man without an army...

Once again I am sitting at my computer late at night because all of my friends are either out of town or passed out, wondering what the future holds for my (no, I'm not the CEO) corp. I think since the only people who read the blog are the people who wont get offended, I might as well be at least partially truthful.

Right now I am not enjoying the game as much as I normally would because my corp is not in a position TO pvp... Right now while me and my companion in crime Beowolf sit in the altcorp (which is in FW) the rest of wings is sitting in a lowsec carebearville grinding up thier federation standing enough to get into FW.

So its a slow ass crawl, and since im getting tired of FCing for FW fleets (and thats when I can get enough people to run a fleet) im really trying to push them to get their arses over here. I kind of enjoy participating in fleets, and im not BAD at solo pvp while im definitely not GOOD at it, so right now im sort of sitting stagnant in FW, changing skills often, and getting occasionally exited because as of now my alt is 10 days away from gallante carrier V (65d long skill).


I'm going to keep the posts coming, hopefully, but dont expect them to be extremely full of content.

The joys of not being responsible...

For the first time in at least 4 weeks, I participated in a fleet that I wasn't in charge of. In fact, I'm still participating in it right now. Its amazing what you can do when you don't have to constantly fret about kills, losses, and morale all at the same time.

Another thing I like about it is that it puts my style of FCing in perspective compared to other FCs, and whenever I run across a bad FC (Not this time fortunately) its a bit of a confidence booster.... Also, when you get a really GOOD FC, you learn things. Sometimes you learn from a BAD FC to, but that generally involves loosing a ship...... so not good....

How serious is to serious?

This is one problem I experience a lot, especially when im leading fleets of people who haven't flown with me before (such as coalition fleets, Faction warfare fleets, etc.) I, more often than not, don't really know where to draw the lines of "how serious" I am when leading a fleet. One thing to keep in mind is that I started pvping around serious people, who enjoyed being serious about pvp because it was thier fancy. Being the best. No doubt one can be had without the other.

So my question is this: How serious should you be about a video game?

Well truth is, I think its all a matter of perception. (Pushing aside the fact that people who join my fleets and dont like my style of FCing need to LEAVE) People who have a problem with me being serious about something should realize, that in many cases, corporate assets may be at risk, and all the times thier fleetmates are putting thier ships and pods on the line in order to beat up some hostiles. I feel a responsibility to the members of my fleet to lead them well and make thier ships go as far as they can in order to better everyones experience, if this means yelling at someone who is putting everyone at risk then I intend to. And I wont stop there. I Have shot at members of my fleet for disobeying orders before. And the thing that makes me know ive made the right descision is the fact that im not the only one from my fleet shooting at them :).


So what of pos warfare, capitals, and large value assets?

Recently ive implemented some "pvp policies" in the corporation that forbid the use of capitals in any kind of combat (even npc related) other than that sanctioned by a fleet commander (not just directors, ill probably rant about this later) . The reason for this, partially because I cringe everytime I see a capital killmail with 25 battleships and NPCs on it, but also because ive been in GBC before. They gank any capital they see ratting, then they remove your alliance from thier space. Now lets be honest, BOB knows thier shit, and I might be trying to be a "bob FC" but at least thats better than trying to be a "goon FC" (although I will admit, they can sing pretty good).

Fact is, people need to realize that they are an asset to thier corporation, and the corp directors/leaders can tell you to do something, and if you don't do it, then you can leave.

So, having said the above, I will answer the question of "how serious should you be about a video game?"


Answer: However serious Mr. Darkside feels like making it.

About to the darkside....

Well, I figure I might say some stuff about myself just so y'all know who I am and what I speak about.


I'm Darkside, the friendly (not so much sometimes) neighborhood Fleet commander for the corporation Wings of Daedalus and its altcorp Task Force Talon Security force (TFTSF). Right now, the term "Fleet Commander" is kind of a misnomer, its more of a "commander" because right now there isn't much of a "fleet". I know of a lot of corps that have 4-5 members often have titles such as "Capital fleet commander" and "grand admiral". I don't think of myself as one of these people though, I'm not new to the FC field though, and I will say Ive pulled out a few hat tricks in my day.

So right now my job is to turn the 40 some members of WiOD into a lean mean fighting machine, which is due to give me my fair share of headaches, stress, and disappointment. So right now im having more of an issue with trying to make a bunch of people, the majority of whom cant fly a tech 2 cruiser, more confident at fleet combat......and trying to kick their asses to get them into a position where they can.


But, more about me. As far as my charachter is concerned, I have quite a colorful skill list and employment history. I have been in small corps/alliances for most of my time playing, although I took a break a while ago to play with some of my friends in GBC (Pupule ohauna, and later Southern Cross Alliance). I enjoyed that, but it just left something to be desired. I discovered that that "something" was FCing, which is hard to get in an alliance where 3/4 of the people there have twice as much skillpoints as you do.... So now im back in WiOD, which is a merger of all the corps from the core collective, an alliance that was disbanded a while ago after being around for 2-3 years. I was the primary FC and while we weren't the best combat force around (with the pvp fleet of a medium sized corp) we generally got 15-20 people when a fleet was called for (and sometimes more for planned ops).

I started FCing in an alliance called "united for order" which was lead by the biggest douchebag Ive ever met to be quite honest. One week he was telling me he wanted me to FC for his alliance, and the next he was telling me I was an embarrassment to the alliance (that is, after I sided with someone else on an issue). So love me or hate me, I enjoy FCing, and I suppose I should thank one of my bigger enemies for it.

And if you think I suck, just wait till we meet on the battlefield.

Houston, we have blog

Well Ive started a blog, perhaps it was my extreme boredom, perhaps its my natural desire to write, perhaps its me not wanting to be outdone by my ceo. But whatever it is, I'm starting one.