25 October 2006

More Than An Alliance?

What is BoB?

We started out during the Great Northern War in Eve as a collection of PvP corps dedicated to the downfall of the Phoenix Alliance (PA). Back then we knew very little about each other other than the fact that we made an effective combination of corporations.

Since then we've grown to know each other well, we've fought many large campaigns alongside each other and we've developed this 'thing' called Band of Brothers that none of us ever intended to begin with.

Our alliance started life as the "Cookies Cake and Pie Alliance"! However, CCP (Crowd Control Productions - the makers of Eve) soon asked us to change that for obvious reasons. We'd been thrashing our opponents so regularly that there were many accusations of us cheating, hacking or receiving preferential treatment from CCP that it made sense to change our name, cool as it was, because we needed then and need now no preferential treatment from CCP or anyone to achieve what we have acheived. Our achievements are based on one simple fact, we are there for each other on the field of battle no matter the personal loss and 'accursed' (you'll get that reference in a minute if you don't already) do we consider ourselves if we miss the opportunity to stand by our brothers and sisters.

As a purely irreverant act the alliance was named Bob with no deliberate meaning behind the three letter monicker. Immediately there was a deluge of suggestions as to what Bob stood for by our enemies from Band of Blobbers to far less savoury (and often dildo related o.O) versions. I don't remember who came up with Band of Brothers and should therefore be partially be credited with the creation of our online gaming brand but someone did and it stuck.

We've grown to fulfill that name which stuck to us and these days a Band of Brothers we are indeed.

When we discussed what BoB stood for internally we of course recognised that it was never intended to mean anything other than two fingers to CCP for nerfing our original alliance name, however we understood at some level the important opportunity this gave us and got into the search for a theme behind the irreverant Bob name which started out as a joke.

Lots of people assume that the then popular HBO series by the name of Band Of Brothers influenced our decision and perhaps for some of our members it did. The story of Easy Company, the 506th Parachute Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division is easy to identify to for a group of mainly young men enjoying the camaradery of a wargame of Eve's nature. However, it was a much older refererence highlighted by one of our members that really made the monicker of Band of Brothers stick internally and it comes from a much more classical source.

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Taken from Shakespeare's Saint Crispin's day speech allegedly given by Henry V prior to the battle of Agincourt this passage is what convinced us that Band of Brothers was the right name for our alliance, forged in the bitterest of Eve wars to date and tested on the field of battle the messages in Hal's speech are what our alliance has come to embody over the years.

Why do I bring this subject up now?

Well I suppose it is partly because people who do not understand us or seek to score propaganda points currently try to expose a weakness in our unity and it is partly because I got home this last Sunday evening from one of Evolution's Director's houses after a weekend of beer, friendship, damn good lamb curry(!) and a reminder of how much more than an amalgamation of a few Eve corporations this alliance really is.

Fi'tzeh of Evolution hosted five other BoB CEO's and Directors at his house for a weekend of fun and games. In attendance were Fitz, Rift Scorn (of BNC), Dianabolic (of RKK), Alasse (of TAOSP), Farjung (of TAOSP) and myself (of BNC).

It wasn't a particularly exciting or enlightening weekend from the perspective of the current ASCN war other than the fact that it took several of our best FC's and most charismatic leaders out of the fighting for the weekend but it is indicative of how BoB is not just a group of counterstrike kiddies contributing nothing to society, enconsed in their mother's basements looking for the Sword of a Thousand Truths!

Of course one weekend with six players out of the 1600 accounts (and approximately 500-600 real people) in BoB does not make us anything special. However, it is indicative of what our alliance is like.

Whilst we were arranging to have our weekend of curry, beer, Eve, fireworks called 'Apocolypse' (yes we really found one and yes we bought it and set it off!), giving Fitz shit for being a Chelsea fan and generally having a damn fine lads weekend, another two BoB meets were being planned on our forums. Some of the UK guys are getting together next weekend and we are already planning our annual barbeque for 2007 somewhere in Europe.

My general point is that our Band of Brothers has evolved way beyond a collection of faceless gamers strung out across the globe, we're as united as ever before and we're more than determined to stick together through thick and thin in Eve because quite simply we are friends and brothers (and of course sisters!). We're not the only online gaming group to create real life friendships and we won't be the last but (and I've been a part of a fair few in various games) we're one of the tightest I've ever come across.

To ASCN's rather hopeless spin doctors fueling their membership with the sort of bullshit I haven't seen since I used to peruse PA's forums during GNW, BoB's morale is nowhere near breaking you silly buggers. Remember, "
gentlemen in England now a-bed, shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day" and so do all members of our alliance feel because "we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers".

We're in this for the long haul and we'll expose your weaknesses, make public your mistakes, trample on your corpses and triumph over you just as Hal's army did to the overwhelming French force at Agincourt. Whilst we're doing all that we won't be sat in our parent's basements being useless members of society either, we'll be socialising, going to gigs together, having parties at each other's houses, barbequing in the sun and living life to the full. I hope you will be too.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well put sir! I'd say that asking which BoB corporation was better, more useful, friendlier than the others, or anything like that, is akin to saying "if each of my fingers is a BoB corp and I punch you in the face, which one hurts the most?"

BoB is a fist and we punch EVE in the face together. Yarr!

Anonymous said...

Great post Blacklight. Very stiring, give me a sword and a brandy and tell me where to charge good sir!

BoB is a very tight bunch, even us Aussie guys get together every so often. Valora and myself are trekking halfway around the world just for a BBQ with the BoB gang. That should give an idea of how tight we are.

Cheers CamMan