Hey Hey, I’m a Newbie

As I’ve previously stated, I began my EVE adventures not so long ago. This past January, I constructed my first capsuleer knowing very little about what I was getting into. I was so green, I didn’t even know that I could choose my own surname (hence, the Minmatar name Mangeiri). After being dropped in Pator Tech School and spending a week grinding out the tutorial program, I already knew that I had found home in New Eden. However, like many other new capsuleers, I wasn’t quite sure about what step to take next.

I knew one thing: I wanted to blow stuff up. After all, why would we have access to all of this glorious weaponry if we were destined to shoot at rocks all day? I also knew that I didn’t want to be stuck in the noob corp. The player corporations were the ones doing things that people wrote epic tales of.

After mindlessly browsing list after list of corporation adverts, something magical happened: some guy named Matias Otero shared a story of his bravery on Reddit, and invited others to join him in brave new adventures. With a flood of responses, he soon formed Brave Newbies, Inc., and vowed to create a player corporation that was not only noob-friendly, but fun. Forget ISK-per-hour, Matias challenged. What’s your fun-per-hour rating?

Matias promised to make flying a spaceship enjoyable, even if it took the help of a little bourbon. He set up shop in Hek, and invited anyone and everyone to join in the shenanigans.

I quickly looked at my star map, and noticed that Hek was a mere 5 jumps from the station I had made my home. It was as if I had prayed for some sort of cosmic salvation, and the gods had thrown it right into my lap. I applied to BNI, flew to Hek, and got blown up. I didn’t even know how or why, but it was awesome.

Most of my time in Hek is now a blur. By the time I actually got acquainted with properly flying and fitting ships, setting up voice comms, and all of the high-sec station games, we were on the move to low-sec Rahadalon. We soon outgrew that region, as well, and have since moved to Barleguet in the Placid Region.

Throughout that time, I have taken part in the kind of experiences and battles that people write about. I have made new comrades. I’ve trained other new capsuleers on the basics of flying in space. I have watched people come and go, and sometimes even come back again. Someday, I, too, may move on to explore other avenues of fun-per-hour, but in that regard, I know I’ll always remain a Brave Newbie at heart.

Also through these past nine months, there has been a lot of speculation and misinformation about Brave Newbies. I’d like to clear some of it up with a little Q&A.

I heard that BNI has no idea what they’re doing.

That’s not a question.

Is it true that BNI has no idea what they’re doing?

Some like to cherry-pick specific unfortunate events that have happened to BNI members to imply that we are inept. A perfect example would be Tubrug’s story on The Mittani of the 7-year player that joined BNI, got a capital ganked, and then left BNI (all in one day). It is true that that specific BNI member had no idea what he was doing at that specific time.

That does not mean that there is there is “a staggering case of retardation among some of BNI’s older players” as Tubrug claims. In fact, many within BNI leadership are very experienced and knowledgeable. Draleth has even promised to stop carrying PLEX in his noob ship. We’re not ALL a bunch of noobs.

So it’s true that Brave Newbies are just a bunch of TEST alts?

This is simply not true. Or maybe it is. What are you, a spai?

Does BNI really like to get whelped and die?

Yes and no. We really like to have fun, and shooting things is fun. We accept the fact that we’ll get shot.

Once, I came to fight Brave Newbies, and they all docked up! What are you, Not-So-Brave Newbies?

If you drop in fleets of 20 Cynabals and 15 Battleships, we will leave. As I stated, we like to have fun. That doesn’t mean we’re stupid. We might have also just docked up to re-ship into noob-ships.

Every time I go to fight BNI, they just blob. Where are the “gudfites?”

Brave Collective has evolved to over 5200 members. While not all of those members are extremely active, at any given time there are 100 or more pilots looking to shoot at stuff. If you come directly to Barleguet looking for pew pew, expect to have a lot of guns pointed at you. Envision it something like *this*.

In BNI’s infancy, blob-strikes were born out of necessity, given the fact that most members were just fresh stepping into a Rifter. These days, it’s nothing planned. It’s just a bunch of itchy trigger fingers.

Why doesn’t Brave Newbies come to our home to fight us?

While Brave Newbies does frequently roam or camp the random gate, most of our fights occur in or around our home system of Barleguet. Save for one time, BNI has never wardecced another corp (and I don’t even know if that one time was intentional). However, at any given time, we have between 3 to 5 ongoing declarations of war that we are dealing with.

I remember only one day that BNI was free of any war. I was super-bored that day.

At any rate, most of the fights are coming to us. Granted, that creates a certain degree of laziness among some of my corpmates, but then again, you really can’t fault someone for not jumping 10 gates to do something they could do by simply undocking at home.

WTF is 7o? A salute is supposed to be “o7.”

We know, but someone was drunk once, typed “7o,” and the rest is history… Kind of like, “What’s a Jita?” or certain people forgetting to turn on their hardeners.

What’s a Jita?

I think it’s a spaceship?

My corp has like three spies in BNI! Don’t you even care? Hahaha!

Nope. Brave Newbies has always had an open-enrollment, no API required policy. Our voice comms aren’t even “secure.” In addition to there being little tactical advantage from having open access, we sincerely believe that anyone dull enough to play cloak & dagger within BNI will soon realize that we have more fun and bourbon than their own corp.

You may also occasionally hear someone say, “We’re all spies,” because it is purported that all BNI members are just spies spying on each other.

At any rate, I hope that clears up some of the confusion about Brave culture. If anyone has any more questions, feel free to ask me here, via Twitter, or in game.

7o