Now that we've (mostly) gotten settled down in our new space, although the War still rages, I took a moment to sit down with Dion's CEO and ask a few questions. It wasn't onboard station either, it was on the bridge of his Thanatos while we bashed another -A- POS into dust.
Q: So tell us a bit about the history of Dissonance.
Well Dion is one of the oldest corps in Eve and I had the privilege of having the mantle passed to myself over two years ago by the original CEO Nighteagle. DION has always been a mixed corp with PVP and PVE and I have been happy to carry that on, I think it says something about the corp when many of the founding members are still around. In corp we have some damn good pvp’ers and members with over 100 million skill points. Dion has made sure and steady progress in achieving many of the goals it has set for itself over the last 2 years and we have some exciting goals for the future that myself and Eradicator44 (The deputy CEO) are focusing the corp on achieving, he is my right hand man and many of the achievements of the last two years have happened because of the joint work of the corp with me and Eradicator44 there with the whip... oops... I meant words of encouragement.
Q: Do you have a philosophy that you follow in leading Dion? If so, what might it be?
My philosophy has always been to focus on the fun factor, and being available for corp members when they have a question ect, what I will never become is one of those CEO’s that hasn’t got time for newer members, I'm firmly grounded in the fact that this is a game, everything we do is to try and increase the enjoyment factor for everyone in the corp.
Q: Does DION have a focus? If so, what might it be?
The focus in DION has always been firmly that what we do is for the betterment of the corp and its members and that it has to have the “F” (Fun) factor involved within it.
Q: What drives you to the game? What do you enjoy about being the Corp CEO?
The driver for me is seeing guys having fun, the “blowing shit up” aspect plays a heavy part in the game for me. But coming a close second is seeing guys achieve a goal in game they have set themselves, what I get my biggest buzz out of is seeing guys work together for a corp goal…..EVE does not lend itself to solo play largely and DION certainly does not lol….
Q: What gives you the biggest headaches? What do you enjoy least about being Corp CEO?
Well if you had asked me this about a year and half ago I'd have said logistics, but we've developed a hell of a logistics team with some great players like Xiau Bing and Lord Drakken, to name but a few. The biggest headaches in EVE for me at the moment is AFG (Away from Game) corp members, now I realize that real life comes first but if you say your going to be there and your not and the corp screws up because of it, I will want to know why, no one is bigger than the corp as a whole and the nature of DION is we work together to achieve what ever goal it is we’ve set ourselves. I've have had to take the bull by the horns and let some corp members go recently that have been afk without letting us know..
Q: Dion certainly has been moving around a lot, what's up with that?
Well Rixx it’s a bit like this, when your searching for a home sometimes its not all its made out to be, but I would add this although we moved around a bit in the last year it has mostly been with alliances that are relatively close to each other, and for me the most important bit is that we've never been asked to leave or been kicked, and more often than not when we’ve left its been on very good terms…. but the alliance were currently in at the moment for me is one of the best if not the best and DION has fitted right in….
Q: Does Dion have long-term goals as a Corp? Can you share any of those?
Well DION has a number of long term goals but im sure you will understand there’s only so much I can talk about here, basically our immediate goal is to beef our numbers up a little and focus on developing some of our newer player base that have joined DION in the last couple of months to get them where they want to be in game, as I mentioned we recently opened recruitment and whilst were not “exclusive” in what we look for in newer pilots that also does not mean we take anyone, quality has always been more important to me than quantity. Id rather have 40 on the books with 30 active players then 200 on the books and only 40 active players. What’s been interesting though is the amount of players that go off to do something else in Eve but always end up returning to DION, so that is one of goals, get some more selective good players than can last the course.
Q: Why is Dion recruiting right now?
DION has periodically opened its doors for recruitment, but we usually only keep it open for about a month at a time, as I've mentioned previously quality over quantity. I prefer that we have guys that we can rely upon and I know that I can relate to, for me it would be a bad day when I haven’t had time to chat to everyone in corp and ask how it's going… but now we have a very specific number in mind recruitment wise and were reaching it fast…..
Q: Any other thoughts you'd like to share with us?
The game has moved forward a lot in the last couple of years and personally I've learned a lot as well, but the best thing I say to potential new recruits when they ask for a tip about living in 0.0 and getting on in the game is this, be prepared to die, in fact be prepared to die a lot, when you get over that fear the game really opens up for you in relation to pvp.
Thanks Boss. I hope you've enjoyed this interview, I plan on interviewing more members of Dissonance in the coming weeks. And for those of you looking for a great Corp, in a great Alliance, doing the kinds of things that make this game fun - join DION-PUBLIC and talk to us about coming down to zero space and shooting things until they explode.