With a little imagination, of course, newbie corps can get up to more trouble than one expects. One SAK member is currently recruiting SAKies to take over a low-sec system, something that only player corps normally do in Eve. Real-world immigrants' associations undergo similar transformations. The Ukrainian Club in Philadelphia, for instance, formerly a watering hole and civic hall for Ukrainian immigrants to the City of Brotherly Love, now finds greater profit in renting the place out to hipsters who need a place to throw a party or put on a show.
Whether it's getting you on your feet, giving you a stable social set or building an empire, all guilds and corps have one thing in common: They help ease the transition into various stages of MMOG life, just as immigrants' associations do for new Americans.
At this point in America's history, such associations still play an important economic role, though it's one that's becoming less central now that places like China and India are starting to boom. It's worth remembering that there are the equivalents of immigrants' associations that serve Americans in those countries, and it's a good bet they're growing these days. In a sense, America is no longer the land of opportunity; now we're the land of outsourcing. Greater potential is seen on the sub-continent and in the Far East.
But if you ask me, there's greater potential still in a place called the metaverse. Whether it's taking over a low-sec system in Eve, raiding a high-level instance in World of Warcraft or making some serious real-world money in Second Life's virtual real-estate market, the groups, guilds and corps that players form in these worlds have an important impact on the kinds of experiences, whether for pleasure or profit, that we get out of these worlds.
Surviving a virtual world can be a tricky business, and profiting from it can be trickier still. But it can be easier with help. So in more or less the words of Michael Corleone: Reader, you are my brother and I love you. But don't ever take sides against the corp again.
Mark Wallace is a journalist and editor residing in Brooklyn, New York, and at Walkering.com. He has written on gaming and other subjects for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Details and many other publications.
