Eve Online is a MMORPG – A Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. All the action takes place within one shared game environment which is called a ‘shard’. Around 30-40,000 players are online at once. 

The game is set in the fictional galaxy of New Eden which is made up of thousands of solar systems – each with its own sun, planets and moons.

Players fly spaceships within and between systems in a vast game in which you can try your hand at many different roles. 

Some players interact primarily with the computer generated game environment to gather ISK, the in-game currency of Eve Online. This is called PvE (Player vs Environment). 

PvE career paths include Industry, Exploration, Ratting and Missions. 

INDUSTRY specialisms include manufacturing, mining and trading within Eve’s detailed economic system.

EXPLORATION sees players scanning down ancient relic / data sites and flying into unstable (and potentially dangerous) wormhole space.

RATTING involves shooting computer generated ships in special combat sites found throughout New Eden.

MISSIONS can involve the players in many different quests – some are peaceful but others require players to fit and fly combat ships against computer generated non-player characters (NPC’s).

New players begin with the tutorial career missions which are relatively easy and designed to introduce game concepts and controls.

The principal attraction of Eve Online for many does not lie in shooting robo-ships or mining asteroids but in its detailed and exciting ship vs ship combat system. In this mode, players buy ship hulls and add specialist offensive and defensive modules to build a combat ship.

PvP then simply means Player vs Player.   

PvP career paths include Piracy, Faction Warfare, Solo PvP and Corporation PvP. 

PIRACY means attacking other ships so as to steal their cargo and modules. This happens primarily in areas of New Eden that have a lower security status.

FACTION WARFARE. When you create a character and join the game, you choose one of the four races of New Eden – Gallente, Amarr, Caldari or Minmitar. You can battle real players in wars between these races in special combat systems by enlisting for military duty with a race.  

SOLO PvP. Hunting as a lone wolf you can attack other players just for the thrill of combat. Victory will take a significant investment in equipment and many hours of practice. 

CORPORATION PVP involves joining a player run corporation (see below) and participating in fleet battles against rival corporations.

When you enter the game you are placed automatically into an NPC (non-player) corporation. To progress in many areas of the game you will have to join (or found) one of the thousands of player run corporations that are the heartbeat of New Eden.   

While some corporations try to do a little bit of everything, most specialise in a given area. Specialisms include groups that operate in wormhole space or live in what is called nul-sec (the lawless outer reaches of New Eden).

Broadly speaking corporations are either concerned primarily with trade and industry or they focus on PvP combat.

Nearly all combat orientated corps attack either solo players or each other in battles over resources and territory.  

Red vs Blue (RvB) is a player run corporation – one of the oldest and most famous in Eve Online. We are a combat PvP corporation and have no involvement in PvE or industrial processes / structures.

Other PvP corporations are pre-occupied primarily with victory and seek to crush opponents via the deployment of over-powering force. 

RvB by contrast mostly keeps its combat in-house via the creation and maintenance of its own private and eternal war. We are primarily focused on fun and having a laugh with friends.

While other corporations aim is to win wars – our modus operandi is war, so we can cooperate and have a lot more fun with it than anyone else. Because of this, no corporation in the entire history of Eve has blown up as many ships as RvB.

Red vs Blue is not one but two corporations, Red Federation and Blue Republic. While pilots from Red & Blue sometimes go off on joint operations into low security space together, for the most part Red and Blue are at war with each other.

Since there can be no ultimate victory in our eternal war – we judge our success in piles of wreckage and good times. RvB has a limited rule set which smooths the speed of battles and allows players of mixed experience and resources to participate fully.

In addition to the two warring corps – RvB also has an attached flight academy which offers players new to Eve or PvP, classes and free ships so they can prepare for life in the front line. 

We are often asked two questions by people about RvB

(a) Isn’t blowing up all those ships a waste of ISK?

(b) How do people make ISK while a member of RvB?

The first question just invokes laughter from RvB members – after all, what better use of ISK is there than to build huge fleets of ships and then spend all day blowing them up in space battles? What else is ISK for?

The answers to the second question are more nuanced.

Members of RvB make ISK in all sorts of different ways – many use an out of corporation character to finance their addiction to explosions in RvB. 

RvB also supplies many free ships both to Academy cadets in the Red vs Blue Flight Academy and to pilots on both sides of the eternal war.

RvB offers cadets basic advice on how to make ISK but expects members to Red Federation and Blue Republic to be basically self sufficient within the game. 

It should be noted that our eternal war is fought mostly in cheap and small ships like frigates, destroyers and cruisers. A little ISK can go a long way in RvB. 

Players often ask if they can (and if its is safe) to do other things in Eve Online while being in RvB.

 The answer to both questions is YES. You can carry on doing whatever you want to do in Eve – be it missions, exploration, mining or trading. You can join the public fleet roams of other corps if you wish., 

The only things you can’t do while a member of RvB are to participate in the wars of other corporations. But why would you want to that, when our war is so much more fun?!