Interview with TEST CEO Montolio.

We managed to grab a hold of Montolio who's usually fairly busy running about holding together one of the more youthful and vigorous Alliances in EVE Online, 'Test Alliance Please Ignore'. Have a read below.




The Poitot Post:
 How do you do Montolio, thanks for consenting to do this interview with the Poitot Post. It's appreciated. You're an ethereal and somewhat new individual in the grand scale of things, at least in relation to EVE Online. Tell us about Montolio and his history in EVE?

Montolio:
 I've been playing EVE Online for ages, the first time I attempted to play this game I lasted about an hour, said this sucks, and then uninstalled it. I came back about a year later, attempted it again (couldn't remember my first account) and was able to stick around this time. I spent about a year maybe dicking around in high security space doing absolutely nothing because I was working on getting 'ready' for nullsec/lowsec - which is a misconception, you are ready on day one. I formed a couple of corporations with friends, we joined some highsec alliances / wspace alliances, and so on. Normally these would fail under harassment or some sort of war declaration - pretty boring stuff. Then we moved out into the Great Wildlands / Curse region, I got my feet wet with real PVP in this area. I've been a member of Gentlemen's Club in the past and a few other alliances in that area, none worth mentioning. I was burning out in Gentlemen's Club though. They were too serious and angry, you'd get fined if you had the wrong fit. Lots of stupid rules and they just took everything too seriously. I saw a corporation was forming up from reddit.com and dropped GC immediately to go join.


The Poitot Post:
 TEST exploded on the scene in 2010, and what an explosion it was! Seemingly coming from virtually nowhere, TEST is now the second lagrest Alliance in the game. How did that happen? Where did it come from? 

Montolio:
 A few factors have contributed to the growth of TEST: Dreddit, technology, propaganda, and policy.

 Dreddit is from Reddit.com, like Goonswarm we are also based out of an Internet community. Reddit is sort of a social news aggregation website with lots of little niche communities built into it. Our recruitment levels have stayed consistently strong since we created the alliance. We make up 2400 of the 5100 members in TEST.

 We have a very strong developer team backing this alliance. TEST uses a centralized auth system that is API keyed to access several services - and our forums are also keyed to a users API. The HR system for a few of our corporations is inside of auth and will do things like automatically check new users against blacklists and other criteria so that HR people don't have to spend as much time digging. The backing of the developers has really allowed us to manage the growth - we have jabber, radio, forums, killboard, mining applications, quote database, wiki, logistics apps, statistics etc...

 Dreddit always had a ministry of truth, this was rolled up into TEST when we created it. We pump out videos constantly, not just from Dreddit but from all corporations in the alliance. Videos drive recruitment, we always see a spike when we release a wave of propaganda.

 Policy wise we've always offered broad reimbursements on most ships, we haven't required flat fees for alliance membership, and we have given our corporations a great deal of freedom to pursue personal goals when the alliance is not actively engaged in a campaign. We try to treat our corporations with a degree of respect and remove as many burdens on them as we can, it is an investment. If you give them trust and respect they will grow and return your investment. That isn't true of all corporations, but we typically don't let the bad ones stay for very long.


The Poitot Post:
 Not long after TEST appeared they caught the attention of arguably one of the most colorful Alliances in the game, Goonswarm. It's our understanding that Goonswarm and TEST have a very solid bond, how did this come to be? And how does TEST differentiate from Goonswarm with both Alliances being so closely knit together?

Montolio:
 I was honestly not present in Dreddit when this bond was started, so I know the story second hand. Our founder was looking for an area to base us and decided that based on the reputation of Goons he would place us as far away from them as possible. However he had the map upside down and ended up placing us as close as possible to them, we found out later but decided to stay in the same area anyway. We had a mining fleet in a low security system - rifters and ospreys, really ragtag newbie stuff. Goons titan bridged onto us and destroyed the entire mining fleet. They did some investigation into our corporation after that and decided we had potential. We ended up with blue standings and a gigantic frigate cache. This frigate cache and the advice that the bitter veterans in Goonswarm were able to provide really nurtured Dreddit in the early stages. The relationship TEST has with Goonswarm Federation today is largely based on the strong bond between Dreddit and Goonwaffe.


The Poitot Post:
 How does your relationship with the Northern Coalition faire? I understand that the Deklein Coalition and the Clusterfuck stand appart from the Northern Coalition, but there's a solid bond there that, at least from the outside, doesn't seem to be under any threat. How do you think TEST fits into the Northern Coalitions grand plan, if there is one?

Montolio:
 I don't really view TEST as having a very strong Northern Coalition tie, I respect them for the most part and they are blue. Vuk is a pretty cool guy and there are a few alliances in the NC that have helped out TEST specifically, but as a coalition I don't feel a strong bond to them. It irritates me that half of EVE is blue but I don't know a good way to fix it at the moment. Due to the current state of EVE you need to conglomerate into these defensive coalitions to survive large scale invasions. Look at the south for an example of how not to do it - ATLAS, AAA, and now IT have all fallen, each alone and separate. If these three bloc level powers had been organized in a way similar to the NC they might all still hold the space they once owned. That being said, AAA has come back stronger and ATLAS has supposedly reformed.


The Poitot Post:
 How does it feel, and what are the challenges involved in being the CEO of both one of the largest, and arguably one of the youngest major players in the ever-changing sea of variables that is EVE Online? Has success been kind to you, or maybe tiresome?

Montolio:
 Its exhausting, you can't so much as sneeze without offending a group of members in the alliance. Any policy changes are met with immediate angst on the forums and drama is pretty common. I think we've managed them well though, normally it just ends up being something interesting for the alliance to yell about for awhile. Making sure all of our commitments are met and everything is properly organized is a lot of work, but we've gotten much better at it. I've been forming autonomous divisions and teams so that they can manage workloads internally without my direct intervention. I mostly enjoy the alliance level politics I currently get to participate in, EVE is a very complicated game. Wars, economic shifts, and alliance collapses can all be tied to a few individuals at a leadership level having good or bad relationships with each other.


The Poitot Post:
 Our sources tell us that TEST has grown out of its proverbial shell, and is working tirelessly to acquire new property in Fountain. And, according to DOTLAN, the surge is moving at pace. How do you feel The Clusterfucks campaign in Fountain is going? 

Montolio:
 The campaign in Fountain is not really going to plan. Much like how ATLAS collapsed like a house of cards so too is IT collapsing internally. That was never the intent - what I wanted was to have a self-sustaining region next to a strong hostile entity that we could fight with regularly. It is increasingly looking like we will have to install some blue and neutral individuals into Delve just to stabilize the region after IT collapses - TEST has no direct sov interest in Delve. The thought was that IT would put up a much stronger fight then this, arguably HUN Reloaded has done better at defending Fountain then IT has.


The Poitot Post:
 Which leads us on to the next point. IT Alliance, formerly Band of Brothers has a long and significant history in EVE Online, much of this related to their 'Forever war' with Goonswarm Federation. One might argue that by getting into bed with Goonswarm, you've unintentionally inhereted a part of this conflict to call your own. How do you feel about this?

Montolio:
 TEST has no arch enemies. We will, or at least I will, speak to everyone and will consider any sort of interactions with them based on the merits of the situation rather then what that alliance did two years ago. I respect that our friends have enemies and we will typically also be hostile to them, but we've not inherited the sense of hatred for all of the alliances that Goons have. We got a lot of skepticism and weird looks from the Goons when we started our Catch campaign in coordination with Against All Authorities back in December. However that coordination and the campaign itself have paid off in the long run, while we assault the western half of IT Alliance they assault the eastern half. Its been a good deal for everyone involved.


The Poitot Post:
Well, can't argue with that. Finally, how do you think the future looks for TEST Alliance? Your youthful valiance surely can't carry you forever, and every alliance enters its golden years at some point. 

Montolio:
If we get to the point where we are fat, lazy, and useless I will burn this alliance to the ground and reform it without the extra weight.

The Poitot Post:
 Hahahah, well we hope it doesn't come to that. Thanks for your time Montolio, running an Alliance is a draining task and taking a few moments to answer these questions is appreciated. 

Montolio:

 No problem, happy to have helped.