What does the leader of EVE's largest coalition actually do all day?

I just spent nearly 90 minutes listening to SchadSquatch—Schad—interview The Imperium leader Asher Elias. 

There's a lot to unpack.

Asher Elias leads both Goonswarm Federation, as well as The Imperium, EVE Online’s largest coalition of alliances, but his job sounds less like commanding a space armada and more like managing a room full of very smart corporate toddlers. He has to keep directors working together, settle their arguments, and get a huge organization moving when it would rather sit still. That work matters because many Goons have jobs, kids, and perhaps three hours a week to play. The Imperium gives them the logistics, fleets, and people to make those hours count—even if getting everyone pointed in the same direction sometimes requires a little herding. The Imperium works because it lets members with limited time share the load. Someone handles logistics, someone organizes the fleet, and a player with one free evening can still be part of something much bigger.

That’s also why Asher’s answer to “How do you defeat the Imperium?” is so good: “Get 50,000 20 year olds to play this video game.” He reckons the established alliances couldn’t match that kind of free time.

That gap in free time shapes how Asher sees the proposed force projection changes. Making travel and logistics take longer won’t necessarily weaken the big blocs; they have enough people to spread the work around. It may simply eat into the few hours their members have to play, while doing little to make claiming space worthwhile for smaller groups. He’d rather see more affordable, valuable ships out in space, where taking a risk can lead to a fight.

At some point in the interview, Asher goes back to his own first day in Goons at a time he was flying aimlessly around VFK until a player named Ted messaged him and invited him along on a hunt. They spent 45 minutes chasing a target, caught it, and Asher was hooked. He's fairly certain he might have quit without that invitation. 

Now he’s trying to make it easier for veterans to do the same for new players. 

There’s a lesson here for players, corps and other alliances, and perhaps for Fenris too: sometimes the thing that keeps a player in EVE isn’t a new feature. It’s another player asking them to come along. 

Have a listen.