Black Widow Company
| Black Widow Company | |
|---|---|
| |
| Leader | Miki Rei |
| Empire |  Terran Republic
|
| Server | Emerald |
| Tags/Abbreviations | BWC |
| Website | the-bwc.com |
| Stats | Black Widow Company Stats |
Black Widow Company is a military-style outfit in the Terran Republic, formerly of Emerald server. It is veteran-owned and veteran-operated by prior-service, active-duty, and retirees with a significant portion of its members as non-service civilians. A military background is not required for membership. Many of its members are prior military or active duty from various branches in more than one sovereign nation. The decision to emulate a military unit came from, in addition to its members and their professional background, the realisation that who knows better about war than the military?
Contents |
[edit] History
BWC was an early member of the beta alliance known as AGO, Auraxis Global Organisation. At retail launch, BWC was a founding member of the Emerald Alliance, which later became ULTRA when Konreid and Emerald servers merged. BWC has a dedicated chain of command and practices a variety of small-unit and combined-arms tactics. A few members of BWC were involved in alpha testing the original PlanetSide and the outfit entered Planetside beta shortly after it opened up. On retail launch-day in May 2003 the outfit was officially founded. BWC stayed in the top ten outfits (points-wise) on Emerald server, a feat accomplished in spite of not being a zergfit. This success was attributed to a small number of combat doctrines which focused on teamwork and coordination, in addition to training recruits on the BWC's way of approaching Planetside combat. It allowed even the newest FPS gamer to immediately hop right in and operate as though they'd been playing with BWC for years. A three-tiered training program was developed, with each part focusing on a specific area which increased in difficulty and specialty. The outfit also ran multiple operations per week, its high OPTEMPO allowing members to grow as members and as leaders. One of its major in-house accomplishments was development of the Terran Republic Field Manual, a nod to Army field manuals (FMs) and acknowledgment of its heritage. The TRFM served as a set of guidelines and documentation of various training outlines, task force set-ups, and doctrines.
BWC also helped develop a formalized and structured "outfit duel" program which was put into play on the Public Test Server. Outfits could field personnel and compete against each other in a neutral environment. The project was limited to allies in the ULTRA Alliance, with the intent to later open it to other TR and even NC and VS outfits, with the ultimate goal to produce a ladder-style tournament. This concept was pitched to PS developers at the 2006 SOE Fan-faire. Whether it was used or not is irrelevant, as Planetside later featured "Outfit Wars", in which BWC was a competitor.
Since officially leaving PlanetSide in late 2006/early 2007, BWC has been involved in a number of other games and has even branched out to real-world competitions. Team BWC regularly participates, once a year at least, in a weekend-long paintball scenario - most notably at the West Point USMA Combat Classic. The team has racked up three Most-Valuable Team awards out of four major events. Its success at scenario woodsball has been attributed, again, to teamwork and coordination. Military members of the team and veteran paintballers ensure that even brand-new players learn how to operate with the team. Its success on the field has garnered attention from sponsors and competitors up and down the US East Coast.
Most recently, BWC competed in the West Point Combat Classic's 25th Anniversary game at the end of March in 2012. The team took home its fourth Most Valuable Team award in as many years of attending weekend-long games.
With the launch of PlanetSide2, the Black Widow Company has officially involved itself in the original game, and old members are returning in droves. New recruits are being picked up and trained for battle BWC-style.
Black Widow Company was the second outfit to be featured in PSU's official Outfit Spotlight. The full article can be found here.
[edit] Recruiting
Potential recruits are required to submit an application in the recruitment forum. Expectations for recruitment vary by game. For PlanetSide2, members will be expected to:
1) read/sign the BWC SOP, our version of a charter
2) complete registration on the OpServ
3) have Teamspeak and be on the server whilst playing
4) will be expected to be in a BWC squad
