Comments on: Why faction identity is so strong in WoW

By: Tesh

Tesh — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:51:56 +0000

Oh, sure, but in these MMO things, the setting should be more of a playground, rather than a scripted story. You just can’t maintain tight reins on that many people and not expect some backlash. Players should be the drivers of the story, not the devs. GM control can work in tabletop games because they are more flexible and are working with far fewer people. MMOs don’t translate well to that sort of control, both for scale and for technological reasons.

By: /AFK – July 5 « Bio Break

/AFK – July 5 « Bio Break — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:21:22 +0000

[...] I want to join the Spinks Faction! [...]

By: Alucian

Alucian — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:06:59 +0000

I play both Horde and Alliance on a pve server, and frankly advise anyone to do the same, you miss a lot of storylines, lore and content by favouring only one side.

By: Stabs

Stabs — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:12:32 +0000

“The only game to ALMOST get it right was Vanguard and that was only because you could do diplomacy with some of the lesser known factions.”

I didn’t feel this at all in VG. I played for 6 weeks in Feb and March and can’t even remember which faction I was in.

Best faction experience for me was SWG but people were pre-disposed to consider it a faction game because of the IP.

As for WoW well clearly there’s a little team somewhere that has to think of ways to add RMT extras into WoW that don’t seem to change the sub-based nature. They said “0.1% of players will pay us $15″ and the dev team said “but but…. not factions!…story!….identity!….server balance” and the powers on high choose between the two cases.

By: spinks

spinks — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:06:12 +0000

Well, sometimes other players enjoy the faction identity and don’t want it diluted by you doing your own thing (ok, one person making the choice wouldn’t matter but if a majority did then you’ve lost a lot of your faction flavour). It’s not a single player game. Choices you make can affect others.

If you leave them alone, players will carebear everything. They will ignore your carefully paced storytelling. They will cooperate even when the game world and setting explicitly says that characters don’t.

On the other hand, they will enjoy the flavour of the setting as designed and will probably enjoy it less if everyone else does what they want too. If the game sells itself as orcs v humans then you probably expect the orc side to be mostly orcs (and not mostly bored humans). It’s a paradox actually. But from running a RP type game, I learned that sometimes you have to say no to players. We never liked doing this but you have to know when to respect the integrity of the setting for the sake of those players who do care about it.

By: howtoloseyourlifetoanmmorpg

howtoloseyourlifetoanmmorpg — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:47:41 +0000

Indeed, and perhaps the other side of what I mentioned may have a larger following:

Players that dislike it feel there’s no(or not enough) incentive(s) to “war”

Also they feel this system has backfired and created an entrenched “carebear” system in my PvP server where all the guilds create alliances, not through the game systems, but through chat or vent, and it has reduced the number of people PKing randomly or “just for fun”.

Some bigger guilds made these “alliances” and if someone just wants some fun, they attack and have like a dozen people jump them repeatedly until they agree to leave this or that guild alone.

But personally this hasn’t affected how I play. I just ignore it:P

By: spinks

spinks — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:36:12 +0000

One thing I wonder about the factionless system (well, pure player faction really) is whether it forces everyone to be in a guild. I know Darkfall (which I think is similar) doesn’t sound workable if you’re not, for example.

By: spinks

spinks — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:33:44 +0000

Maybe faction had less impact on EQ2 because you could switch? But tbh it’s not such a PvP type of game anyway, so it doesn’t really matter if they’re notionally at all out war or not.

By: Wiqd

Wiqd — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:24:10 +0000

I think Blizzard seriously fails at factions. Just about every MMO does, in fact. The only game to ALMOST get it right was Vanguard and that was only because you could do diplomacy with some of the lesser known factions.

The Horde / Alliance thing is small for WoW. It’s HUGE for Warcraft and its RTS ilk, but so much has been done in the game to pander to the intermingling (sanctuary cities, etc) that faction doesn’t really mean anything anymore. You choose a race because it looks neat, not because you agree with the ideals of the faction.

WAR, on the other hand, depicts what I think of when I think of humans in that era, or Orcs and their society. Not really sure how I feel about Chaos, but the dwarves are definitely done right.

The other thing you have to realize is that no one is defecting in WoW. You won’t be an Alliance undead or Tauren. You won’t be a Horde Night elf. Switching factions just means you’re being born again as someone else.

By: howtoloseyourlifetoanmmorpg

howtoloseyourlifetoanmmorpg — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:48:23 +0000

@firespirit
sorry for double post:(

Just wanted to add, I do a little RPing in Akama, and my friends and I started the guild “Dept of Horde Affairs”

We track and write down Horde Offenders and Horde Sympathizers, then create a letter/list into an item we post on auction house with how to get off the list.

Just a way to spice up the game:) It’s aim is to keep faction pride alive and strong.