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Faction favouritism always the bad guys
RudyRaccoon
Member UncommonPosts: 475
You know, I'm seeing a pattern in all MMO games that have pvp, it appears that most people have faction favouritism for the side that are pretty much the bad guys. WoW has the Horde, Star Wars TOR has the Empire, I think you get the idea where I'm coming with this. But the biggest question is, why?
How come not enough people want play the good guys team? What's wrong with being the good guy and what's so good about being something that's evil? To be honest it's never good that people favour one faction over another, it just creates an unbalanced population where there's hardly anyone playing the good guys team while everyone wants to play the bad guy.
If it was the other way round I would be happy but then people who like playing a bad guy wouldn't be happy so really the best way to solve this would be balance.
Problem is, balance is like, well balancing a stick on your nose, not easy I guess.
Comments
Because when depicting good and evil in video games the (or movies and TV for that matter) the two sides are usually simplified for easy mass consumption. And when simplified, good is lame.
The bad guys always look cooler.
its actually very easy. put 3 teams of "good guys" against eathother.
tried and true.
I still yet to see an MMO game where it's the good guys that are the cool ones.
Hmm, maybe there should a game with not 2 but 3 different factions, never really thought of that till now.
Because the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
Because the good guys do PVE and the bad guys do PVP.
actualy when world of warcraft first launched a very long time ago the alliance side ( good guys) was far more developed, better areas / quests and story. It wasnt until sometime after the launch that horde side even got proper graphics for there epic mounts. Some of my friends still have the white raptors and such from the days when our mounts didnt even have there own skins yet. Not to mention pala's were OP on alliance only, as well as they had the superior racial abilities.
I think in every game 1 side is always better than the other in some ways but in the end those differences make no difference to game play just the leveling experience and the visual look of characters, especialy after a few patches :P
More often than not, the line between good and bad isn't as clear as your question makes it out to be.
The 'good' guys usually have their fill of corruption, and tend to stand in the lawful side of things.
The 'bad' guys have those seeking revenge, and lust for war, but also are just standing for what they believe in, most of the time you'll see they've just been pushed too far by the 'good' guy's. They tend to be more... chaotic? I'm not sure that's the best term, but they aren't as lawful, that is for sure.
Of course you have games where it's the other way around, or both factions are divided in their law/chaos.
In WoW, I played a Tauren Druid, because to me, Tauren were good at heart (most of them), as was the Circle. I was more loyal to those two things, than to the Horde. That being said; I hated most of the alliance, mostly because of humans.
In SWtOR, I rolled empire, this was just because I wanted to be evil and stuff.
TL;DR:
It usually isn't that simple, but it totally can be sometimes.
You nailed it.
The truth is, in a grownup world, there is no real good or evil. There's only the appearance of one or the other for the sake of whatever expectations a particular society might have. So, good in Iran, for example, would be seen as evil here.
Anyway, I agree with the OP. This is why we need separate faction type mmorpgs where cultures are fully illustrated and unique to the faction. Seeing the same 5 races kill the same 5 races (Conan, Guild Wars 2, etc), is just old. Though, I can see where that can be of benefit too. There isn't any one evil side. Hmm. Food for thought =D
WoW's horde were way outnumbered at release, it is often cosmetic but there are sometimes other advantages. In WoW there was cow people, orcs, trolls, and only a few undead models looked semi decent. In other MMOs since, yeah evil looks way better and cosmetics of both toon and gear usually favor the bad guy, if equal more people will roll bad anyway.
They need to can all the stupid "goodie" armor and just make everyone look cool.
Why the heck would I want to be some white and blue tincan when I can be a sinister agent who idles within a flowing cloak.
They need to drop the two faction system and start adopting multiple factions that ALL look nice.
I blame society. Or tinfoil. Perhaps both. I'll get back to you on that.
Because all too many people (players and developers) think that playing an evil (wheee I am evulz, now I am cooler than u) character makes them bad-ass. This predates MMOs, going back to pen and paper RPG's. They have never given up the fantasy that the fact that their Vampiric Anti-Paladin/Assassin multiclass can 'totally destroy' anyone else in the game means that they, in real life, are that much 'cooler.'
Ultimately people are afraid, it is one of our most driving emotions, and one of the easiest ways to feel LESS afraid is to make others afraid of you. Big, evil, monstrous things intended to strike fear in their 'prey' are the perfect way to achieve this in a game.
Of course then there really are psychopaths that get off on the idea of victimizing others.
To clarify, I am not saying that everyone who plays an 'evil' character fits in with the above, but I have seen all too many that do.
When all has been said and done, more will have been said than done.
Don't forget Rift, guardians/defiants
. Yeah, I noticed that too. I always choose the good side, so I guess i'm in minority.
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Dunno in the early days the good guys like in wow Alliance outnumbered the Horde 1:4 world wide only with the support of a pretty race ike Blood Elves demographics changed. In my opinion only if the bad guys look pretty/cool ppl gonna play them. Make faction only of ugly monster races and most ppl would stick with Elfs,Humans and Dwarfs
That's what's cool about The Secret World. None of them are really good guys. They may have a lot of good individuals, but the factions each have their own evil intent and their own evil ways.
It may be what's good about Guild Wars 2 as well, but in the opposite direction...you don't pick a faction that's good or evil.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Well it's obvious in TOR the baddies shoot lightning at you and well the good guys throw rocks... Hhmmm I wander which I would rather do! Also for some reason in TOR the bad guys had everything better in general, story wise and their fleet even looks better with furniture etc when Republic is very plane. Can't really comment much on other games but its estimated to be around 80% Empire 20% Republic and well if your looking for groups, PvP or anything fun it's going to be much easier to do on one of those sides... I'll give you a hint it starts with "E" and ends in "mpire".
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Ummm, DAOC?
They actually need to get rid of factions and go back to non-faction mmo and reputation like AC, EQ and such.
It is only an opinion who is good and evil or the bad guys.
WoW: the faction early on had Alliance as the more popular faction. it balanced out. Alliance was more PvE friendly, and Horde more PvP friendly. TBC with its rated Arenas changed that view. But Race changes messed up everything.
SWTOR: well people like the dark side. they always had a major following, even before the game.
Rift: The Defiant are not evil, but the issue here is that Rift has most of the same race models on both factions. (2 same human models, and two same elf models). they only have 2 unique races that are faction specific. Problem is, one of those races is a ugly Dwarf for Guardians, and the other is a cool buff Bahmi for defiance. Which would you pick?
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