Factions In MMOs

Smoden

Over the years, I have played many games and MMOs.  Though I admit for each game I have played, I have missed out on just as many, if not more.  I have some experience, but by no means is it infinite.  That being said, I have played many titles that have implemented factions, both player and NPC, in some form or another.  Unfortunately, I felt that they always left something to be desired, and failed to reach their true potential.

I remember Anarchy Online, where you could remain neutral, or join OmniCorp or the Rebels.  There was SWG, with the Empire and Rebellion, its faction missions where one could earn points via missions, and the ability to purchase items and perks (not to mention the myriad of random NPC factions that you gained / lost reputation for depending on which enemies you chose to fight).  Then there was the faction system implemented in World of Warcraft, which in my mind had glimmers of greatness, but was either under-utilized or otherwise neglected by many players.  I remember wandering through the desert wastelands of southern Kalimdor, only to come across an endless conflict between two rival centaur clans whom you could fight for and be treated as an honored friend and ally, or ignore the struggle altogether.  One of my fondest memories was clicking the toggle in my personal reputation window to declare a one man war against the House of Ravenholdt Assassins, whose manor fortress was hidden high in the mountains of the Arathi Highlands.  "DIE, SI:7 DOGS!"  *ahem*  I digress...

The question I pose to you fine ladies and gentlemen is this: if an MMO has factions as a part of its story / lore / game design, what would be your ideal implementation?  What faction system(s) would make said game most enjoyable for you?  Should you be forced to join a faction at the start, to be forever tied with it (such as WoW's Horde vs. Alliance, or SWTOR's Empire vs. Rebellion)?  Would it be a passive system that you only gain bonuses from or the ability to purchase special items, or a more active system where you can actually become a member of a faction and participate in its endeavors and agenda?


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cameltosis

I liked SWG's implementation:

* Everyone starts neutral
* Players make a choice to join rebel or empire
* Players complete faction specific tasks to increase rank
* Player then choose to flag themselves as rebel or imperial, resulting in pvp

The factions themselves were a bit meaningless really, they just acted as a short series of quests following by pvp. 

In my ideal scenario:

* Everyone starts factionless - there can still be racial "factions" to keep players separated if that fits your design

* Players can belong to any number of factions, even opposing factions

* As players perform actions for factions, they rank up within that faction

* At the junior ranks, faction status is "hidden". In the Star Wars example, a player would be able to work for both rebels and empire if they were junior ranks

* After a certain rank, faction status become public. In the SW example, if a player did more rebel than empire quests, eventually the empire would find out and kick that person out of the empire, declaring them an empire. 

* At the highest ranks, numbers should be limited. So, one leader, 10 councils, 30 generals or something (per server). These should change on a monthly basis based on previous month's activities. 

* The highest ranks should be able to "create content" - issue faction-wide directives (like declaring war on other factions, targetting specific zones/bases or issuing bounties on players) or specific missions (running smuggling routes etc)

* If PvP is linked to factions, there needs to be a way for people to hide their faction status so that PvP is always consensual. 

* Factions should include faction-specific social features to try to create in-game communities with common goals. Bars, mail, trading hubs, crafting hubs etc.

FlyByKnight

Factions that aren't player generated don't work out too well in OWPVP games. They're permanent and don't work well for balance with players who constantly look for the shortest distance to glory.

For games where there is no player generated conflict they're absolutely fine and add cool differences to each players experience.

VestigeGamer

I miss factions.  They were a form of "consequences for actions" which helped players "play nice."  They did not prevent bad players, but they helped curb them a bit.

The only game I played with factions (I think) was EQ 1.  I liked how they did theirs, but it was not perfect.  Help someone and a faction standing increases while the opposing one decreases.  Kill an orc and they seem to hate you more.

I like factions, but have no clue about how best to implement them.

sunandshadow

I think the ideal faction implementation is that each faction has a few well-developed NPCs, a home base, a tabard or flag, some kind of store or rewards area where the player can get mounts and costume tabards/flags and crafting recipes for having a high faction reputation.  Faction reputation would be about half composed of individual reputations with faction-affiliated NPCs, which would be increased by doing quests for them.  The other half could be PvE or PvP kill count and other achievements against faction enemies.

Kabulozo

Faction is a terrible system itself, there is no way to turn a terrible system in a good one. The best to do is forget faction and let the players make their own alliances and enemies like in Lineage, and it also includes the choice of being neutral.

VestigeGamer

Kabulozo said:

Faction is a terrible system itself, there is no way to turn a terrible system in a good one. The best to do is forget faction and let the players make their own alliances and enemies like in Lineage, and it also includes the choice of being neutral.

I'm not seeing a difference here.  Are you speaking PvP?

In EQ1, I knew that going into Castle Mistmoor would up my Bards faction and lower the Mistmoor one.  It was my choice.  If I wanted to kill guards to adjust faction, I could do that.  I wasn't forced into anything.

DKLond

Ideal implementation is pretty hard to come up with

Personally, I think features are only as good as their implementation - so I'd say any version of faction-centric gameplay would depend on how evolved and satisfying it was.

To me, the key part about developing relevant faction-related content is to make it distinct and exclusive. As in, don't let players join all factions - and don't make the rewards trivial.

The great thing about distinct factions with unique content is enhanced replayability - and it adds to character diversity. Make me WANT to try all factions - and make the rewards match the time investment.

Whatever you do, don't let factions be just another grind for yet another set of samey items like WoW did.

Tie it into the lore - and create involved faction-specific quests and be sure to have a faction for each personality/class profile. As in, make a faction for assassins, thieves, mages, fighters and so on. Make unique gameplay opportunities available through faction rank - and ensure that the top ranks can only be held by few people - and that the rank privileges match the effort involved in getting to that rank and keeping it.

Stuff like that