Where Have all the Factions Gone?
It’s no secret that pretty much every single game that’s been released post World of Warcraft has shamelessly attempted to get a piece of that fat, steaming money-pie. And just about every single one has failed. Others succeed, but it’s clear that WoW set a new standard in terms of fundamental MMORPG design. You make quests, you add some writing, you make sure areas are diverse, you have both PVE and PVP elements, and you have two factions. Just about all of these are a step forward in terms of industry standard, and I’m surely not complaining. Except for one; why only two factions?
Is it really necessary for games to be this boring? Especially in PVP-centric games, having only two factions makes just about every single battlefield encounter woefully boring and uninspired. Two sides gather on opposite ends, clash, the end. Wouldn’t you rather see a third or fourth faction route the enemies while they fight amongst themselves? Exploit conflict? It’d make for a much more dynamic setting. Yet still, almost every game sticks with two basic factions, and at worst, they’re little better than “good vs. evil” in aesthetic. Angels versus demons? Orcs versus humans? Could it get any more boring than that?
In the past, games like Dark Age of Camelot had multiple factions. I never played the game, but an ex-girlfriend of mine did, and she always raved about how interesting and fun it was. Among the games I’ve played that had more than one faction? Well, EVE Online, I suppose. Although the factions in that game really aren’t as fragmented and important as you’d think, given that it’s possible to basically fly with and against anyone you like. In EVE, there are as many factions as there are player corporations, and that, to me, is kind of cool.
When you think about it, wouldn’t World of Warcraft been so much cooler if they’d added a third, neutral faction, like the Goblin Cartels, or something? Make it so players could join that faction from either side, so it doesn’t need to produce its own unique races and stand on its own? That would have been awesome. After all, not everyone likes being a part of the standard “us vs. them” arrangement of these games. There are, in fact, more complicated situations to be seen in reality, and even online. I just wish more developers would take a three faction approach as the minimum.
Or wait, why not take it one step further? I’d just love to see more games in which guilds themselves can stake out and defend territory. Not that I’d play them, mind you, since I’m a grown woman and have no desire to be crushed by hordes of young adults who have nothing better to do than play the game for hours on end. Maybe that’s why I liked the EVE model so much – everyone leveled up at the same rate. Why can’t more games do this? It makes me sad.
Are there any games with a more complex faction system that you’d like to mention? Or maybe there’s a game that you think could have a better system implemented? Talk about it! Throw around ideas! Just try not to hit anyone with them.
By B. Olivia
October 21, 2011
#
Allods Online???
October 21, 2011
#1
“guilds themselves can stake out and defend territory”
Well isn’t that what Perfect World is about ? And adding a third faction into WoW would be LOTS of work… LOTS . How would u imagine a battlefield with a neutral faction..
November 5, 2011
#2
I think it’s good somewhat. I mean imagine world of warcraft with more then one faction. It would be kinda awkward in PvP- not only that, but it would take a lot of setting up in WoW. It’s a lot to set up with one class let alone one entirely faction.
Plus, it’s completely normal to have good vs. evil. It happens in a lot of mmorpg’s.
Hmmmm….
October 21, 2011
#3
Realms Online.
It’s a 3 Faction PVP Free 2 Play game.
October 22, 2011
#4
anarchy online already done that.
clan vs omni vs neutrals
land wars for territory within guilds
October 22, 2011
#5
Rising force got 3 Factions that battle each other at race wars
October 22, 2011
#6
You have the Atlantica Online way. A group of guilds make a Nation and for that you need to have at least a town. Towns are adquired by using guild points which you get by doing guild quests/dungeons. There can be peacefull nations or rival nations and the only limit is the number of towns because you have to own a town to make a Nation/faction
October 22, 2011
#7
in Cosmic Brake! you can find 3 factions, wizdom-courage-power , and it’s a really interesting pvp system.
October 22, 2011
#8
Regnum Online also have 3 factions too. I don’t understood why every gae now just bring 2 warring factions.
October 22, 2011
#9
If im not much mistaken, 4story uk is bringing out out the third faction Gor,. will this mean its a 3 way fight? i hope so
October 22, 2011
#10
Well, never think about that but it seems you got a pretty valid point. PvP would be more interesting if more than two factions are in the middle of the conflict. Maybe more races with different goals and aspirations, or how about races that already exist switch sides?. Excellent article.
October 23, 2011
#11
The author implies that wow set the pvp standard and every one copied. Booo. The only thing wow did was copy and paste a system that existed but with their logo.
As far as questioning “Where are the 3 vs 3 fights?” NONE of this has to do with factions, as the title indicates. You can have only 2 factions and 3 vs 3 fights. Ok, I will play along, 3 factions obviously = 3 at the same time… Already exists…and not wow inspired…and the subject of hte article dances around pvp content, and factions, not at all what the title indicates. I thought this would be an article about faction set up, and how the lore of most factions today are stale.
Fail article.
Feels like WoW fan boy trolling.
Hell even Legend of Edda has an interesting, fun, diverse pvp system… There is so much involved in other games pvp, it is so fun! HEck Regnum online is a giant pvp game! wtf author… stop playing wow, it makes the brain have the dumb.
October 23, 2011
#12
The reason I don’t think games have multiple factions is because it thins the playerbase in each faction the more factions you have, and then you don’t have enough players for questing/community in each faction. DAoC managed it, yeah, but back then there was less competition from other games. I still think it could work if managed correctly though.
Personally, I liked EQ2′s faction system the best, with the whole good/neutral/evil races thing and the ability to ally yourself with different cities and betray them.
October 23, 2011
#13
MMORPGs should rethink the way of making games. Almost all MMORPGs I play, there are: level up, grind, quest after quest, free-pvp (or inside an arena), enchantment/enhancement, guilds, guild wars and a lot more. When I’ll play a game, I expect new, original features (like Eden Eternal – you can change classes wherever you want, or even PW with territory wars), which can envolve you into the game. I don’t like games which make you think linearly or roundly (meaning you have a “line” to follow and you’re not allowed to change that or you’ll be stuck in the game).
I like multiple possibilities and think: “I have some options here and each option will lead me to a new perspective. In addition to this, more and more options appears and you have to choose one (two or more, I don’t know!) to follow up and so on. It creates lots of changes for your character, for your fun, for the dynamics in general. I guess no one like to do anything repeatedly or just with one path to go.
Games could link all their features (and new ones, which can be ‘discovered’ or developed further) to create possibilities. For example, in a normal game: “look, my class has 20 skills to be unlocked. When I reach the max level, I’ll have the best options to use – making a parallel with gears/weapons – against others in pvp and guild wars’.
Why shouldn’t we have more possibilites, like: ‘I can learn lots of skills (not class-locked), but this will require a lot of money – the more skills you have, the more expensive it should be. I wouldn’t buy a skill, I’d request a training (example) which takes some time to make it usable. After it, I should use this skill to gain XP to level it, making it stronger’. Therefore, testing new possibilites is a risk, however they should implement new ideas (of course, I just gave an example, there are more to explore in this ‘dark zone’) to their games. Why? Why not?
I’m sure that new possibilities are allied with money. It creates more interesting games, making more money than usual. Maybe what I said is totally wrong, but on the other hand people should try to give new ideas…
Sorry for the long text, but I wanted to make myself heard. Like getting things off my chest. :\
October 23, 2011
#14
Ya i agree with this report if you’re gong to have a game with only two factions you’re going to spend all of your time in the game fighting basically the same person or thing every time and that gets really boring after awhile.
October 23, 2011
#15
Type your message here…
October 24, 2011
#16
Lineage 2! I remember some awesome player created faction wars back in the days. Server Police on Erica anyone? :O
October 26, 2011
#17
Allods online is still 2 faction game but it does not have the good vs. evil story setup. The faction you play will be good in your perspective and the story will present you the opposite faction as bad guys. It has a good story for both sides, which also has anti-faction effects. In a zone where 1 faction has to gather specific item and at the same moment the opposite faction will almost similar quest defending that item. its unique and fun. At far end of the story the main objective of 2 faction becomes common which does not have anything to do against each other.
I disagree about more than 2 faction. Third faction or more will just the make game too complicated, at some point biased to one side. PvP, battlegrounds or turf control will favor the one with better political guild-alliance. It is also about developers budget whether they want to make a complicated multi faction game hard to balance, or a two faction game with more fun and easier balanced elements. As long as the game provides an unique environment with a good story to drive the players i call it good. And easiest method is to keep it two faction.
The main article have presented some games compared to EVE online. EVE is a different game. It is too different to be compared with a WoW like faction based game. EVE is open world sandbox MMO where player creates his own quest, game and path. EVE is not for everyone. I personally do not like EVE. I find it repetitive and boring. Once again i will say EVE is too different to be compared with faction based MMO.
Going to present some fact from a game developer point of view. Developers have to think about how players will react to a multi faction game. With two faction the choice is easy to make. With three it is uncertain. Depending on the playerbase and how the gameplay evolves one faction has higher chance to end up dead. A new player introduced to that game may like that dead faction features but will be discouraged to play because of less players. Developers have to balance the world and zones for all the factions. To keep it interesting the storywriter have to create more than 2 storylines. I will keep this part short because the examples can be elaborated upto a huge book. The short version is, more factions bring more cluttered content in the same area which is difficult to balance and can be boring to the players. Not to mention class and race balance to be made for PvP.
I will finish my opinion by supporting two faction games. They have more opportunities to focus on developing the content than creating proper balance between multi factions. Players spend less time choosing the perfect faction and focus more on the content. So more factions is not the answer to create interesting and appealing game, it is the unique content provided with story that drives the player till the end-game part and keep on playing.
October 26, 2011
#18
I personally found this a very bad editorial. There are many multi-faction games out there – games BESIDES Eve that are mainstream, too – that you failed to mention, and to be honest this just seems like a shameless plug-in for EVE Online, not that I find Eve a bad game.
Face of Mankind is as well a game that has 8 factions. Just throwing that out there to add on to the other mentions of multiple faction games.
October 29, 2011
#19
Face of Mankind is actualy attempting to make a 9th faction which I assume will be similar to mercs in the sense you’ll have mini factions within that.
November 1, 2011
#20
PlanetSide had 3 factions and it was great, you never knew if your current allis would turn on you, or during a battle with one faction tou’d see scouts from the 3dr faction checking out the battle. It really promotrd teamwork within your own group and paranoia for your environment, it was verry intense.
November 2, 2011
#21
planetside 2 ftw… forget the rpg-wow clones of old – you want some factional action we’ve got it
November 5, 2011
#22
what most of you guys are forgetting is most of the games you are mentioning are fail
November 11, 2011
#23
That was a nice attempt at trolling, daywalker.
Too bad that you don’t actually realize how wrong you are.
November 15, 2011
#24
If you are looking for a game with more than 2 factions, try TwelveSky2, it has 3 factions and is a PvP-based game with a lvl cap of 145. after lvl 112, there is an option to join an “elite” faction, and the war changes between 4v4 and 2v2 fightswith a great player-controlled alliance system
November 16, 2011
#25
Guild Wars 2 has 3 worlds who can fight each other.
November 18, 2011
#26
FYI to all the trolling tards calling every mmo a wow clone try and get past your big headed ass and realize wow was built off the backs of some of the greatest mmo’s to date. Examples for the trolls would be UO, hate all you want but hey its one of the very first massive online rpgs and is still full p2p with a mass following. Second for the wow lovers most the ideas in wow have been done prior and its a dying mmo its lost 4 million subscribers since cata came out and the little babies whined to bliz how hard it was now a pre schooler could do raids in it. Lastly I have seen a hell of a lot more heart put into these eleged “WoW clones” as you tards put it than any of the p2p games to date btw for the retards saying Runes of magic is a wow clone “fail” you can only duel spec in recent years but free mmos have been doing it for years runes since its inception so before you flap your neck on calling games wow clones do your research you uneducated bafoons!
November 23, 2011
#27
Spunkify are you a lesbian? You say “In the past, games like Dark Age of Camelot had multiple factions. I never played the game, but an ex-girlfriend of mine did…”
and then you say “…since I’m a grown woman and have no desire to be crushed by hordes of young adults…”
I just lol’d because I know it’s not true. I’m just wondering how that came out haha
November 23, 2011
#28
when guilds can declare war on other guilds is cool like faxion was an awsome game with very high potenial its a shame it lost funding
November 26, 2011
#29
Well i don’t think neutral factions would be great. I think that when you choose a faction, there should be faction leaders and those were players, every month there should have a campaign for votes to choose who would be the next faction leader but not everyone could be the faction leader only the guys with th higher gamepoints which you would won in raids and dungeons. Those leaders would choose 2 or 3 players to be sub leaders, and together they would choose to be neutral or to join a war or be an ally to others. Neutral factions could get attacked and if another faction attacked the neutral faction at the same time, the war should be like a triple threat.
This would make the players choose how the game should be.
Oh and the faction would be bind to their account, but some class types could infiltrate in other factions.
November 26, 2011
#30
Excuse my bad English!
November 26, 2011
#31
The Secret World.
That is all.
November 28, 2011
#32
Planetside.
Not a mmoRPG but a mmoFPS, but still one of the best PvP-centric games ever made. And they’re finally working on Planetside 2.
Can’t wait.
November 30, 2011
#33
If you want a different game then WoW, Give Face Of Mankind a try, there is no other game around like it. It is seeing constant updates now and is very heavy in player politics.
Give it a try, and sign up now.
and most importantly, go Vortex
December 15, 2011
#34
There is coming to be a neutral faction in Wow. In the Mists of Pandaria expansion will come the monk class and panda race which is neutral.
December 17, 2011
#35
the real problem is players dont know how to come together and form true guilds of friendship, unity, and hate for everyone who isnt with them.
December 19, 2011
#36
THE SECRET WORLD. 3 factions. MEANINGFUL PvP. I wanna play so bad!!!
January 3, 2012
#37
Ragnarok Online, the most complete MMORPG out there that has everything, and could be evolved way further, what else could a real mmorpg player want. Gravity made one of the best mmorpg and they need to re-make that game for all console, with sick graphics and it doesn’t have to be 3d mmo… 2.5D hell it could be the old RO just with advance graphic and it will make it better.
January 6, 2012
#38
Imagine the ability to start gangs rather then a 3rd faction, it’d create massive threats that could be assaults towards either faction, then one of the two factions would have to retaliate defend yatta yatta, plus characters from both sides good and evil would be able to join the gang and rebel against their sides along with their previous enemies… but now that I think of it, everyone would be in a gang and it would become more of a partied free for all. It was a good thought, but it’s need a lot of balancing.
February 19, 2012
#39
Type your message here…
February 19, 2012
#40
I believe Everquest did this long before WoW, every race was on a faction/reputation. WoW has a lot more than 2 factions, yes for pvp purposes solely there are 2 factions, for pve there are many many many factions/reputations that make a big difference in your daily life there. I remember when everyone was in sithilus the guards making it impossible to walk through town if you pvp’d and got caught in the swarm. Just because the two main choices of horde or alliance where there, doesn’t mean there weren’t many micro factions that had an impact on gameplay. As far as only being two factions out there? There are two many examples of the opposite thriving right now to even count. All the Evony clones have 3x + factions. That’s just an example. I for one don’t think the variety in factions is what makes a game successful or fun. There are too many current examples of games with none, 1, 2, 3 and more factions on the market right now to even think they have anything to do with success or the boredom factor. FPS games usually 1? Social games usually none? Evony clones 3+? I’d have liked to see something in your article about maybe the success factor of a game depending on whether its factions where entirely or partially PVE or PVP oriented, like is it a PVE faction against the player or is it PVP faction only or what? To be honest I really don’t think picking out one element of a game to discuss has anything to do with its success, playability or boredom factor at all. WoW was successful for more reasons than you can even count.
It had a backstory and a following and previous game versions long before WOWmmorpg came out. It was done very well. It was innovative and new and fresh, It was updated frequently to keep the tide rolling. It was detailed and not a complete grind all the time. It had a nice mix of PVE, PVP and questing/raiding, it was pretty much an all in one inclusive. They did a good job with it, can’t fault them for that. Did they reinvent the wheel? rofl no, not in the slightest bit, I don’t think WoW had one single original thing to it, everything was borrowed from something else, and so what? Who cares, it was a great game. All they did was take a preexisting wheel, make it shinier, and slap it on a hot looking car. Good job! Its still fun to drive. Did they usher in a new era of solely, duel faction, gaming? Nope, afraid not, some games have no factions at all, some have only 1 and some have many, and WoW isn’t the last game on earth, I’ve played many before and many since, and I’m still having fun in the game world. I believe factions have little to do with it
February 20, 2012
#41
Having played DAoC, I think that there were a couple things that made the three faction thing work so well.
I will preface this by saying that everything I hold dear to this game is before Trials of Atlantis. After that, the game became…just like the rest and holds nothing truly unique or special.
One was that it was easy to level, and it was easy to get leveled. Powerleveling friends wasn’t a dirty word, and it was easy to get to 50 with about a week’s or so worth of help from other 50′s. This made what the game was made for easily accessible, but the same time if you wanted to experience the whole game you could with no real consequences. Once the level cap was reached, there was no differentiating between power levels. Everyone had the same thing, and it was easy to get. A handful or so people maybe had something more powerful than the rest, but the significance was washed away by numbers.
The second was that the PVP battles mattered and were difficult. You wanted a relic or two? You better prepare for some multi-guild coordination as well as stockpiling resources. If you wanted to be an effective defender as well, it was not as easy as sounding a call to arms and hoping for the best either. You needed plenty of repair wood, counter siege, and the right kind of people defending the right kind of way.
There are more reasons of course, but I digress.
Many MMOs take these concepts and try to run with them, but only end up half-assing them at best. Warhammer I had hopes for. But I don’t even think they used half their asses in that game regarding siege warfare. Age of Conan was another that I had hopes for…but again, half assed at best. Guild Wars 2 sounds promising, but I wait and watch.