Wildstar Launch Thread - Server: Stormtalon | Faction: Dominion
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Tmac
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So, soft factions? SWG did it with the Empire and Rebellion and included quests that let you build reputation for your chosen side. You could switch, but it was a lot harder once you claimed a side to work backwards.
SWG also had languages, but it felt more like a gimmick than anything.
Building a false barrier between communication sounds like a terrible idea. It would segregate the population even further.
Mr Creed
Too old for this shit
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It could be fun, sure. Hard-coded factions are very high on my most-hated modern MMO features by now, so I am clearly in favor of a soft lock based on factions. That way you can even have faction-specific races that take some work to switch. Players that want to stand out will do it. But regardless of any fun potential it will be called a borink time sink and undue player punishment, and my new favorite denial of service. Either way it's not on the table for this game.
Tmac
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Didn't hard factions begin with DAoC? This had a lot more to do with the foundation of the gameplay, rather than "feeling good". Since then, the biggest culprit for the two-faction set is WoW and this was because of t
Hard coded factions have worked...DAoC.
Since then, however, the population has been totally alienated because it feels good. I'll give you that.
I wonder if the two sides can even talk to each other in this game... If not, then that's kind of dumb.
Rogosh
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What Rift does right is factions. On PVP servers you are hard coded, pve you can group with anyone. And for pvp instances you can become a mercenary and fight with the other side so that there are no long queue timers.
Its to bad Wildstar has not taken a page from Rift.
Its to bad Wildstar has not taken a page from Rift.
Hard coded factions have been around for decades. Popular muds did them in the 90s. Any DurisMUD, MPV/ROP/LOC MUD players out there?
Tmac
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Quineloe
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Massive really is relative to technical limitations. in the late 90s, an online game with servers allowing only 180 players max was massive, that would hardly count as massive today.
B_Mizzle
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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Depends on the game. Wasn't SWTOR something like 300-500 players per sever max?
Clearly hard-coded factions are wanted by the masses. Otherwise companies wouldn't keep going down that route. I personally don't mind them.
Really, there just isn't enough justification tonotdo them. Add that on to the fact that most MMO companies are trying to rope in the WoW crowd (so they try to do whatever they can to make them comfortable in a new game) and there you go.
Tmac
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Clearly. Which is why every MMO with hard-coded factions since WoW has been a raving success...
I don't "mind them", but I recognize that is rapes (literally) the server's population and the ability for players to participate in larger groups. Which, inevitably affects the social interaction side of a game.
Tmac
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My point had less to do with games failing and more to do with it being a bad mechanic.
I don't "mind" it either, but I've yet to see a game, since DAoC, in which hard-factions add to the game. It steals more than it gives, imo.
Cinge
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I think its more of them just trying to add conflict and pvp to MMOs. You can look at games before WoW and before MMOs in general that are built on 2 sides fighting each other. I wouldn't even call it a bad mechanic. Some people will like that design, others wont. Some games will have a more open RPG style faction system and other's don't, its nothing new.
Now I will agree with communication barriers making no sense and actually hurt socialization and building rivalries/connections even with not being able to group up.
I will also agree is has the negative effect of limiting the pool of players that can group up and such, but this is more of a problem on low to medium servers and companies afraid to take actual steps to balancing servers because of player/media reactions(IE players bitch and moan about locking one side until the other catches up or even blasting a game if they even think about merging servers to make things right). Imagine if wow in the past 4-5 years had merged all their servers to make them all relatively balanced, but they won't because its seen as "failing" and the PR "Sky is falling" would be astronomical.
Now I will agree with communication barriers making no sense and actually hurt socialization and building rivalries/connections even with not being able to group up.
I will also agree is has the negative effect of limiting the pool of players that can group up and such, but this is more of a problem on low to medium servers and companies afraid to take actual steps to balancing servers because of player/media reactions(IE players bitch and moan about locking one side until the other catches up or even blasting a game if they even think about merging servers to make things right). Imagine if wow in the past 4-5 years had merged all their servers to make them all relatively balanced, but they won't because its seen as "failing" and the PR "Sky is falling" would be astronomical.
They wouldn't continue to put hard factions in MMO's if their focus groups and polls they ran didn't say majority of players like it. I'm pretty sure dev companies don't just go "Fuck it lets put hard factions in coz wow did!" they would do research into what the masses want whether it be hard-factions or not. Also I can show you MMOs that didn't have hard factions that have also failed so your point is irrelevant.
Pretty sure a lot of what's come out in the last few years in MMOs has been exactly because 'WoW did it that way'.
Didn't Rift remove hard factions so players could play together ?
There is no logic in this quote that is not fallacious.
"Clearly getting fucked over by multi-national corporations is wanted by the masses, otherwise MNCs wouldn't continue raping and extracting 3rd world resources, committing tax fraud, embezzlement, paying CEOs over 100x the average employee pay, etc."
Riiiight....I'd like to see the focus groups results that explain all the other stupid features that keep getting implemented, too.
Lol. Focus groups for MMOs. I cannot believe you could be this fucking naive. OF COURSE they stick shit in MMOs just because "_____ did it." That is basically all that has happened in this market since WoW has released.