There has been a lot of recent discussion on pvp - triggered by the recent developer diaries. One topic important to some but not really central to most of the discussion is faction.
Faction can mean anything ranging from one race, to one of a number of races loosely aligned.
Guardians versus Defiants in Rift. Qeynos versus Freeport. Hibernia versus Midgard versus Albion in DAOC. Or just if you are a dwarf any dwarf is your faction.
The impact of faction can vary. Perhaps you can only group with members of your faction. Perhaps you can only send or receive mail within your faction. Perhaps you cannot attack anyone of your own faction. Perhaps you can attack them with a reputation penalty. Perhaps you can attack them only if they are flagged for intrafaction pvp. Endless varieties.
One advantage - it gives structure and meaning. You are not an amoral murderer killing anyone you think you can kill for the thrill of it or personal gain. You have a *cause*. Keep the filthy Albions out of Midgard. Freeport forever! Defiants must rule or the great dragon will consume all that lives. Dwarves must fight for dwarves. For the hoard!!! Oops that last one is the cry of any miser or packrat not a faction slogan. Never mind.
One disadvantage. It gives structure and meaning. The world is less chaotic and dangerous if *anyone* you see is not a potential deadly threat. There are fewer areas where you may be attacked at any time (elves may raid in or near the dwarf capital but will you see a wandering elf outside the gates doing quests - maybe not all that likely).
Basic question to anyone that might have a character on a pvp server. Do you consider faction-based play a plus or a minus? A good place to start before working through the all-important details or something that is just a harmful distraction from "real" pvp which should be free for all or whatever system you prefer?
I prefer faction-based play. Because it is better for me to know that I have some allies. Furthermore I do not like that a the same race can kill me.
There's only one thing I can think of that would be more frustrating and undesirable than faction-based PvP and that's faction-less PvP hehe.
I'm not a big PvP fan (In MMORPGs anyway. I play FPS games for 'PvP') so factionless free-for-all just sounds like normal PvP only worse.
Sorry. That's a very negative way to say: -
I think factions in PvP give it much better potential for some kind of reason and tactics and immersion that I *might* enjoy. Unless you wish to role play a world where murder is commonplace and acceptible then at least faction gives an 'excuse' to feel great about killing other 'people'.
Yeah, I know... Orcs are 'people' too?...
ehhhhh for faction pvp.
i'll stream my thoughts here.
putting the p in pvp/community orientated/open world
starting with putting the p in pvp:
conflicts between players should begin and end with players. i know that in the old days factions were part of mmos, daoc(dark age of camelot) rvr, wow(world of warcraft) horde vs alliance, eso(elder scrolls online) faction vs faction
the system is fine, but pvp(as i know it) has evolved nowadays.
here's my tid bit against same faction players. i get the same feeling pvers get when someone disrupts their rotation. i try to be polite and attempt to reason, but it's one way communication. there were many times my own faction players do stupid things like train mobs on me and i would have just like to kill them.
community orientated:
this is what i would call player self governing. suppose things escalate to a higher degree between two players or groups. it moves between two guilds. essentially, player guilds are the factions. it's organic with ebb and flow of human nature. declaration of war between the two can occur and can end with the two. other guilds can stay outside if they choose to. bdo(black desert online) handles this very well.
open world:
individual interests should matter. what if the a single dark myr by the name xalonfin wants to spend time in trees with elves? what if the xalonfin hates the smell of ogres or thinks gnomes want to dissect him? should he not be allowed to dwell the human cities just because he's the opposite faction? to draw a parallel, race shouldn't be a factor into where we can explore. lorewise, most of the races have worked together before. even though the cultures may clash, individual players should be allowed the choice to dictate their standing in the world.
i just think it'd be great to hear a bartender story: a dark myr, gnome, and dwarf walk into a bar. it was the strange to see the three. the dwarf orders a coldewater 420 ipa, the dark myr orders a cold bask dethanol vape drink and the gnome orders a sub zero quantum state drink. they then get into a barfight insulting each others choice of drinks. a barfight later, they become best friends and longlife traveling companions because they all like cold drinks even though they are in different forms. the end.