How the heck did SOE achieve such faction loyalty?

[Nephilimuk]

In the words of the NC.. "for liberty for freedom... squeel piggy"

Nah its all good fun and just part of the game

[Electrofreak]

Most other people here have covered the basic reasons why one feels loyalty. But in PS, you knew some of your enemies as well as your friends, in a sense.

I was primarily a sniper and air cavalry. I recognized other snipers, knew them well. Knew their strengths and weaknesses. Knew some of their loadouts, we'd exchanged fire so many times, and in some cases I'd even peeked into the backpacks sitting atop their corpses. I knew other pilots, which I could engage one-on-one, and those that I needed to call for support on. I had a strong respect for some of my rivals, despite my disdain for the rest of their empire.

You knew some of the enemy commanders and outfit leaders too, and seeing one on the battlefield surrounded by his platoon was a moment of excitement for a sniper or a pilot. Sometimes you'd be flying sorties over a hostile enemy base, strafing armor and infantry, when suddenly an enemy air cavalry outfit shows up and an intense furball develops. You'd know who they were, skilled rivals that left you calling targets over comms, working hard to avoid getting shot down while answering the yells for assistance of your squadmates who couldn't shake someone off their tail.

That's why an MMOFPS like PS is so awesome... match-based FPS completely miss a critical element; pride in your faction, and rivalry with your most dangerous enemies.

[Wayside]

Originally Posted by Vamoozi

As i haven't played the first planetside, I really don't understand how people that played it became so much loyal, defensive, biased (not telling this is a bad thing) To their faction.

I mean, I like NC the most, but see the other two factions have their appeal aswell, but some PS1 vet sees it diffrently, he sees his faction as a godlike empire, and the other two factions worms barely worth living.

how


HOW?

I mean, I played WoW and SWTOR and I didnt give a single damn wich faction I'm on at the moment, but i feel I will become like the PS1 vets overtime, biased to my faction.

My 2c:

I think its a choice for most people, rather than some magic SOE has worked on the masses. You're seeing human nature at work. Or more accurately, at play. The same thing that drives people to be fanatical about one particular sports team over another drives them towards one Empire over another.

Firstly, People like having something to fight FOR as much as something to fight AGAINST. Something to draw them and their compatriots together. Even within the fictional confines of a video game. Something to justify the effort and glorify the progress.

Secondly, anything in a game that plays at the primal side and scratches that spot just behind the ears of the beast in each of us - THAT immerses people in a game. Concepts like vengeance, justice, loyalty. If you can trigger one of those primal drives in your audience you've presented something FAR more satisfying than a simple video game. You've given them an outlet for the part of them that wants to be out chasing down animals and waging territorial wars, but instead must spend each of its days confined to a cream colored cubical chasing down TPS reports and waging office politics.

If SOE has done anything, they've made sure that Planetside facilitates this bit of human nature. They've created a compelling story of three struggling empires waging an eternal war. They've given each of the empires qualities that some will love, and some will loath.

The TR, for example, are rigid, diciplined soldiers fighting to maintain order and peace as they see it. Thats appealing to many people. Others see them as totalitarian and fascist and are naturally motivated to fight against their oppressive reign.

The NC are easily seen as the "freedom fighters" of the group. Refusing to be ruled or controlled. Struggling for independence on a brave new world. Others see them as terrorists and anarchists, trying to destroy civilization.

And lastly, the VS... well the VS like to lick batteries and... stare at lasers. And that's a ...thing. I guess.

So yeah. Choice. SOE baits our inner demon with tasty, tasty conflict and rivalry. And we choose to dive in, head first.

Anyway, went a bit long, but thats my 2c.

[Brusi]

fuckin hell!

This thread, more than any other... makes me want to log in and play Planetside!

Giving a shooter game meaning, since 2003.

[Exodan]

When I first watched the E3 videos of TotalBiscuit and Maggie Krohn demoing the game I did think that TotalBiscuit was a little sad for constantly bigging up the TR and constantly slagging off the NC, its just a game after all and I thought he needed to get a life but having read some of the forum posts I kind of understand it. It takes a lot for me to be truly engrossed in a game, especially a multiplayer one and it would be interesting to see if I develop the same kind of faction loyalty that so many others do. The only question is which faction do I pick? I know I don't want to go with VS (no offence to any VS loyalists) only because I don't like using alien weapons in games and much prefer standard bullet type weapons.

[SnipeGrzywa]

The best way to think about it compared to other games is look at your empire as your guild. In any MMORPG if your guild mate is getting ganked by someone, you sure as hell are gonna group up and go roll that guy. That type of mentality is what you have here. When anyone in your empire is being attacked, you will defend them. In other games the only time you have faction loyalty is in battlegrounds. In Planetside, every action you do helps or hurts your empire.

Originally Posted by Figment

When YOUR home continent is attacked, it's not just the empire that's attacked, it's YOUR empire, YOUR continent, YOUR base, YOUR home, YOUR pride, YOUR pie stash that's being attacked. As leaders, you always got the best response from your troops by making such invasions feel as if they were after the dearest thing you had. The audacity of coming on YOUR turf and claiming it for themselves!

At launch, the Lattice system was static. Each continent was attached to each other in a very particular way. Each of the sanctuaries were attached to 3 continents each, the empires "homeland". If you were fighting on your homeland, lets face it, your empire was currently losing, which was unacceptable. The enemies were at your doorstep (yes, couldn't invade sanc, but still had the same feeling). This lead to an unbelievable sense of loyalty. Players would abandon fights they were winning to recall and defend those continents. Lets face it, Amerish is the Vanu's. You Elmo's and Smurfs will never keep it. And it will remain ours in PS2. lol

Another thing that helped is your empire shared in the glory or ruin together. With each faction having completely different arsenals, if a weapon got nerfed, or vehicle got buffed, what ever it is, your entire empire had to deal with it. Another bounding element.

And lastly, with the large scale battles being fought, you got to know everyone, specially the CR5s (where the hell did those pants go), on your side. Yes, I was real tight with my outfit. Loyal Son of Vanu for life. But you also fight next to other outfits and lone wolves, and you end up trusting that they got your flanks secured.

You will experience this in PS2 if you choose an empire and don't hop around. It really is an unbelievable experience.

[Vamoozi]

Originally Posted by Electrofreak

Most other people here have covered the basic reasons why one feels loyalty. But in PS, you knew some of your enemies as well as your friends, in a sense.

I was primarily a sniper and air cavalry. I recognized other snipers, knew them well. Knew their strengths and weaknesses. Knew some of their loadouts, we'd exchanged fire so many times, and in some cases I'd even peeked into the backpacks sitting atop their corpses. I knew other pilots, which I could engage one-on-one, and those that I needed to call for support on. I had a strong respect for some of my rivals, despite my disdain for the rest of their empire.

You knew some of the enemy commanders and outfit leaders too, and seeing one on the battlefield surrounded by his platoon was a moment of excitement for a sniper or a pilot. Sometimes you'd be flying sorties over a hostile enemy base, strafing armor and infantry, when suddenly an enemy air cavalry outfit shows up and an intense furball develops. You'd know who they were, skilled rivals that left you calling targets over comms, working hard to avoid getting shot down while answering the yells for assistance of your squadmates who couldn't shake someone off their tail.

That's why an MMOFPS like PS is so awesome... match-based FPS completely miss a critical element; pride in your faction, and rivalry with your most dangerous enemies.

That sounds so awesome that it hyped me even more about the game.

[Zekeen]

Originally Posted by GuyFawkes

So much so that on the odd rare occasion I recall you would find a TR and NC player at the top of a tower , having a temporary respite/truce from hatred against each other, in order to facilitate their collective hatred towards the vs scum below. After that, probably kill each other.

Bullet users united against the evil energy users on many occassions.

[Electrofreak]

Originally Posted by Zekeen

Bullet users united against the evil energy users on many occassions.

Every faction had a certain "lame" tactic the others hated. Personally I hated jump-jetting Vanu MAXes getting into places nobody else could, that floating infantry-lawnmower they called a Magrider tank, and the disco-ball launching Lasher that meant death even if you were behind cover.

TR I could tolerate, even played a TR alt for a while, but the Vanu deserve only death!

[Captain1nsaneo]

Why is there faction loyalty? That's an interesting question. A lot of the posts in here nail the core concepts of why. Locked into what ever side you choose, common purpose, and your allies. While it's been mentioned I think there's another thing that hasn't gotten as much credit as it deserves.
The places in Planetside weren't digital. Oh they were actually digital, that's true, but they didn't feel it. It felt like the world was actually a real place. It wasn't done through nifty environments, flora, fauna, or weather. It was done through persistence and that as the war moved so did the land under your feet. You got to know places, learned about them from attacking, from defending. In your head you would get to know the terrain, think about it, where does the ground give me an advantage, where are there likely mines, is that StoneRhino in a liberator over there? Eventually it becomes like an favorite hangout, some continents more than others, but they gain a real sense of physical space over time. This leads to the situation that other games try get with the 'it's our base!' motivation for defense. But in those games that base doesn't have any presence, it's not real. In Planetside, the bases are real.

[MegaBusta]

My personal experience is that after you spend an entire day fighting over one Interlink and finally capture this god forsaken base. You form a bond with the people who holed up in the base with you and in your outfit that I can't really explain. Eventually you put so much time into a character and form these bonds you don't see playing with anyone else an option.

Again this is from my point of view and others will see differently.

[Captain1nsaneo]

Originally Posted by MegaBusta

My personal experience is that after you spend an entire day fighting over one Interlink and finally capture this god forsaken base. You form a bond with the people who holed up in the base with you and in your outfit that I can't really explain. Eventually you put so much time into a character and form these bonds you don't see playing with anyone else an option.

Again this is from my point of view and others will see differently.

That's another thing that seems to help. After the fight there's often a lull or respite. That delay between fights I think is fairly important as it provides bonding time and small talk. I'm sad to see it go in PS2 and it honestly worries me that there's going to be much less time to breathe in the game.

[kadrin]

Originally Posted by SnipeGrzywa

Lets face it, Amerish is the Vanu's. You Elmo's and Smurfs will never keep it. And it will remain ours in PS2. lol

Oh Amerish, our lovely home, how we fought for you many times.

And how we got zero base'd there a few times, those were the really memorable fights, the last stands, literally our last base on the whole of Auraxis.

[Checowsky]

Faction loyalty came from the guys who play the game for a fun time and guys who play way to seriously. The in between being the guys who just want to play a shooter game.

It is dumb when you think about it but hey, if it floats your boat...

[Pillar of Armor]

Originally Posted by GuyFawkes

So much so that on the odd rare occasion I recall you would find a TR and NC player at the top of a tower , having a temporary respite/truce from hatred against each other, in order to facilitate their collective hatred towards the vs scum below. After that, probably kill each other.

This reminds me of a time when NC and TR were fighting hard over a base and the VS had a small population on the continent. Somehow I ended up talking with a VS cloaker while I was sniping at the NC and we worked it out so he scouted for me and killed anyone trying to sneak up on my sniping position. Good times