How the heck did SOE achieve such faction loyalty?

[Zalmoxis]

If you saw the PS2 twitter and facebook, you'd know that even the devs are actually encouraging this faction loyalty and rivalry. This is a bonus for me, as I really enjoy these types of things and it will make me enjoy the game even more.

[Boomhowser]

Played as NC for 4-5 years wouldnt even consider playing as another faction at the time, why you ask... well I can't answer you.. find a faction you enjoy and stick with them for a couple of weeks and you'll suddenly realize that your gaining a bias to the others.

[Kran De Loy]

Most other games are not built entirely around the idea that the sole goal of the game is to utterly annihilate the other factions.

Basically the faction wars in Planetside are pretty close to the core of what the game is while in other games it's more of added in excuse used to justify PvP content.

One of the few exceptions to the usual practice that I played was Dark Age of Camelot. It did faction rivalry well as they made the 3 factions in that game vie over 'Relics' that gave faction wide buffs. In addition they made it so that whoever owned the most strongholds in the Realm versus Realm areas got exclusive access to the dungeon with the best gear. Since the dungeon was always changing hands you could usually find lots of PvP inside of it as well where people from the previous faction that owned it would be stuck inside so the newest winners would usually do one or two sweeps of the place to clean it out. Never did get all of them tho which made for some great PvP while other people were trying to slay demons for the loot.

So far Guild Wars 2 is also shaping up nicely in similar ways but instead of RvR they have World versus World where it's essentially just Servers fighting against each other instead of factions (so each individual server can thus be considered a faction in a sense).

In the end though, while both those games were pretty good at encouraging faction loyalty, they're still just one side of how the people play the game. Like in GW2 will have that WvWvW stuff, it will also have an Arena mode for 5v5 matches and it will also have the usual PvE stuff.

In Planetside 2 there is war and there is only war.

[The Loverator]

Originally Posted by Vamoozi

...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?

Well, i haven't played Planetside 1 - but i guess i may be able to tell what it is.

to some Extent:
- One really admires and honors the Faction he/she likes.
It's not a thing about despising the other Facion's, it's only about liking the favorite One.


- and some other People are just "unreasonable".
Here, i don't want to blaim anyone inside the "Realm of Planetside",
instead i prefer to go with Reality - and look how unreasonable, dumb - and arrogant People can be, sometimes.

"Funnily", most arrogant People, who despise EVERYTHING other than their own Party
as Insect's and such, are Rightwing-People ( or "Anti/Leftwing-Extremists ),
OR: aggressive/disrespectful People anyway...

The interesting Thing about them is: Even the most aggressive Rightwing-Fashist can appear
calm and reasonable, most of the Time. Because: They are so INCREDIBLY sure in their own
Imagination that "their Party (and Kind)" wields absolute Superiority,

that they act 'tranquilized' because of this thought...


... ... they only get ugly and nasty, as soon as THIS Image of them gets into Danger.

A~nnnnnnnnnd: Another Party, another "something", that does simply not look inferior to them,
no Matter how peaceful, or tolerant, or clever it m~ay be,

THIS will be a Danger for their own Picture of Superiority already. This is, why most arrogant
People are complete Imbecile's in the first Place.



You can observe this Kind of People i mean all over the World. 'cause they are pretty often
the Lot of People who insult other Groups/People for no Reason. May it be a Folk-Group in some
Region/Area on Earth - or some Religion - or some Country's and Race's,

the accurate thing is that whatever gets treated insulting by them, is something that
can - by all Means - something that has N.E.V.E.R. done anything to them!!

No Harm, no Offense - nothing that could have insulted them or their Life anyway,
but it STILL gets 'attacked' by them - may it be verbally or worse.



S~ooo,

now i don't want to say that some Planetside-Players are incredible dumb, independent from how
direct i have hit the Nail on the Head or such,

but Yes - some People are choosing the "easy", the "dumb" Way...


When some People don't know why they should NOT choose some Faction, they act like they have
a bad Conscience or Stuff - and try to artificially speak other Party's and Factions bad.



Please forgive me, Terran Republic-Fan's - but i think your Faction will be VERY prone for this kind of People.

Most People - who "fascinatingly" - respect almost nothing at all in their Life,
"mysteriously" mostly often find their Way into communistic Society's - knows the Devil why.

Maybe because this Society gives them most the Opportunity to harass and bully their fellow Humans. >_>




If you observe People worldwide in the real World, you can witness pretty much often, that even
the most ignorant, simple Fashists, speak of "Order", Righteousness, Honor and such things.

B~ah, my Post gets to long one more time... ... ^^



I for myself must marvel the New Conglomerate-Player's, because i think they are mainly "brave" Players,
for their Choice. It's very brave to choose a Party with lesser Members than the other,

and since the Vanu Sovereignty is pretty attractive for many People, too,
it will be a bit difficult to get many People who just don't wanna play the Communists.




greetings, LV.

[Boomhowser]

Ok i'll be honest this time...

Faction loyalty is a fun thing to have.. I deliberatly celebrate NC and insult TR and VS because its so much easier to kill the enemy when you have little connection with them, start becomming chummy with the opposite side and you make silly mistakes like 30 minute ceasefires on xmas day because you want to stand on a beach emoting the other factions dont get me wrong over time I will come to know and respect various individuals hey I might even throw them a quick wave before my mind goes eww TR infiltrator then lets me stick a knife in his back
So for me at least a strong faction loyalty helps to supress any icky morality issues i might have had

[Figment]

Originally Posted by DodgeIt

From Werner, we always poked fun at the other server on the forums, and they did it back.

=)

We were right though!

[Mongo]

Not really Loverator, im a Die hard VS player and I almost completely dont fit that stereotype, you have unceremoniously dumped us all under.

It isnt about labeling anyone who supports an ideal as a rightwing facist, as that makes zero sense example - If I was a staunch supporter of the liberal left I automatically become a right wing facist because of my idealism?

Your over thinking this all somewhat and trying to shoehorn everyone into a single niche political orientation. It's more basic than that bud, it boils down to simple human group nature and the thing you get from alot of vets from war's (first hand experience of this from family members) after you have been fighting so long - sometimes the only thing left is hate.

[DodgeIt]

Originally Posted by Figment

=)

We were right though!

True, but thats not the point right now

[The Loverator]

Originally Posted by fvdham

Retreat was not option.

You are out of ammo. Enemy tanks are incoming.

You use your virtual finger nails to try to take out the enemy tanks,

hurling your body against the tanks to try and slow them down.


How the heck did SOE achieve such faction loyalty?

How did Noble Six in Halo Reach kept his fighting Spirit all the Time? He knew he would have
had higher Chances for Survival by run into Hiding and keep hidden for as long as possible.

But he did not hide. He fought against massive Overnumbers of endlessly coming Enemy-
Troops, until he did run out Ammo, fought his Enemys with the Weapon's of their own, fallen
Comrades - and kept fighting until he died between a huge Carpet of Enemy Corpses.


Why? Because you CAN'T always fall back or retreat.

It's the same as what Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek said in his Fight against the Borg.

There IS a Line or Place where you cannot fall back and flee, no Matter how powerful or
superior your Foe is. Some Place is just Home and so you can't abandon it.
Some Places are just holy to you. Abandon them is the same as abandoning your own Existence.



And... ... ... if you just managed to admire and love your own, favourite Faction that much,
than it's likely possible that the absolute Home-Place of this Faction becomes your holy Sanctum.

[greenberetdelta]

its not hard to fight and hate with tremendous zeal, anarchists and people who would destroy humanity

[Wahooo]

Originally Posted by Mongo

Not really Loverator,
Your over thinking this all .

The question is how did SOE generate the loyalty in game. It surely wasn't lore and back story.

Loyalty to the players you play with. Hatred to the players you played against and saw regularly. Defending your special bases and home continents. That is really all it was. One toon per faction per server helps initially and so yeah as much as I want to jump back and forth I want the faction loyalty I think it adds something special to the game.

[SmallBird]

Q: "How the heck did SOE achieve such faction loyalty?"

A: Because Ingroup vs Outgroup fighting is part of the human psyche... unfortunately

[SmallBird]

Originally Posted by SmallBird

Q: "How the heck did SOE achieve such faction loyalty?"

A: Because Ingroup vs Outgroup fighting is part of the human psyche... unfortunately

Exhibit A:

Originally Posted by DjEclipse

I don't like you.

[vVRedOctoberVv]

It's easy. I'm a smart guy, so I went TR because the NC are idiots and the VS are freaks. After that, I just let nature take its course.

Kill the smurfs! Kill the barneys! Take Auraxis for ourselves!

[Chefkoch]

Well in the old days there was only 1 faction per Server possible. So you had to be loyal