Multiple Faction Membership

[Wired]

Can we cut down on the number of factions people belong to please? I'm ALL for more people participating in factions, but it makes it hard for there to be solid conflicts / storylines, any sorts of 'unknowns' if you're playing all three sides.

[Rob]

YEAH!

[Rob]

NO!

[Rob]

MAYBE.

[ChemicalAgent]

I'm all for...one of those

[Farwalker]

*dies laughing at Rob* tempting a bad fate are we Rob?

[Thralik]

I don't know - I have mutiple characters in mutiple factions - you just have to rp. Aalric has no idea what Culnul is up to. Uzzik might - if something would jog his memory. neither of them know about a certain temple in lendose of which raziel is a founding member.

Just have to play fair & rp

[vastgoten]

Why not simply make all the faction sub-forums public? Because there is a reason they were locked to non-members in the first place.

I actually agree on that faction membership should to some extent be limited.

Its not about meta-gaming, its about making different players having good reasons and wanting to listen in/learn/spy/steal and so forth from each other. I for one would love to learn what the AV knows or are up to via ic interaction. Not by making a new character who gains access to their sub- forum. Not knowing makes it much more interesting and intriguing to RP around it.

But then, I am old and cranky and has not been active for some time, might be that I belong to those who have a harder time not using ooc knowldegde.

[na85]

I don't know - I have mutiple characters in mutiple factions - you just have to rp. Aalric has no idea what Culnul is up to. Uzzik might - if something would jog his memory. neither of them know about a certain temple in lendose of which raziel is a founding member.

Just have to play fair & rp

In my short time here I've been surprised at how cagey people can be regarding IC plots when having OOC discussions. It always confused me since half the playerbase seems to be playing everything from both sides of the conflict.

As far as the point about having players join fewer factions, I agree.

[Kamen]

Well, I guess this pertains to me and a few others that I can think of, but I'll speak of my own experiences. The faction leaders are aware of my other faction memberships, and this is generally taken into consideration, but I'd be willing to drop a few of the ones I am less active in if this is truly a problem. I'd like to point out though that I've never joined a new faction with the goal of metagaming, learning their secrets, etc. but rather to be involved in something interesting with a group of players that do interesting things. I'm not really much of a forum troll either and keep my attention to current and relevant posts. I may have access to Daybreak for example, but wouldn't dig through their archives to see what they did a year ago.

I was recently invited into the Church of Lochwar, presumably because I am an active player that is occasionally known for halfway decent RP. This is not something I sought out but I've had a lot of fun with this group of players, and I intentionally chose a character type in this faction that would have the least amount of influence. I was hesitant to join this faction at first, but I have no regrets now; this is a really great group of players. In this case though, I'm not sure if the revitalization of this faction would have been so successful if the faction leader didn't start off by inviting a small group of active players, that as a byproduct of being active were already members of other factions.

This is generally the role I like to fill anyhow, as a supporting character. Perhaps this comes from years of DM'ing rather than playing pen and paper AD&D, or just ADD that keeps me bouncing between characters. I don't lead any conflicting factions, and as a follower I've never had a problem arise from being a member. I've never shared information between characters or otherwise used information learned in an OOC fashion that I didn't think was public knowledge. I've even gone so far as to check with other players OOC if I gain IC knowledge that I suspect may have come from an OOC source, such as a character's name that is given by a player who may have simply read the proverbial "underwear tag."

That being said, I'm sorry if this is a problem and I'd be happy to work towards a compromise. I agree that existing faction membership should be weighed when someone pursues another faction, but I do not believe that it will always lead to a problem.

[Wired]

It's not specifically about you or anyone else, please don't take it that way. It's not a rule-setting issue either.

If there were a specific metagaming complaint, we'd be sure to raise it privately and directly with those involved.

It is however a caution for everyone that there are some quiet people out there who might be starting to feel like they're getting gamed when the players around them are also playing for an opposing group.

Wouldn't want to the Sharks and the Jets have to sit down OOC in order to work out out who's going to show up wearing whoose colors in which upcoming rumbles.

[Ralhour the Wanderer]

Well, I think one thing is that some people play Das more than others. The ones that play more often will probably play or be interested in playing more than one faction. I decided on one faction because of my playtime, at least. Some people don't even know that factions exist.

[Crimsonsnake]

i been telling that to myself for a long time! you cant play both side....its nonsense....pick an alignement and stick to it XD

[Ralhour the Wanderer]

i been telling that to myself for a long time! you cant play both side....its nonsense....pick an alignement and stick to it XD

Yea, bro I hear you. I think some people know they won't metagame, tho, and try to branch off to see more content. This server has great PvE content, but I see a lot of people coming back time and time again because of the RP they get with other players. That is the one thing I can say Das has that I have not seen on any other server; the ability to actually write out the storyline as a PC. It is only natural for players that have been here for years to want to see more of what Das has to offer.

I think one major issue that arises from the multiple faction membership, aside from what Wired pointed out, is the fact that PvP or hostile RP situations between factions is going to suffer drastically from people playing both sides, whether they are metagaming or not (I have actually never had a problem with anyone metagaming since I started this server, btw). Take, for instance Lochwar vs. Daybreak. If in the future there were a conflict, the RP and PvP that would result would not reach full potential because people can't actually play both characters at the same time.(and I am in no way pointing any fingers here, but I am most familiar with Lochwar and Daybreak).

The question is how do you police it, though? The only real solution I can think of off the top of my head, aside from making it an actual server rule, would be to increase the recruitment of different factions so the numbers will work out no matter what side someone wants to login to.

Just my thoughts

-Etran

[papaya taco]

Wouldn't want to the Sharks and the Jets have to sit down OOC in order to work out out who's going to show up wearing whoose colors in which upcoming rumbles.

I believe this would be far more entertaining to watch than the upcoming rumble itself.

It is my opinion that being in too many factions also cuts down the focus on any single one, and kind of lessens the 'spirit' in each. I am not in a Dasaria faction but it has been like this for other servers I have played on.