149492-why-did-you-pick-your-factions

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Reading another post on the forums from a newcomer, who had seen the F2P trailer and decided to give the game a shot, I started to wonder... how much impact does marketing have on which faction(s) we choose to play? It's one thing to say that a trailer is cool and gets you interested,. but does the 'space cowboy' angle actually draw a lot of people to the Exiles? Or do new players arrive at the character creation screen and start thinking about different aspects of the game?
 
I will say that when I first played beta a few weeks before launch, I started with Dominion. There were a few reasons:
 
1. I had played Horde for about five years prior to switching games
 
2. I suspected that, like on my WoW server, the Dominion/antagonist side would draw more hardcore PVPers, and initially my interest in the game was more directed to PVP (in part because of the freeform combat, but also because I wasn't really interested in raiding anymore)
 
3. My first beta character was a mechari named DoAndroidsDream. I really liked the combo, but also enjoyed the idea of playing a beepbort because, well, having played most triple-A MMOs, I hadn't actually had the chance to pick a robot in any of them. It just seemed like something fresh and new.
 
4. Chua. Although I didn't want to play one as my first character, I loved the idea of these guys, beginning with the trailer where Malvolio's all like "ungh" about them. (So hey, I guess marketing did draw me to the Dominion in a sense, but it was the quirky, funny side, rather than the "coolbeans Firefly" side! Malvolio's uppity nature just seemed a foil in those particular videos, to give the Dominion some dignity and pretense before the chua showed up and went all bananas. ;) )
 
 
After playing Androids for a bit, I decided to try the Exiles. I made an Aurin even though in the longterm the Mordesh interest me much more— my first Exile character post-launch was a cyberpunkish Mordesh female punkrocker! But yea, I picked Aurin for beta because they're small (which is good for a PVP healer) and because it made me giggle to think of kicking arse with a treehugger.
 
That said, after playing her to about level 14, I wasn't super enthusiastic about the Exiles. The use of military combat fatigue designs and the hard-drinking Granok gave me this sense of (forgive because I don't mean to offend) 'Americanism'. It's hard to explain... it's not that I'm anti-American, it's more that the Exile faction made me think more of real world connotations, and I didn't really like that. Whereas with the Dominion I felt completely submersed in science fiction, with a dash of hoighty toighty. :P
 
 
Consequently, when launch finally came, I decided to recreate DoAndroidsDream on the Evindra RP server. I've always liked RP servers and RPers, and the friends I crossed over with were from an RP WoW server with me (Shadow Council), so it all made sense.
 
And that's pretty much my story. I still play the same character as my main, though sadly Androids' name has changed to Proxima Dust... which I love, but I've stopped getting so many people whispering PKD references and expressing their love for the novel. ;)
 
 
So yea... why did you choose your main faction? Do you play the other side, and why? Did marketing have any considerable affect on your choices?
			
				
	Edited February 5, 2016 by EsperXIV	
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I wanted to play an esper and did not like my options Dominion-side. Chua just aren't my cup of tea, and I knew I didn't want to main a human. Originally wanted a Mordesh esper (back before we even knew what the Mordesh were called xD), as the initial teaser art of the rotten arm reminded me of my time playing Forsaken in WoW. When that proved to be impossible, I went with my only other non-human option - aurin.
 
There ya go. xD
 
I'm not really one for extreme faction loyalties. I have a couple Dominion alts, but the reason I don't play them much is mostly because all my resources (and my friends) are clustered around the Exile faction. I'd probably play more characters if certain race/class restrictions were limited though haha.	
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			I liked the races on the dominion side better and also I usually choose the antagonist side as well.	
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The use of military combat fatigue designs and the hard-drinking Granok gave me this sense of (forgive because I don't mean to offend) 'Americanism'. It's hard to explain... it's not that I'm anti-American, it's more that the Exile faction made me think more of real world connotations, and I didn't really like that.
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I think that's a good show of how marketing affected your choice, even if unconsciously. Consider that the Exiles are the antagonists, from the Dominion's point of view!
 
Anyway, my level 50 characters are even on both factions (2 on each side), but I ended up maining the Exile warrior because all my friends are on that side. That was the reason for my choice of main faction. They almost never play Dominion, so there isn't much reason to play with my characters there. I have lots of unused dommie roleplaying alts and a bunch of housing plots that will never see use for this reason, too. Or, at least, no use as long as we don't have cross-faction housing.	
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I played Dominion during CBT.  Hubby and I had "his" and "hers" chuas. Mine was pink and his was blue. We went Dominion after launch so we could have SpousalUnit and HubbyUnit chuas. :)
 
Hubby left the game, along with the friends we were playing with and I joined up with another guild. The guild had some Dommies and some Exiles on different servers, and had a policy of not having warring factions on the same server. So, when server mergers happened, we all went Exile because that was the bigger guild. After a couple of months, people stopped logging in and the guild just went away.
 
I stayed Exile because I liked the story better. It wasn't so 'gloomy' in my opinion. I joined another guild and have been happily living on Nexxus. :)	
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I first tried the game on the original beta and at the time I decided the game wasn't for me but it wasn't until f2p beta before I decided I wanted to give it more of a chance.
 
When I was deciding which faction to select there were two reason's that swayed who I went for and one of them was when I checked the forums around about the time f2p was launching I had seen a few people asking which side was best to go for and the general consensus I got from the posts I seen was if your into PvP Battlegrounds/Arena etc.. go for Dominion and if you want to do more PvE content go for Exile. Now wither this information was true or false who knows but as an outside player that's the information I had to go on when deciding.  
 
When coming into Wildstar I was pretty burned out by doing PvP in mmo's as it is a mode ive played to death in alot of other mmo's whereas my PvE Dungeon side is not something I usually do alot of but heard Wildstar had amazing dungeons and I wanted to give that side of play a try. 
 
The second reason was upon f2p launch I had already tried all the classes in the f2p beta and realized Stalker was by far my favorite and I wanted Stalker to be my main class. Now on the off chance I disliked the PvE side and wanted to try PvP my natural instinct in all my PvP games is go with the smallest race as if your small enough you tend to get missed in alot of the ruckus. As I couldn't go Chua Stalker I decided the next best thing was Aurin Stalker as they appeared to be the next smallest race so I made an Aurin Stalker but they are no where near my favorite race on the Exile side as it is Granok and overall my favorite race is Chua but because of class restrictions it meant going a Dominion was never really an option for me. 
 
But what I will say is I prefer the Dominion starter areas and I will admit that I incorrectly thought Dominion were the evil side. I think it had more to do with the color schemes when selecting and relating it to other games ive played where blue is normally the friendly good side and red is normally associated with the bad evil side. 
			
				
	Edited February 5, 2016 by Scarran	
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			This side had the wood elves on it.	
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But what I will say is I prefer the Dominion starter areas and I will admit that I incorrectly thought Dominion were the evil side. I think it had more to do with the color schemes when selecting and relating it to other games ive played where blue is normally the friendly good side and red is normally associated with the bad evil side. 
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When our future robotic overlords come into power I want them to know that I was always on their side, so Mechari is the only real option. 
 
Also, what's the point of playing a sci-fi MMORPG if you aren't going to play a sci-fi race and class?  Mechari Engineer is the only logical choice, with Mechari Medics being an acceptable but inferior option.  Everyone else is doing it wrong.
			
				
	Edited February 5, 2016 by dinwitt	
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			Exiles because they had awesome space zombies and cute, tiny anime cosplayers; Dominion because they had badass draken ladies and robots. I didn't pick any other faction because they have a problem with existence. 
			
				
	Edited February 5, 2016 by Atomicpanda	
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I wonder why exactly it is that people think this?
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Star Wars as another main stream example
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			because aurin	
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I picked aurin female first, they are so kawaii!!! But then I rolled on pvp server, with faction disbalance I picked human, because rest of races just... meh. droids with squeaking knees in stealth, furballs with no gender, and no matter how I tried I wasn't able to roll any cute lizard draken lady.
So I'm playing both sides.	
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			Well waaaaaaaaaaay back at the beginning I made a chua SS.  I always play the spellcaster class and chua reminded me a lot of Ratchet and clank (this entire game does...).  After while I decided to just try out other classes.  Made an aurin esper and ADORED how it played, got sucked into the celestion zone (I like forest/jungle zones way more than what doms have) and just went with it.  Quit for awile then came back when some friends started to play, but they were on dominion.  Picked up some long-abandoned draken warrior who was a close enough level to one of my friends, and he became my fav.  Done everything/unlocked everything on my warrior so I feel kinda "stuck" now on one toon.  Can't really move around.	
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I played during beta-weekend, and liked both chua and aurin.
So pre-f2p when I joined in I started making a pink spellslinger chua (my main) and I eventually also made a pink aurin esper alt (just need to level her up).
I'm not too bothered with factions, more characters... that's why I can roll both :P
But I must say I like Illium waay more than Thayd, which speaks for a dominion preference =)
			
				
	Edited February 5, 2016 by Tea	
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			Because I'm a tree hugging Aurin....and the Exiles have tree hugging Aurins :)	
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Because Chua
 
/mic drop	
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			Exiles because of Space Zombies - see my bones and organs in a jar like casing? YUP!	
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			Exiles because they are the good guys.	
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			Dominion because....well this is OUR game and you exiles are just invading it.	
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			Because I've only liked playing Humans and I like playing the underdog. Then I discovered the awesomeness of male Aurin and I was cemented even further.	
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			Beautiful clothes, beautiful architecture, and beautiful robots. Looking good is well worth the price of being bad.	
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			Dominion due to Draken myself. 	
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Exiles because they are the good guys.
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Because Mordesh looked cool...not kidding
 
 
Now that I am a WS lore nerd... I really wish I could change him to a draken, or at least go over to Granok if I was forced to stay exile	
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			Exiles because its less hassles compared to the dominion.	
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			Space elf zombies  :wub:	
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So looking over the replies here... it seems like race selection is the defining criteria for most players. :P  This isn't too surprising and supports the idea that Aurin fandom has contributed a lot to the Exile's population advantage. It also seems to suggest that the marketing emphasis on Exile hasn't necessarily lead to that population difference. I don't see anyone claiming that 'space cowboy' or 'Firefly love' caused them to pick Exile. Hmmm!
 
I'd also guess that race/class combos (which I think Naunet mentioned) are important to a lot of gamers. Which means that if Carbine were to add Chua stalkers and/or warriors, we might see a bit more interest in the ol' Dom. I'm pretty sure Gnome rogues were popular in WoW, no? Everyone likes an ankle-biting ninja! :D
			
				
	Edited February 6, 2016 by EsperXIV	
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			I have characters of every race on both factions. Why would I pick just one?
			
				
	Edited February 6, 2016 by Sigma081	
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			Exiles because... Aurins. Although I like Mordesh, too. And Chua (but I don't play them :( ).	
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			Dominion. Because Chua. Though if there were space raccoons in the game, I would have chosen those too :P
			
				
	Edited February 6, 2016 by TheChuaBrigade	
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My original plan was actually to play Exile.  Esper was the class that interested me the most, but I don't like playing humans in MMOs.  That left me with the choice of Aurin or Chua, and Aurin just appealed to me a little more (forgive me, I was young and ignorant!) due to having an easier time making one that I liked the look of.  I also found the whole scruffy, space-cowboy underdog thing to be a lot more appealing than the stuffy, uptight snobs Malvolio portrayed in the promos.
 
But... the people I was going to guild up with decided to go Dominion, so I begrudgingly started a Cassian Esper.  Turns out, I wasn't really sold on Esper (this was back when they were very immobile and felt clunky to me), and I figured part of that had to do with me being forced to settle on the race/faction I wasn't looking forward to playing.  So, I rerolled as an Exile Spellslinger, but by that point, I had played enough of the Dominion storyline to see there was more depth to them than I anticipated, and the Exiles just didn't feel as interesting to me by comparison.  So, looking back, I'm glad I was forced to give the Dominion the try I otherwise very likely never would've.
			
				
	Edited February 7, 2016 by Cantatus	
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But stiff, uptight Malvolio was HILARIOUS.
 
I've always gravitated toward the more "evil" faction, just because I find it more interesting to roleplay in. IMO you get a lot more variety (good and bad). Also its entertaining to play the snooty, immoral, or strangely moraled characters on occasion :P.
 
I think that once my friends and I saw the Malvolio trailer we were totally sold on the Dominion. And the Dirty Little Secrets trailer. Generally I've also found the interplay between the races to be more interesting Dom side as well (though it helps that we don't have 90% of our population as nature loving aurin hippies :P).	
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			Dominion because their races have such a wide range of character.  I've also always liked to work for the apparent "bad guys," while making my own moral choices along the way.	
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aurins
 
also any of you who want to mock me because of the aesthetic I like, go ahead. the number of *cupcake*s I give is precisely zero.	
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			I chose Dominion initially because i liked the structure and order within the Dominion (it was like a superpower in the galaxy) and the Chua race itself is undoubtedly my favourite! I decided to go as a medic for the probes (which got heavily nerfed on the dps side shortly after launch). I quit the game for a while due to bugs and boredom and came back as an Exile Granok Warrior for multiple reasons, i wanted to start fresh when i came back and i wanted to use my old "Rest in Piecemaker" skin for a sword, not to mention you cant make chua warriors (i will drop all my characters just to make a chua warrior because reasons....).  So here i am now with a Chua Medic i eventually went back to for PvP (because i suck at pvp on warriors) and a Granok Warrior, i love them both equally but prefer to pve on my warrior and pvp on my medic.	
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Mordesh, that's why. Closely followed by Granok. I would sacrifice kittens in unholy pagan rituals to be able to have a female Granok gunslinger.
 
I will tolerate Aurin to play as those two races
 
also they have that whole firefly space cowboy vibe goin on, who doesn't want to be a magical gunslinging space zombie cowboy elf
			
				
	Edited February 8, 2016 by Galactic007	
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Mordesh, that's why. Closely followed by Granok. I would sacrifice kittens in unholy pagan rituals to be able to have a female Granok gunslinger.
 
I will tolerate Aurin to play as those two races
 
also they have that whole firefly space cowboy vibe goin on, who doesn't want to be a magical gunslinging space zombie cowboy elf
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			I picked Exile because Dominion is "stuffy" like the Alliance in WoW. I like the under dog that goes against "the man". Dominion is like the Empire in Star Wars..rather be with Chewy and Han thanks.	
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I liked the Horde in WoW because they're the "underdog" faction, and I liked the Exiles for that reason. Pair that with my love for cowboys, mercs, and aurin and they had me sold. Mordesh are cool and all but not my thing...
 
I might make a draken warrior, since I am partial to that race, but Im not to keen on the whole evil empire thing really.	
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Dominon because I'm a elitist and I'll take insane rodents over tree catrabbits any day
and don't you dare judge me because that's MY job B)	
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Fun fact! (Referring to the earlier talk about blue/red and red 'seeming' more evil and blue 'seeming' more good.)
 
Red-Green colourblindness is the most common form (apparently up to 8% in european males - it's genetic, and heavily scaled towards males!) thus faction differentiation in most games tends to avoid using those colours. Hence... blue and red.
 
Initially, I went Exile, purely because all the other people starting along with me (family and friends) did as well. It's telling that I tried out pretty much every race and sex on the Exile side before i finally settled on anything to level past about 15, as most of them didn't really work for me.
I loved the concept of Mordesh, and had a medic, but the resonators were absolutely MASSIVE on male Mordesh, and swung wildly from side to side on his shoulders as he ran (so much body-twisting!) and I found it really irritating :)
Granok were just too huge... the females weren't quite so massive, but I felt they ran really stiffly and it looked weird.
Humans are humans...
Aurin CAN be adorable, but I personally found it took bloody ages to manage to make a face that didn't look vacuous, and drugged to oblivion.
 
Anyone, once a couple of the exile's I started with stopped playing, I went Dominion... and never looked back!
 
Draken are the best. No contest. There are a few oddities I notice in them as well (I'm really picky ;P) but the overall design and concept makes up for it.
Chua are cool, though I'm yet to play one for any real length.
Don't like Mechari (for very similar reasons to the Mordesh :))
Human are human.
 
There :)	
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