105577-is-factions-the-issue-with-this-type-game

== Content ==
			
To me, the idea of a "Set Faction" is the issue with this game.
It drops down the amount of players you have to group with completely based off of what faction you rolled.. and your stuck with it.. unless you start over.
 
This weekend, i went and did Scorchwing some, and Guardians of the grove.
Every time.. 30+ Exiles, 8-12 Dominion at most
 
So i decided f it, i rolled an exile alt, i got to Thayd.. and holy crap.. there are more people in Thayd then there was in Ilum on release....
 
 
So this gives me a couple of options.
1: Stick with Dominion, help my guild, hope other guilds fail and transfers come to join us in a lower population faction (Which is only choice as i like the people in my guild and wouldn't leave it)
2: Re-Roll Exile, start over completely.
3:Quit the game ? Meh i like the game
 
 
 
Now, for those who Played Star Wars Galaxies.. What if the system worked like that ? With no Neutral faction ?
You could change at anytime if you had the rep + a internal cooldown ?
 
 
How nice would it be, if carbine added a new zone, for Exile and Dominion, and you could go to the other factions area and Grind rep toward the other faction.(Dailies + turn in quests from mob drops like the Lopp shinies in whitevale)
 
You would start at -32k faction, have to grind that away,  then up into the Exile faction to change.
 
 
Once you have Positive Rep.. you can go officially join that faction.
 
 
*Have cosmetic armor / mounts etc for each faction based on Rep
*Allow Cross faction chat outside of battlegrounds, Your chat text will vary by your faction for the difference
 
 
This would make the servers feel alot more alive, and would have a better chance of balancing the factions,
 
On a PVE server, dont have a guild that fits your schedule on Exiles ? Well you have dominion as an option now..
On a PvP Server  ? Your guild tired of finding people in open world to kill ? in your exile gank groups ?   Swap to Dominion and have a ton of targets.
 
 
 
At least... i can hope...	
----
			
Dominion for % wins in 6-49 PvP, Exiles to do all forms of Content with more then 3 people.
 
 
Choose!	
----
			
Yea i had somone in zone chat tell me, yea but dominion wins more pvp matches..
My Reply.. yea, because you guys have 20x the people which means 10x the bads.
 
 
Id take quantity over quality for overall faction.. You can make pre mades if you want quality.	
----
			
I would personally love to see a game in which faction is earned by rep. The original EQ had that ability. There were many factions ranging from good to evil and everything in between.you could start off as one faction due to race, and then depending on your actions you could switch factions over time. 
 
That is one thing I would love to see brought back into MMOs, as it increases playability, gives more options for content, and would still be viable for things like PvP. It also creates a rich world and character stories for people who like that.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
I would personally love to see a game in which faction is earned by rep. The original EQ had that ability. There were many factions ranging from good to evil and everything in between.you could start off as one faction due to race, and then depending on your actions you could switch factions over time.
 
That is one thing I would love to see brought back into MMOs, as it increases playability, gives more options for content, and would still be viable for things like PvP. It also creates a rich world and character stories for people who like that.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
problem was people complained about rep grinds, or the grind for changing faction or.. or...
 
there are many reasons why it was great, but it took too long to change rep and people didnt want to do that.
----
			Nope... didn't help Guild Wars 2.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
 
 
 
Id take quantity over quality
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
I would personally love to see a game in which faction is earned by rep. The original EQ had that ability. There were many factions ranging from good to evil and everything in between.you could start off as one faction due to race, and then depending on your actions you could switch factions over time.
 
That is one thing I would love to see brought back into MMOs, as it increases playability, gives more options for content, and would still be viable for things like PvP. It also creates a rich world and character stories for people who like that.
----
			I like having factions. gives me stuff to kill.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
I like having factions. gives me stuff to kill.
----
			
Deeply considering re-rolling dominion if it wasn't for the fact I have 2 months of work on my exile....
 
And why the change? B/c Dominion are around 100x better at PvP as a whole. Plus the whole faction seems to be sporting 1500+ since they can pretty much pug to those ratings; this seems to be damn near impossible on exile since we are so....bad at PvP.
 
But alas, WS is extremely alt unfriendly with it's absurbly over tuned time gates they have put up every where. It sucks to know that if you go to an alt and or swap factions, you lose months of work that cannot be made up. I pity the players who happen to join up these days, you are so far behind. :(
 
Anyways, I personally like the pre-cu swg take on faction: neutral, rebel, and empire. If you want to swap factions, you have to grind a bit of 'rep' and then you can swap. This meant if rebels had to many players, many fair minded players would convert over to empire or vice versa. It still had imbalances but a few top pvp guilds swapping could change things greatly.	
----
			Are Factions the Issue with this game?	
----
			
I personally have always seen factioning as a poor game design.  My friend wanted to roll an Aurin, but everyone he knew and wanted to play with went Dominion.  The faction system forces players to make decisions about their character that they won't most enjoy because of outside factors (i.e., what their friends play).  And - for what?
 
That being said, it's built into the system, and there's really no way around that right now.  It's a flaw of the game's structure, IMHO, but one the designers are just going to have to live with.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
That being said, it's built into the system, and there's really no way around that right now.
----
			
I am of the opinion that factions are a bad design decision as well. Yes, they give the game flavor and give the designers interesting story options, but it creates an extra layer of server/population issues. 
 
{| class="blockquote"
Deeply considering re-rolling dominion if it wasn't for the fact I have 2 months of work on my exile....
 
But alas, WS is extremely alt unfriendly 
----
			
Dual Factions = Split playerbase CAN work well, it's mostly a matter of how it's implemented.  Guildwars did it with elegance, making it server vs server in their open world pvp, while still keeping the rivalry between 'factions'  alive.  At the same time they also allow cross-server friends, and even the ability to visit other servers for all PVE content.  Why more games don't do this is beyond me.  Wildstar, however, takes a step backwards in this regard instead of forward. They copied the dual faction without really thinking about the how and why of it.  Like many other game mechanics in Wildstar, it's simply there because that's what MMOs do;  just like instanced pvp and arena, daily quests, rep grinds, and a host of other systems that worked 10 years ago, but have since been improved. At this point I don't think factions are the sole problem afflicting Wildstar.  It's definitely a contributing factor, and I DO think the game could greatly benefit from ditching the dual faction system and putting all the players into one large pool. End game content is already virtually the exact same for both factions. The lore is virtually the same at end game: Exile and Dominion are both helping Drusera and fighting the blight and eventually the Entity.  The only real reason I can see for two factions is to support the somewhat weak stories in the leveling zones, and maybe a little bit of cross faction rivalry on PVP servers.  Other than that, what purpose does it really serve? 
 
Weight the flimsy excuse of lore and the occasional gank on a pvp server against literally half your player-base being unavailable for potential raid members, and queue times for PVP matches and the group finder for dungeons and adventures.  And if you REALLY think lore is all that important, it's easy enough to write in the threat of the blight and the Entity as being more important than the Exiles and Dominion hating each other. 	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
problem was people complained about rep grinds, or the grind for changing faction or.. or...
 
there are many reasons why it was great, but it took too long to change rep and people didnt want to do that.
----
			
I would be ok with a rep grind if it gave me a CHANCE to switch..
 
Changing factions would be optional.. not required...	
----
			
What the game has to say about this:
 
"Nope, we can't have the factions working together! Because the faction divide has to mean something, and the only way that can work in this game is by artificially dividing them! 
 
What is that, player? That you have seen quests and NPCs interacting with the other faction without killing each other on sight? Dominion and Exile bases side to side in Farside and Grimvault? An aurin lady you have to help to access a SimCore even when you are a dommie? A group of scientists that do not care about politics and take people of all races? Tha the Auction House is shared? Lies! Lies, I tell you! The faction divide is absolutely unsurmountable! You can tell because when the other side speaks you see creepy alien symbols. That is the true mark of hostility and agression! You should hate them!
 
Now be a good boy and glare agressively at the other side, will you? Maybe I'll give you a minor experience flask the next time you open a boom box. Maybe."	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
What the game has to say about this:
 
"Nope, we can't have the factions working together! Because the faction divide has to mean something, and the only way that can work in this game is by artificially dividing them! 
 
What is that, player? That you have seen quests and NPCs interacting with the other faction without killing each other on sight? Dominion and Exile bases side to side in Farside and Grimvault? An aurin lady you have to help to access a SimCore even when you are a dommie? A group of scientists that do not care about politics and take people of all races? Tha the Auction House is shared? Lies! Lies, I tell you! The faction divide is absolutely unsurmountable! You can tell because when the other side speaks you see creepy alien symbols. That is the true mark of hostility and agression! You should hate them!
 
Now be a good boy and glare agressively at the other side, will you? Maybe I'll give you a minor experience flask the next time you open a boom box. Maybe."
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
You can have stuff to kill without factions - see the many open PvP, single-faction games out there.
 
I do agree with the OP's statement that factions severely diminish the number of people available to interact with on a regular basis for group content. They also may exacerbate already existing population troubles.
----