Or at least, I am fed up with it being in MMOs that are ostensibly story based. Just because World of Warcraft featured the Alliance and the Horde, doesn't mean that every MMO that comes out is obligated to make a faction system to accommodate PVP. My biggest issue with this kind of faction dross is when it is thrown into games set in an already established franchise. Case in point: Elder Scrolls Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic.
The major sticking point with the faction wars in these games particularly is that they are set in the past, and the future has already been laid out. Elder Scrolls is in the late 5th Century 2nd Era in the fallout of the Reman Dynasty, while TOR is in the centuries succeeding the events of the KOTOR franchise. However, these games are still prequels, and that puts a major strain on how much story can actually progress within these MMOs. We know that the Sith are going to be defeated, we know that Tiber Septim will unite Tamriel in the next few centuries. So any major changes in the storyline for both MMOs will be foregone.
This brings up a bevy of problems, not the least of which is the losing faction's players feeling cheated. Since the Light Side always wins in Star Wars, the Sith players can't really score a huge, galaxy changing victory without it being undone by the canon. Same is ESO, all of these factions are eventually going to fall apart in favor of the Septim Dynasty.
So how do the developers deal with this problem? By making everything static. Notice how even though apparently big things happen in the TOR storylines, they don't really do much to shake up the status quo. Sure, you might kill Vitiate in a late dungeon romp, but he's still alive thanks to force power copouts. If I could compare this problem to another franchise, let me bring up Warhammer 40000.
Back in the 90s and early 2000s, Games Workshop ran global campaigns, which would help dictate in universe events based upon how well different factions played. When players sent in their victories and statistics, they tallied them up and declared a winner. The biggest of these campaigns was the Eye of Terror, which would forever change the course of the franchise depending on the winner. If Chaos won, the Imperium would fracture, if the Imperium won, Chaos would be crippled permanently.
Chaos players beat the ever loving crap out of Imperial players, soundly winning the global campaign. The Imperial players promptly threw a hissy fit and stomped their feet until Games Workshop listened. Not wishing to alienate their largest player base (space marine players), the folks running the campaign quickly backpedaled, and came up with some lame excuses to lock the campaign in stasis, where neither side truly had the advantage. And ever since, the storyline in Warhammer 40000 has never moved forward. It is permanently locked in the middle of the Eye of Terror campaign.
I see the same thing happening with these MMOs. Without wanting to piss off half of their players, the only thing that the developers can do is widen these conflicts, rather than progress them. The news today that two new raids on Tython and Korriban for The Old Republic aren't going to accomplish anything apart from giving players a new warzone that never changes.
The major sticking point with the faction wars in these games particularly is that they are set in the past, and the future has already been laid out. Elder Scrolls is in the late 5th Century 2nd Era in the fallout of the Reman Dynasty, while TOR is in the centuries succeeding the events of the KOTOR franchise. However, these games are still prequels, and that puts a major strain on how much story can actually progress within these MMOs. We know that the Sith are going to be defeated, we know that Tiber Septim will unite Tamriel in the next few centuries. So any major changes in the storyline for both MMOs will be foregone.
This brings up a bevy of problems, not the least of which is the losing faction's players feeling cheated. Since the Light Side always wins in Star Wars, the Sith players can't really score a huge, galaxy changing victory without it being undone by the canon. Same is ESO, all of these factions are eventually going to fall apart in favor of the Septim Dynasty.
So how do the developers deal with this problem? By making everything static. Notice how even though apparently big things happen in the TOR storylines, they don't really do much to shake up the status quo. Sure, you might kill Vitiate in a late dungeon romp, but he's still alive thanks to force power copouts. If I could compare this problem to another franchise, let me bring up Warhammer 40000.
Back in the 90s and early 2000s, Games Workshop ran global campaigns, which would help dictate in universe events based upon how well different factions played. When players sent in their victories and statistics, they tallied them up and declared a winner. The biggest of these campaigns was the Eye of Terror, which would forever change the course of the franchise depending on the winner. If Chaos won, the Imperium would fracture, if the Imperium won, Chaos would be crippled permanently.
Chaos players beat the ever loving crap out of Imperial players, soundly winning the global campaign. The Imperial players promptly threw a hissy fit and stomped their feet until Games Workshop listened. Not wishing to alienate their largest player base (space marine players), the folks running the campaign quickly backpedaled, and came up with some lame excuses to lock the campaign in stasis, where neither side truly had the advantage. And ever since, the storyline in Warhammer 40000 has never moved forward. It is permanently locked in the middle of the Eye of Terror campaign.
I see the same thing happening with these MMOs. Without wanting to piss off half of their players, the only thing that the developers can do is widen these conflicts, rather than progress them. The news today that two new raids on Tython and Korriban for The Old Republic aren't going to accomplish anything apart from giving players a new warzone that never changes.
