For me, I have admired the following factions for the following reasons. (I'm also listing factions that are not around anymore so as not to diss or play favorites with current factions)
- The Blood Serpents (
godfather1 BrianAT16 Azur Sophe Raith )
They were generally a nice group OOCly. Players were swell guys. ICly, they had a hierachy system that allowed for moving up. Defined goals. They were bandits, yes. But they were a bandit cult that did sacrifices for reasons, etc. They had a direction. They created RP for people within the group and for people outside the group. Until... well,
it happened and the group was disbanded. But still, until it fell apart, I loved the concept and the modus operandi of the group. It was an antagonistic group that did really well for a while. Had something like 7 or 8 in it at one point and I would have had Erikor grow up in the group had things not gone south.
- Lavoyarde during the
Valonyx era
This was amazing:
http://hollowworld.co.uk/threads/the-great-game.31722/
At the time, I wasn't anywhere near Lavoyarde and never made a character that got involved with them because, at the time, my IRL social anxieties bled into online self and I was too afraid of joining a big group like that. But if I could go back, I would have gotten involved in some way. As a servant, farmer, or something. That group was massively successful. They had the might and influence to go to war, yes. But they were so big that you could easily find RP within. Political intrigue was rife. It was also a faction that created RP on a global scale.
-The Inquisition (
Lannis )
I know a lot of people really, really hated the inquisition that came in the post-ValonyxLavo/pre-Anhald era, but I thought it was a really great group for providing RP. It wasn't on a entire kingdom full-on war scale, which I liked. It was on an individual scale, and I thought seeing Jaqueline and posse going on heretic hunts was entertaining from an OOC standpoint. ICly, Aracena at the time was not okay with them. But OOCly I liked it. But.. judging by how it turned out, I was in a minority. But I liked it because it was quality RP, had a clear and define goal, and provided RP for the server as a whole.
-Oh, and the Slavers (
Landem )
Some of my favorite RP, really. I can wax and wane about how much I loved this. Global RP. Sign ups so that people who wanted in on one side or the other could, and those who didn't want to be bothered wouldn't be. A sense of urgency in RP as people are concerned about this ring of abductions, etc. Well organized. Swell people running it OOCly.
It's Anhald not Anheld.
I wish there were peasants, but not many people like to RP them. My plan for an alt when Peter finally died was going to be a peasant living in Thorne or Ackerland or Marienburg, but that had to change. The only reason we're focused on the nobility is because everyone RPs nobility, or RP peasants and become nobility once they realize peasants aren't their style of RP. Peter himself wasn't even a knight when I started him, but it's in his character to pursue power and I stumbled across some good opportunities to seize that power.
As for Niah's original question about what makes a faction good, it comes down to two things IMHO. First is 'do you have a reason to continue existing as a faction'. You need something to drive you. For Anhald, it's our goals. We want to be the best. For Marr, before the left the server, it was their community. Second is 'who is part of the faction'. We all pretend to get along but if we're being completely honest, half the server all hate eachother and the other half have at least one or two people they strongly dislike. You need to be with your buddies, the people you get along with, for a faction to be successful. Take the Coalition as an example of what NOT to do. (
Glados hey)
I honestly thought about putting in the option of, "The group contains OOC friends," but I didn't think about that till after the poll was already made. You do have a strong point and I wish I'd thought about it before I made the poll.
From experience, it is often also about numbers. Often cities/faction survive live best because they have a lot of active peoples. Even if the city itself is not extremely beautiful or harbors best RP, if there are many peoples living there and actively playing.. then a community will thrive. Of course to survive it will need structure, may it be in leadership or how the city is build.. many time ive seen un organised cities that just grew grew and grew.. with more and more abandonned houses.. districts.. until city is so huge and empty that.. well it dies..
So RP, will , goal, a nice scenary are important factors. but it all comes down to numbers. a nation that succeds, is a nation that has a central nerve center, so a large city. I have never or rarely seen villages survive a long time... often the succesfull nations had one large city working perfectly. and around them smaller outpost.. just used to claim land but rarely very active centers of RP.
Hollowworld is the first server I really played on without any big central cities, factions do work.. but do seem to have a hard time compared to others ive seen. So yeah to me a succesfull faction is one that can draw a lrger number of people together, and that has one large city around which the entire faction life turns around.
Indeed. I didn't include numbers, because I felt that having numbers was a given. A faction without numbers is not really successful. But it is a huge factor indeed.
