Rejarial Galatan, on 24 May 2012 - 10:53 PM, said:
I am not choosing, I came into the BTU as Clan Wolf. I will DIE a WOLF. IF anything, I am being FORCED to go to the DCMS. all of you who wanna hate, Pitchforks here, torches and fuel here.
Just because my post came after yours does not mean it was directed at you. I was definitely addressing a larger trend amongst players in general, many of whom seem willing to pick a faction before we even know what the finalized perks and benefits are. And before anyone says
"They've already outed that information", things are hardly written and stone at this point and there is no telling what the final form things at release will be.
Ramien, on 24 May 2012 - 10:58 PM, said:
When the general tone of each faction is known, even without knowing the in game benefits, is it surprising that people will choose the sides that they have favored in the past, or that they agree with the aesthetics or philosophy of?
To me? Absolutely. If you got into factions in the past, it's probably safe to say that that was more the area of RPing (I knew many people who simply played TT and didn't give any thought to factions). And when you get into RPing, I've always raised an eyebrow at the people that insist on playing one specific trope or class or race to the exclusion of others. And yes, I do view faction selection as a facet of this. I have classes or races or tropes that I generally
PREFER...but I don't exclude others and I do try to mix things up.
But don't get me wrong here - it isn't simply that people are already choosing factions, it's that there is also a sense amongst many that there is
only one faction that will do. For example, I could choose a faction now, but in my mind that wouldn't preclude another faction should something else appeal to me more later (for me I would lean Davion/Steiner but /shrug). In contrast many players aren't just choosing a faction, they're locking themselves in, period. They aren't just saying
"I think I might go Kurita", some are saying
"I WILL go Kurita, no matter what, and I don't even want to know what the specifics are! KKKUUUURRRRIITTTAAA FOOORREEVVERRR!!!". Every time I see it on the forums it fascinates me in the same way that watching a video of a centipede eating a mouse fascinates me.
I wasn't singling Rejarial Galatan out before, but I think he or she is a good example. He seems dead set on Clan Wolf - and actually sees himself as being
FORCED towards the DCMS. On one hand, if it is simply people getting into the RP aspect of the game then hey that's all well and good, go for it. But choosing a single faction now and setting that decision in stone already? It's simply bizarre to me, but then again when I think of RPing (and I cut my teeth on many classic P&P RPGs in the '80s and '90s) people didn't just play the same thing all the time. I dunno how else to say it...it's just a little creepy. This feels to me like the people who were in the STO forums pre-release RPing Klingons or something similar and threatening to not play the game at release unless there were individual factions (up until they realized that Cryptic wasn't going to do that, and then they caved)
I'm def not trying to hurt anyone's feelings, and I def don't want to debate this at length (throwing my hands up in surrender now). It's just that the topic makes me shake my head...if the FRR has some benefits added that attracted me, I'd probably be willing to run with it and annoy with friends with Swedish Chef mimicry in Teamspeak and Vent. I don't particularly like Liao or Kurita, but if I had to choose one of those to play with friends or to be in a specific corp, then I wouldn't protest overly much and I'd get on with it. The
"Faction X..FOREVER!" does seem alien to me altogether, but /shrug.