factions was no fun. not into hating other players

i love guild wars, and was jazzed about a new chapter. But after playing this weekend i was deeply disapointed.

i reject the paridime of "us against them" taken to the scale of the whole game. arenas feel like sport to me, play a match, shake hands and move on to the next match. Maybe the person u just played against is on ur team now.

factions feels like taking it all very personally, like nationalism, xenophobia or racism. i know its only a game, and i dont have to play. its just that i had really enjoyed GW and now i expect it will be getting very mean and no fun due to the luxon vs the kurzich structure.

hope i am wrong.

Bitterness only adds to the entertainment, I can recall hearing the nickname "Suxons" for Luxons many times. I personally think its good, it adds to the RP aspect and helps the storyline. You don't have to choose sides either..

All I can say is, this might not be the right chapter for you, sorry bud

What's wrong with nationalism?

I could be wrong, but I detected that the tone of the root quests was to find some unity between the Luxons and the Kurzicks against a common threat. Remember, we weren't seeing the whole game.

They join forces...Im sure...Shiro is a bad dude...or something like that.

I was on both side, a free roamer. I am still having fun.

How can I ally with any side when both sides do horrible things to each other? (human players suicide in alliance battle as a lamer... no, they aren't spies... they are jerks)

its adopting the structure from World of Warcraft- with Horde vs Alliance but with some changes.

This however is no different than to what is going on in the current guild wars game anyway with the HoH - Europe vs America vs Korea , although different circumstances the idea is still the same, but in factions its more generalised and is the driving core.

I just wish that Anet thought this through more thoroughly, dont really like the idea of choosing one side and when you get sick you can just instantly change allegiance and switch over, defeats the idea of war and this choosing a side thing.

It makes battles that much sweeter to win and it makes a loss mean more, since you are fighting for something tangible.

Being the winner in HoH is non-tangible for most guilds, but in the Alliance battles, your wins actually count towards something.

If you switch sides you lose all your faction and have to begin your Alliance standing anew. I am sure ANET put a lot of thought into this, as it is large part of Factions.

Anet's approach on how Factions started is this:

You just got to marketplace and somehow found out evil is coming back.

Your told bascially there is a civil war going on which side are you doing to warn and persuade to defeat ultimate evil.

You go to X side and oh that's all well and good but until swear alleigence to us we don't care. Ultimate evil can kill us or they can across the border..

To OP I know how you feel, with C1 you can view your character in any light RP wise, now your forced some things on you.

It's going to be very werid, I do "psudo" rpg w/ my charaters. After saving the world from an evil lich I find new evil and two groups are powerful enough to stop them, problem is in there a civil war.... (I am bringing my characters over to contune the storty).

What I will end up doing (if possible) is split one character for each faction unless there is something that prevents me.

They both have elements I don't like. Pirates = Cool, Strongest Survive... not cool. High Culture / Jade Building = cool... tight religous socity... not cool. Or I will do one, then swing the other way to the other side once I'm top notch with one.

The central point of my character is what do I have to do to beat X evil and which side is less evil then the too.

I've been very concerned about this as well, and this weekend really brought it into focus. I tried describing GW and Factions to a friend, and the Hall of Heroes thing came up, and she commented how divisive and confrontational the whole setup seemed. I have to ask myself, "With so much war, hate and intolerance going on in real life, do I really want to encourage that in my recreation time and inner world too?"

I don't know, but it is something worth considering that I'd not given much thought to before. I encountered a lot of antagonistic players this weekend, much moreso than any other time playing GW this last year, and can imagine that it could easily get worse. But then again, maybe it will make the role of the cooperative and compassionate PvE player even that much more important.

Me too. I'm not optimistic though.

I think the reason I like Factions despite all the conflict between sides is nicely summed up in this quote:

"War is hell but peace is ****ing boring."

like many other -isms -- too much of it can cause some serious problems. examples:
too much nationalism --> other nations suck, let's go invade them
too much individualism --> other people suck, their views don't matter

"What I will end up doing (if possible) is split one character for each faction unless there is something that prevents me."

You can't. Faction points are per-account, not per-character.

Personally, I take the Luxon/Kurzick war as a Parody of wars in general.

These people are fighting each other... but for what? Meanwhile, a growing threat could destroy them both...

I think I know where Anet is going with this, but only time will tell.

HINT: It's the same lesson the Guilds failed to learn in Ascalon. Fight amoungst yourselves, and be destroyed by outside forces.

No, but you can just spend all your Faction and become neutral to play both sides.

You're right about the luxon and kurzick thing.

I can imagine in towns and outposts.

A line of wammos on both sides. One side kurzick and one side Luxon.

Kurzick Line: Zomg u nooobs suks! I cn pwn ur asses with eviscerate!!

Luxon line: u wanna bet n00b! My shok war cn pwn u just as bad!!111

that could suck.

But I do see guild wars as a sport. You don't get any exercise and you get fat, but hey it's fun.

i'm 90lbs btw ^^

well, as long as you don't mean it personally..

what i mean is that just keep in mind that this is just a game..i like the luxon vs kuricks thingy..it gives the game more life..for me..yeah, i will shout at the luxon if i am kurzicks noob or watever things and after that, i laugh off and forget about it..

you don't need to hate someone or bring racism or nationalism into the game coz after all it is just a game..and btw, you can always close off the local chat..

well, i think it is good if Anet add another 'neutral' race into the game for those who want to maintain neutrality..but it is prolly too late for now..just hope that anet will do well with this expansion..i am looking forward to the game personally..

While some of you have legitimate points, conflict is what makes the game fun. Why play an RPG without a common goal or reason to even fight in the first place?

I don't think it's going to get bent out of shape, the 'nationalism' will be biggest during the first month of play or so then things will die down.

It will be strange beating the game allying the 2 cultures and defeating Shiro, then still fighting them in Alliance Battles though :P

As long as it's silly RP callouts such as "Death unto the Kurzicks!" or "Drive the Luxons from the field like the cowards they are!" It's fine, most can handle that.

But "You f0king SuXoRs nOOb!!! STuPID LUXON!!!!!!!!!" is just immature and pathetic. But, overall I like that it's fictional factions rather then being real "racists."

Am I the only one who realizes that every time we get a portrayal in here of the people who would possibly get nationalistic, they're always leet-speeking, immature, skill-less, 13-year-old morons?
Please, they may represent a large portion of the community, but they haven't got a clue either in-game or in real life.
And with that attitude, they won't get anywhere anyways.

This nationalism point therefore seems moot, as those who would fall to that level would not be worth the time of those of us who have an idea of what life's about (having the best time you can, since life's too short ).