It seems like two factions have been done alot, and I was just wondering what some of you thought would be good or bad about having, say, 6 different factions in a PvP MMO.

I would like to see another MMO besides DAoC attempt to have more than 2 different plyable factions for PvP warfare. I am aware of possible faction imbalances, but perhaps some of these factions could serve as neutral or mercenary factions, while the others may remain inherently "good" or "evil". It would be interesting to see how the politics play out in an environment other than FFA games such as EvE.

I would also like to see the game centered around the community with faction loyalty being a major focus, and alliances could be forged or broken to limit one or two factions from taking over. And of course the factions would have to be distinct. Somethign along the lines of Galactic Civilizations or Age of Wonders, where your race determines your faction.

The other idea I had for such a game, would be for it to actually be winnable. The reason is mostly so that terrain can be redone or randomized as to promote scouting for resources and being able to build and protect them and just to keep things fresh. The "scenarios" could last anywhere from a couple hours to several months. The only trouble with that would be character progression, but if there were a unique way to go about that, such as unlockable character types to choose to play from scenario to scenario (not necessarily more powerful, just separate play styles). For example, when you first start out, you are a foot soldier. Then you can chose to play as an archer, then calvary, or maybe different monster types for other creature races.

The AoC Bane server had 3 factions, and Fallen Earth has six, but they let the factions meld together, so it basically turns it into another FFA game.

Sounds like you have a game design in mind, I am not going to get into that right now. However I believe that the ability to play more than 3 factions is a good start.  Not sure about the "winnable" end game, but I am sure that you can make it work if you want to.

I think it is a good idea.

The discrepancies between factions don't matter in the least bit unless you have a core philosophy in a game concept to let them dominate each other, or even win. I can name quite a few games where sides are allowed to encroach each other's territories to the point of near-desolation on the losing side, and without the game itself ending or resetting you will find that it will remain an unfair battle of attrition between a volatile mass of converted players, against the stubborn but quivering remnants of the losing side. I have proposed before that in these situations - adding a faction is a clear point to sparse out the larger side into another. Regardless of how they work with each other, the lack of communication and those that never liked the winning side to begin with will drift, and eventually it should balance out. This splitting into new factions could go on many times until there are around a dozen small groups, then that would change the game into a more political one as alliance-war would be where it's at.

Again though, if you do not allow the utter domination of opposing sides - there is no real point to having more/fewer factions as it's simply a cover to route player mentalities into the right roles so that the community doesn't strangle itself.

Originally posted by Palebane

I would like to see another MMO besides DAoC attempt to have more than 2 different plyable factions for PvP warfare.

UO, Auto Assault and Pirates of the Burning Sea are the first three that come to mind.

It would be interesting to see how the politics play out in an environment other than FFA games such as EvE.

What kind of politics other than two sides make an agreement to zerg or not zerg the third?

 Darkfall has 6, but they aren't hard coded factions.

3 is a great number, as far as balance of power goes, and it probably the most stable. Dark Age of Camelot is considered the best PvP game of all time for a reason.

I think there's a certain... je ne sais quoi... in odd numbers. Also, for the sake of building loyalty and a sense of belonging, I'd wager more than 6 is already starting to become too numerous to be identifiable.

3 was always a good number. At any point in time you know there will be a strong, a medium, and a weak. The chances of things being equivalent across the board is slim to none. The 2 lesser will always outnumber/outpower the greater, but there is a balance in that they themselves are limited in coordination/communication etc.

Magic the Gathering had a *wonderful* 5 sided concept with 1 color having 'sworn enemies' with 2 other colors. If a game dev managed to harness this concept and apply it to an MMO... (not simply copy-paste) I think we'd see real intrigue in terms of dynamic world PvP.

Of course a dev would need to ensure no faction could become obsolete, and there would be benefits to 'double-crossing' an 'allied' faction should you find yourself in a situation where the big guy allies against a smaller. You would need to enforce a mechanic that would promote the smalls grouping and the bigs being alone.