Face of Mankind had, what, five factions? Fun stuff, though they weren't inherently at war 100% of the time like in games like World of Warcraft. Honestly it just made each faction feel a heck of a lot more close knit, and it allowed a much larger variety of communities to grow within the game. I'd like to see that more often in MMOs.

Factions limit gameplay...

    Give me a world where my actions, not my faction, dictate who I like/hate/ally/gank/grind or chill with.  Give me a system to where if I choose the most outlandish combination, and take the penalty to boot, it's allowable.  The laziness is in creating factions, not leaving them out.  Everquest and Elder Scrolls were great with this concept, you determined your fate, not the game or the faction.  Factions are a crutch, both for the Developer and the player, limiting both creativity and immersion. 

Originally posted by Cik_Asalin

Like DAoC, no less than 3 factions.  Which is why I'm watching Prime. http://www.primeonline.com/

 

A very organic, open-ended, player-driven game with the sandboxy elements I'm interested in: pve & pvp, 3-races, 7-professions, 6-classes, a mission system, base and advanced skill-sets to develop, player-driven merchandising & economy, resource control of "Prime" (which is dynamic), crafting, territorial control, base-building & management, 3-faction RvR, guild-control and in-factional politics, etc.

I agree with the DAoC comment.

But Prime, yeah I'm not feeling it. Looks too small developer to me, too low budget/low quality. Its something I would research once released, but not something I would follow till release.

Besides, maybe I am already biased for Guild Wars 2--the World Vs World Vs World pvp is three way (minus the same 3 way faction dynamics)

Yes. I'm extremely sick of the simplicity of two factions.

My ideal MMO would have 5 major warring factions with the option to remain neutral amung them. Players should be able to influence the success of these factions, e.g., being able to build player colonies within and outside of the main static city. If you wish to build within one of the major 5 city factions, you will be taxed. If your guild starts a small colony (shops, etc) within the main city, you will be taxed harder.

Neutral colonies or those who reside in the wilderness will not be taxed. However, they don't have the security of the city walls / combat towers.

All 5 cities hate each other.

But hey... this is too complex for MMOs....  according to post-WoW developers.

Two 3 faction games are coming out, both GW2 and TSW, and while I'm not a rabid PvP'er, I do enjoy some PvP when I'm in the mood and I am very excited for these two games.  I will say though, that neither of them is PvP my MAIN focus or reason for excitement.  Still....I think it will prove challenging and fun.

I don't have a favorite faction system.  Well...Fallen Earth's six faction ( or was it more than that ) system had potential, but it fell short, in my opinion.

I hate faction systems period. I wan't to group with my friends ffs!

It really depends on the IP, but most games that are two faction are boring and generally it leads to an uneven split since most faction designs are an uninspiring "good vs. evil" dichotomy. 

So far GW2's system has me the most optimistic. I've always been of the mind that players on the same server should be cooperative rather than competitive and I think GW2 will go quite a ways to getting that back. On the other hand I also like to dabble in PvP so it seems the best of both worlds.

Am I sick of two faction systems?

No not really.

Im sick of the whole faction thing, mostly every game does it because its simple. This is why im looking forward to GW2. No factions, just server vs server. This is what will truly make a community come together.

just1opinion:
Two 3 faction games are coming out, both GW2 and TSW

drazzah:
This is why im looking forward to GW2. No factions, just server vs server
 

Okay, so which is it?

The two faction system should be discarded or at the very least modified to allow player choice (e.g., betrayal of one side to join another). 

Personally I view if anything hardcoded at all it should be the creation of more options instead of two factions. 

Originally posted by Icewhite

just1opinion:
Two 3 faction games are coming out, both GW2 and TSW

drazzah:
This is why im looking forward to GW2. No factions, just server vs server
 

Okay, so which is it?

There are no factions.

Its server vs server vs server pvp.

We all use the same races.

Agreed, 2 faction systems only works in a few games were the lore doesn't allow anything more than just black and white.

For TOR it is actually right, anything else would be against the movies but for almost all other worlds should there at least be a neutral side even if there is good and evil as factions.

3 or 5 factions balances out the PvP. For a PvE only game like LOTRO and DDO it matters little and the same for a game like GW2 where servers fight eachother.

I also liked Lineage where players created their own faction by swearing loyalty to a prince or princess.

Originally posted by Asheram

The problem though arises if you dont have the population in a game to sustain more than 2 factions,and making each seperate faction desirable to play so the majority of that population doesnt all drift towards 1 faction therby unbalancing it even more.

I am sure if it was an easy thing to accomplish more developers would do it.

It is an easy thing to do, but you have to design it in from a very early stage - impossible to revert to a 3+ faction system later.

It also requires you to ignore every single bloody aspect of WoW as a model for all MMO development.

I never understand why people bring up this desirability argument.  Balancing factions is WORSE the less you have.  If one of two factions is more desirable - disaster.  If one of three is, then there is always the opportunity for the other two factions to work harder against the more popular faction.

Originally posted by Asheram

The problem though arises if you dont have the population in a game to sustain more than 2 factions,and making each seperate faction desirable to play so the majority of that population doesnt all drift towards 1 faction therby unbalancing it even more.

I am sure if it was an easy thing to accomplish more developers would do it.

 I have yet to see an MMO that has less than 4 players.  If it has 4 players, it can support 4 factions.

That said, I was always thinking that WOW would release more factions as time went on, and they never did.  It's the biggest failing of the game.  As the OP mentions, classes are restricted and were moreso at launch.  They could have made DK's Undead only, given Night Elves the Demon Hunter class, given Blademasters to the Orcs, and Archmages to the Humans.

When the Burning Crusade came out, they could have made the Burning Legion playable.

What is the right amount of factions?  For WOW and its extremely restricted classes, I would say they should have had 4 at minimum.  However, having an odd number of factions makes open world PVP objectives more interesting.  Rift should have had 3 factions.  Warhammer should have had like 10.

In spite of it only having two factions, I will still play TOR though.  It just looks high quality.

Originally posted by Icewhite

just1opinion:
Two 3 faction games are coming out, both GW2 and TSW

drazzah:
This is why im looking forward to GW2. No factions, just server vs server
 

Okay, so which is it?

 Depends on what you are doing. In PVE there are no separate player factions. For PVP (specifically the WvWvW battles) it is 3 "factions" or servers that battle each other.

Originally posted by Divion

Originally posted by Jaco1101

Ultima Online really did it best even with Trammel.  You had faction wars in both Tram and Fel and if you simply wanted to pvp anytime or anywhere then Fel is where you wanted to be. 

Just in case you didn't experience it, Trammel and Fel mirrored each other as in basically identical worlds if you will.  In Trammel, pvp was only consensual unless you were in a faction war which was voluntary.  Fel was the 1/2 of the game where pvp was open and anyone could be attacked.  There were consequences of becomming a murderer (stat loss for x amount of time) that sort of thing. 

The Murder System was always my favorite.

Lineage 2 / Archelord did it best... i attack you, i go purple, you attack me,  you go purple, and then we fight to the death! If not i kill you or, the other way around, and once of us is a murder, -- Red name, KoS to NPCs, huge punishment for death, ect...

Archelord allowed you to put bountys on people who murdered you, made for some amusing sights...

 

1 Guy with a red name running trying to take off his Armor before the mob of 50 people chasing him caught him.

Ultima Online had the same system. Except there was no taking your armor off. If you died all was lost including your bounty.

I got mine up to 100k on Baja back in the day. I went to my house and flame striked myself to death then logged on wtih an alt, chopped the body up and took the cash lol. 100k was quite a bit back then