Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

If there was ever an MMO topic that's been dragged through more puddles of mud than virtually any other, it has to be the necessity (or lack thereof) of factions within any given game. This has always been one of those debates that rarely finds its participants walking the middle of the line, as most players feel quite strongly one way or another. Despite what many might believe, it's not just the player versus player crowd that thinks factions in any game are mandatory. That's right folks. Ten Ton Hammer's resident carebear (yours truly) has always been a firm believer in factions and the grind that goes with them.

Watch out, Felwithe!

Faction within games has the instant benefit of creating conflict. Conflict creates a natural story, even if the developers have failed to take the necessary time to create a deep background. It gives a player the continual need to do something, giving them a subliminal source of direction, rather than just tossing them to the wolves in an open world. Developers may streamline this in multiple ways, but it’s an important tool that should never be forgotten, even if its heyday has passed.

It's no secret that EverQuest was the game that brought me completely under the spell of MMOG's with its disturbingly difficult learning curve (at the time) and the unknown consequences of factions. My first character was a wood elf warrior. When asked which god I wished to follow, I scrolled over my choices like any other normal person and selected what I thought was a reasonable choice for a warrior: Rallos Zek, the God of War. Sounds pretty good, right? Little did I know that Rallos Zek was an evil god and our dwarven allies would continually make me pay the ultimate price by killing me on sight. It may have been a bit of a hassle, but it was an early lesson in faction and one I've never forgotten since.

EverQuest was where many of us initially learned of - and kindled our love or hatred for - faction grinding. I can't think of any game since that has had a harsher faction grind than EQ. If you were desperately after the Coldain Prayer Shawl, then you killed frost giants in the Eastern Wastes until you were a shriveled corpse resting at your keyboard in your attempt to complete this epic chain quest. This type of grinding was never something I enjoyed, and as such, I never bothered.

There are a number of areas to go within World of Warcraft to earn faction. Some of these new allies will grant you access to special equipment you can buy, or the ability to learn secret crafting recipes that will turn everyone on your server green with envy. For those whom covet these trinkets of power, they will gladly spend more time than I care to contemplate scouring the lands for the enemies of their newly discovered friends in their attempt to prove just how valued they are. Fortunately for us, games like Vanguard and WoW have done a fine job of taking some of the sting out of faction that EQ had originally given us.