We've always worried about promoting Minor Factions - but do Majors now need some love?

[Tefka]

We're at our lowest point of Major Faction activity this forum has ever seen.

The problem is, we're not stagnating as a community. Our member growth is the highest it's ever been, thanks to the movies and continued expanse of Star Wars lore (Thanks, Disney.)

So...

Here we are. It's a unique predicament. I've brought this before the Administrators and it's now one of our biggest topics to tackle here in the coming months. How do we incite more activity with Major Factions? Do you think there is a problem at all?

Have Rebellions and other rules (of which there have been many) helped to minimize attraction to Major Factions, to slow the growth of new Majors?

Has Chaos grown too intimidating, too complicated for a new member to jump in and create a Major Faction?

Let me know your thoughts.

If you joined yesterday, let me know your thoughts.

If you've been here for years, let me know your thoughts.

It's a discussion we need to have going forward.

 

[Nima Tann]

Destroy all Major factions, that's obviously the best solution!

 

[Horus]

In mid-November I was out of work and out of home, I vanished from the site. With my absence the Commonwealth turned into a ghost town with no guidance. There were a few good eggs that stuck around for the long haul, and in January I returned. The same day we were slapped with inactivity and on the brink of becoming minor. I read the rules that a Major could remain major if they win two rebellions. A rebellion had just started and with the help of old and new CW members and our allies, we really had the enemy cornered and against the ropes. It was some of the best activity I had seen with my people, as we were already naturally slow writers with busy lives. Unfortunately, despite the obvious victory, we were made minor before the rebellion had finished.

All of us are discussing plans to try and obtain major again, what to improve, technologies we could create for our faction, storylines to pursue.

I feel that the Commonwealth was given a harsh sentence for circumstances that were unfortunately out of our control, when other major factions throughout this boards history have been inactive for many many months, some even half a year, before either going minor on their own terms or an administrator pushing for them to be minor.

Food for thought. Dunno if this helps or not.

 

[Tefka]

[member="Horus"]

I never even thought about Staff actively axing Majors due to inactivity being a culprit. Duh, of course it would.

This will be addressed directly with the Administrators.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

To be honest, In my opinion the Map game becomes most popular when there is war being pushed.

This can be seen when the Original big three were fighting(Mandalorians, Sith Empire, Republic). When all three factions were at their height everyone was scrambling for dominions simply so they could have more territory to defend and claim throughout the war, or when the Lords of the Fringe fought OP, or when Moross went to war with The Horde.

The same went for the One Sith and The Republic. Even when while the Republic was losing a massive amount of territory, they'd still manage to pump out a dominion every week or so expanding their territory once again, and of course the One Sith pushed out dominions like nothing else. This point can be fantastically illustrated when the One Sith were at their height and 4 Major Factions became active in an attempt to destroy them.

In my opinion, War is pretty much the purpose of the Map Game and for some reason as of late there has been no real war.

December saw no invasions because of Staff Rules, and since then factions simply haven't made it happen. The biggest engagement between Major Faction we've had in 2017(2 months into the year already) is a Rebellion. Not a single invasion has occurred or really made it past the planning staged. To summarize my point, I think there just isn't much Major Faction activity because there hasn't been much 'cause' for it. No Major Faction is currently driving the point of the map game(Which is in my opinion, war).

Why this is I can't really say, I can only assume it's because for a time Invasions were seen as a source of salt and anger, but they don't really have to be. There were some fantastic invasions that were completely free of Drama. I think if we can push more drama free invasions and show people that it doesn't have to be horrible we can reinvigorate invasions and thereby Major Factions.

 

[Tefka]

I'm with you and I agree somewhat, [member="Alric Kuhn"]

But to get to the point of war, we need active major factions. Of which I'd say only half of the current Major Factions are active to the point of *supporting a war.

This is not very diverse.

Who's lightsaber do I need to ignite to get some diverse major factions around here, is my question. War is a byproduct of diversity, not the cause.

TL;DR: If we get enough Majors on the map, war is inevitable. But getting them there is the problem.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Tefka"]

You don't need diversity for an active major faction, you need good, active leadership.

In my experience this is quite literally what makes or breaks a Major Faction, leadership. if you don't have a leadership who can;

A. Create Hype
B. Give Direction
C. Actively Maintain Presence

You're going to fail.

There are some other elements to this of course, but really in my opinion it really boils down the most to those three points. I'm sure you yourself are aware of this given that just a few months ago you lead the Mandalorians to a resurgence and now they are going Minor.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Tossed a survey together because this got me curious and I've been wondering similar things for a while.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HRS2HRX

 

[Sanya Val Lerium]

I think a rework on invasions is due. Rebellions have replaced them and it's sad to see. So maybe merge somethings in rebelions into invasions.

Example been a 3 world gain where the invasion is basically a push. To claim these words. This can create a good story because the attackers may not win all 3 they may win, draw, lose.

Win = gain that world
Draw = both fractions lose the world
Loss = no gain

Something like that would be pretty cool. Also I've known invasions in the past get confusing where everyone is. So maybe some kind of a working system to make tracking easy.

Other than that maybe it would be time to rework fractions all together. As most people will say leadership is key it irl can be a sucker so could there be a system where major fractions has to have two people to lead it. Along with the admins and mods. Those two people can communicate well and say "I'll be gone for a month. Can you sort out a substitute in my absence. Then an admin will step up temporarily.

 

[Tysk Willamina]

Well and this is my opinion for what it is worth... Major factions are fun but the benefits of doing it are now not really that impressive. They haven't changed with the times of the board when a major faction on the map could get a lot going for them. In the end no matter how much work is done by the faction to improve their defenses, have fleets and everything protected. A single person can launch a skirmish without messaging them with the "its story bro" and bypass all defenses, disable and destroy their stuff to anounce they are there and bypass all of their attempts to stop them by just ignoring what they don't want to deal with. It makes the faction not want to write with them or other groups. Is it perfect no and skirmishes are not invasions but invasions serve a purpose making the two sides have to work together so both agree and find a way to be invested in it. If one side can ignore everything then why should the other care or want to be involved. it is much easier to just stick and rp with each other in a dominion where they control the narrative and cooperate to make a larger story. The increase in ships and a place on the map means little now when minor factions can claim just as many worlds in their boards and with little effort just say they have a major faction supporting them. They get the benefits of a major including the ships now." It might not seem like much and while activity comes a lot of people just want to write stories and have been turned off from constant war that it brings in the form of salt, drama and issues. People who like pvp like pvp but others just want to be together and write stories.

 

[Jaron Lesan]

The problem is many writers get tired of the drama. There are a few who LIVE for the inevitable drama of the map game, but that's all there is to keep the Major factions going. Honestly keeping interest in one campaign after the other is hard. What do you do when the cycle just repeats itself?

Major factions need to be able to have internal story without having to worry about the map all the time. Unfortunately many admins seem to be constantly in discussion about the next thing. The silvers often do a good job of internal faction story, the First Order at times does well also. Faction admins need help, but rather many burn out and owners and such are a revolving door of change.

Events have also been a good push for faction involvement.

Horus' example is one seen all too often as well. The brain behind the faction's creation leaves and no one knows where to go because none of the faction team had the vision for the concept. Activity dries up, and dies. Let's be honest this happened to the TU, and I'm surprised it didn't happen with the GA when their creators disappeared. Had the FO not turned up, and the mission to kill the OS been around, I'm not sure they would have survived.

Just some thoughts.

 

[Delila Castillon]

I am in no major faction with any character despite being in the GA Discord chat (hey, I was invited)....


Reasons are a little varied but to me a lot of the factions are too cookie cutter for me. Its either Jedi or Sith and good luck fitting in if you don't quite want to follow the same stereotyped Dark v. Light roles. There's no original content, nothing to really drive an incredible amount of interest in building things in a new manner. Maybe I'm just nostalgic for places like the Lords of the Fringe and Levantine Sanctum.


Also, [member="Alric Kuhn"] makes an excellent point.

 

[Ilium]

I personally feel like newer members such as myself get a little neglected at times. It can be hard to keep in touch with the admins and know when the new threads will be up. Then once you get there it's a huge cluster and you have no idea what's going on. They'll tell you just hop in, you'll be fine. I can't really do that if I don't know what I'm even fighting for.

Too long and badly worded; Don't read: I feel like the more experienced posters make everything too fast paced. Slow it down a little.

 

[Jsc]

No perks for Major.

Flagships don't win invasions, armor and weapons is a free market, money is fluff, Force User training is run easier through the LFG forum, and owning a corporation get can you a personal fleet without any territory to defend. Other players, minor factions, and corporations can run private threads in-and-out your influence sphere at will. Not even your own faction's Bounty Hunters are allowed to hunt in private threads. The Factory doesn't even give you smaller development threads and deleting a Major Faction also deletes all of the FU training threads included in their sub-forums.

2 cents.

 

[Bryce Bantam]

All this is true, vision and leadership are so tough to maintain. When TKO passed to me it was in December, real life happened and I lost my muse. While I was away my team kicked it and we finished up a T3 dom in January. However after that we lost our MOJO. No one wanted to take over the ownership of the major due to the work needed to maintain it.

Honestly we are a faction that writes for story, our passion for domination was all dried up. So as were not able to keep up the expansion requirement for a major we decided to go minor. We didn't want to be recalled, go out as [member="Horus"] and the Commonwealth did, we wanted to instead go out on our own terms. So we did.

If that was not a thing (recall) you would have one more major on the board. We would have been happy, writing out obscure star wars lore storys in our 4 hexs and if threatened we would have defended them. If we got and ich or reason to expand we would have, it was the requirement that killed it for us.

[member="Tefka"] - If you offer TKO its hexes back without the dom requirement I think a good number of our members would jump at the chance to go back major, not all, but enough to make it work.

My main argument is killing the expansion requirement, let grown be organic and go in stages / waves, not a forced steady match to oblivion.

 

[Chalim Vern]

[member="Tefka"]
I've been here about a month, and one thing I think would raise activity is more map updates, I found the most exciting part of the whole thing was seeing the map change as new dominations and rebellions happened and were completed, but having to wait an entire month to see the changes is a little disheartening. It would make people want to do dominations and such faster so that they could see it on the map sooner, just my thought.

 

[Tefka]

[member="Tefka"]

You don't need diversity for an active major faction, you need good, active leadership.

In my experience this is quite literally what makes or breaks a Major Faction, leadership. if you don't have a leadership who can;

A. Create Hype
B. Give Direction
C. Actively Maintain Presence

You're going to fail.

There are some other elements to this of course, but really in my opinion it really boils down the most to those three points. I'm sure you yourself are aware of this given that just a few months ago you lead the Mandalorians to a resurgence and now they are going Minor.

I'm aware there is more than one way to achieve an end, and while in your opinion there may be a set of rules that worked for the One Sith, I assure you that is not the only path.

Best to keep an open mind, though I know you can only speak of your one experience.

 

[Tefka]

Not even your own faction's Bounty Hunters are allowed to hunt in private threads.

This will never be a thing, rest easy.

Private threads are private.

 

[Tefka]

Tossed a survey together because this got me curious and I've been wondering similar things for a while.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HRS2HRX

These are not Staff-sanctioned but any findings may be presented to Staff.

Given the answers/questions, though, I'm pretty sure I already know the result.

 

[Rusty]

A major faction is, in essence, a cult of personality. A strong leader or leadership team is absolutely essential. Without it, people tend to lose their drive and their sense of purpose. The faction's leadership has a heavy cross to bear, and not everyone can do it.You can pinpoint, almost to the second, the moment a faction begins its slow descent into obscurity. It almost always happens because the leadership either loses interest or passes the torch to someone who can't live up to the challenge.

This is not going to change.

I've been more or less gone for a while now, largely due to real life circumstances that made it difficult to write. What I keep noticing when I stick my head in is that more and more of the old guard, the movers and shakers who drove the site, are taking a more passive role. And the newcomers are having a hard time getting any real traction. This isn't necessarily their fault.

Chaos, more than any other site I've ever seen, is driven by reputation. When I first joined, signing up with a major faction was the quickest and easiest way to get your name out there and get noticed. Joining a faction also gave you a default list of friends and enemies, both IC and OOC. That made it easier to drive major conflicts, because new recruits could latch on to a feud older than the site itself and keep pouring fuel on it.

The newcomers who are trying to step up into the role of faction leadership don't have that. Not only do they have to build their crews more or less from scratch, they have to drive the story without the metagame of old. This isn't a bad thing. Lord knows the OS/GR feud caused a great deal of grief for a great many people, and I'd wager it played a direct role in many people forming a deep dislike of invasions. It definitely turned me off to them.

If you want to get the map game up and running again, there needs to be something to replace the old metagame, something to fuel conflict between factions. And by preference, keep the salt out of them, or at least down to heart healthy levels.

I don't believe for a second that the current crop of leadership in the factions can't make things happen, but they need a little boost. Maybe a site event could give them impetus for a sustained campaign, or tweak the rules to make invasions more appealing.