I wanted to get your thoughts and opinions about what it takes to manage a great faction. In particular, to faction leaders who have had or currently have a successful faction and also to players who have felt their faction needed improvement.
Personally, If I'm going to invest the time and energy to effectively run a faction, then I want to spend my time around people that are fun and great to be around. This is key for me.
Below is a list of ideals that I think would be important. Please feel free to share your own insights and ideas.
1. The leader of the faction should spend most of his time actually in the game. It promotes the faction and serves as a model in how to role play the character.
2. Have a careful application process. This ensures that quality people are in the faction. I define quality as a person who exhibits respectful and positive behavior toward themselves and other players in the game and forums.
3. Help create fun and interesting role play. This would keep the faction lively and avoid the boredom of only having PvP with unlawfuls the only game experience.
4. Clearly define what the goals of the faction are and how to achieve them with concrete examples of what to do in the game.
Let me know what other ideas and tips that you think would be effective.
Thanks for your help.
Sass
p.s. Please respond with constructive and appropriate responses. If this post heads South, then I'll get it locked.
Sass, I think you hit the nail on the head. Those four things you listed are basically everything you need for a good faction. I would like to add, though:
5. The leader should be capable of staying aware of anything that could be misinterpreted and reported on the forum. Things such as the Feedback Thread, Message Dumps, and Diplomatic Channel should be checked on a regular basis by the leader to ensure tranquility between the faction and everyone interacting with it.
EDIT: Regular Basis doesn't mean obsession with the forum. Ingame is still far more important.
[8:32:45 PM] Dusty Lens: Oh no, let me get that. Hello? Oh it's my grandma. She says to be roleplay.
[12:49:19 AM] Elgatodiablo: You know its nice that you have all that proof and all, Bacon... but I just don't believe you.
A leader will invariably end up spending less time in game because of all the other stuff.
And his/her characters will become a target for others in game, as if there is some glory in downing that individual. It's a pain sometimes. Maybe it's just my experience.
A screening process for members is important - I give a test adapted from one that Dusty gave me. Leaders have to be discerning when it comes to new members. I have refused applications to join. I'd rather have three decent and reliable members than twenty who can't be trusted.
I think there are limits to how far the leader can provide for making the game more enjoyable - surely members can show a little imagination, but a leader's clear picture of how he/she anticipates the development of RP should be clear to all members.
And I think a leader should be direct and blunt when needs be. I know I've annoyed members from time to time because I'm pedantic but one person's mistakes affect the group.
I've warned people, but never actually booted someone out, but I think leaders should exercise the power to kick people out if something really bad is done. My standard is a sanction. Someone gets one, they're out.
6. A live and let live attitude is a excellent thing for a faction leader to have. Not to say he should show no concern towards wrong within the faction, but to have the mindset that others aren't perfect, and make mistakes.
One of the biggest problems you CAN run into in the start is how to keep players interested in your faction. This is especially true of trading factions (note the ratios of official factions for unlawful, lawful, and corporations) Its something like 85%, 100% and 30% or something like that. Its a really bad ratio. Planning events and such are always good. As well as lots of group participation.
one thing i have done, and never have faltered with. On my application i dont ask for RP persay, if you wish to put some in i am happier, but for the application i just need to know what type of person you are, i find all player's who act responsably new or not, can RP well or not should be accepted. The way i see it everyone can be taught even new guys, i preffer to take in those who want it to let em have a chance to learn, its a big bad world out there for indies because of the good few who take the piss and spoil peoples fun.
you take em in show em what to do, and you will have a potential good player.
Getting new players in faction and teaching them roleplay and piloting skills is great way of making balanced faction (eg having both veterans and rookies) And it will make this server more enjoyable to both them, and rest of comunity.
Do not use too much ranks. Use about 6 of them, and use them to represent skill and time spent in faction. Do not hesitate to promote for good, or demote for bad deeds. Also, keep it all in ratio, so you do not have 12 aces and one rookie.
Limit yourself with ships, weapons, alliances and ZoI. It makes one area of space more occupied, and some forgotten guns/ships put to use. Also this makes your appearance predictable(like, you know you will meet BAF, BPA, MR and NLH allmost exclusively in Bretonian space) Do not forget that if you can use allied equipment, it does not mean you should, however, its more stylish to use own.
Treat each player encounter, regardless of faction as uniqe situation. Do not hop instantly in fighting. Some taunts and banter are usually fun. Keep them in character and in scoop of the rules, of course. And sometimes, wierd situations happen, where you will not shoot enemy on sight.
Go for balance in use of force. Even if there is big amount of pleasure in making huge fleet and killing anything red that moves on scanner, it annoys oposition. Balancing fights, when something like that is possible leads to enjoyable fights for both sides. Also even if each player in faction owns capital ship and bomber, there is no need what so ever that they are all in space. Depending on factions capabilities in roleplay sense, try to get out balanced force. For instance 1gb, 1bomber and 2 fighters are quite balanced force, while not exagerating any part.
Thats all i could muster for now. Also I agree with stuff said before me.
Well, got a few things for this one, hope you enjoy.
1: Well, as much as I would love to be able to spend all my time ingame, the average faction leader cannot. I spend much of my time co-ordinating recruitng, RP events and stories (to include reading everything about the faction that my members post or write, to ensure a continuality of storyline), finding out where members are, and why (IE, at the moment I'm on a gunnery course, and most of my members are going back to school, FL time has been seriously mangled), talking to administrators and other faction leaders regarding new ideas, sanctions, possible events, interactions that didn't go to everybody's liking and etc.
2: Excellent. I much, much prefer to see that a person is willing to write an excellent roleplay in order to join a faction, and rejections should be given out freely if the player is not up to snuff. If the applicant has the wrong idea about the faction or how they should be applying, feel free to correct them and help them. If someone is willing and able to improve, by all means, bring them into the fold. I also find it useful to consult with the applicant's other faction leaders, (if any), ask in general about them and their playing style, and generally gain as much infomation as possible about them before accepting or rejecting.
By the same token, I really don't care how good of a pilot an applicant is. The SCRA, and generally most factions, have training programs in place, and from my point of view, I would rather have a pilot who can barely survive in a fight but still dish out excellent roleplay, rather than one who can carve a swathe through the enemy, while having 4 forum posts and the ability to say "Gar" when prompted.
3: Another excellent point. I generally praise factions that can retain membership, not just becuase of "teh uber pwnzor shipz" or similar, but because they actually enjoy playing with the faction, and acting out an ever changing role.
4: Also a good point. A faction without any given goals is nothing but an excuse to fight. I'm not going to name any factions in particular, but there are a few aound, to be sure. My own faction, the SCRA, intends to wipe out the Alliance, to include all houses, house corporations, and members of the house hispania. Not neccesarily to kill them all, but to destroy their ideologies, and force them under the fold of the coalition.
Not going to happen, obviously. The mod will never change to a situation where the Coalition have taken over Sirius. However, that's not important, and actually makes it more fun. When your goal is unnachievable, you don't need to worry about winning the next fight, or pirating the next convoy. You can focus more on what you want to do with your faction, with your personal roleplays, and with your characters ingame. You're not in a real-life rush to do anything, because you have all the time in the world.
Baconsoda's 5: Very True. It also helps to have your own faction forums, and a constantly-running skype chat, so that even if members are busy with studying, eating, or other RL, they can still communicate privatly with each other out of the game. I find that having a skype chat is probably the most efficient way of talking to all of your members at once, as well as laying down any plans or general orders before they're finalised and moved onto the forums.
Orin's 6: Yes and no. For example, within the SCRA, I really don't care if you call me a wanker in a skype chat, or whenever. However, the second you step ingame, you NEED to act your part. I have many characters, ranging from the bisexual, easy-going fighter-jock to the bloodythirsty megalomaniac Admiral. If someone doesn't follow orders, your responce must be AS THAT CHARACTER, not as the faction leader. If I dislike an order that bluntpencil gives as a senior charater, when I'm in a junior one, I don't overrule him. It's not my character's place to do it, even though I outrank blunt within the grand scheme of things. By the same token, when I'm on a high-ranking char, and I give him an order, I expect it to be obeyed. Character realism is a very important part of being a faction leader.
Also, with regards to sanctions, I don't care if you have one or two, as long as they're not for modding, hacking, or a selection of the other "baddies". I have a sanction or two in my closet, as do several people in my faction. The fact that they accepted them and moved on, rather than arguing something that was obviously their fault, speaks more for them than simply not getting sanctioned.
I fully endorse, as well, everything that Bjorn has posted. I believe that capital ships should be the exception to the rule of fighters, and that there can never be too few of them in a battlegroup. For example, in the entire SCRA, there is one personally owned Battleship, and one common one. One common cruiser, and one personally owned one. Three personally owned gunboats. Myself, as the faction leader, poses a gunboat as my largest ship. Some time in the future, I plan on owning a battlecruiser or a destroyer. Owning a battleship doesn't make you cooler or a better faction leader, it maked you into a target, and I would rather fly into combat in my gunboat or a bomber than at the helm of an osiris.
Some more of my own thoughts. As Bjorn said, there needs to be a mix of vets and rookies, and they should be scattered throught the ranks. Some members just want to be a simple fighter pilot, and some want to be a commander of fighter pilots. If one wants to move up, and the other does not, promote the one who wants to move, provided they have the skill. Forcing a small amount of responsibility on a member will serve you, but forcing more than they want will drive them away.
Talk to your members as people when you're not ingame. I know, by name, every member of my faction that's active, and more that are not. If you treat players as real people, they'll enjoy being part of a group, rather than just a forum account attached to a few ships.
If someone needs to take a leave of absence, is thinking about quitting, or has any questions for you, talk to them. Don't fob them off on someone else unless you absolutely have to, players are much more likely to appreciate an answer from you than from their immediate boss. If they want to quit, ask them why, and try to solve the problem. If they need to leave for a while, give them your best wishes, and hope they return. If they have questions, give them answers, or find them out.
For me, however, the most important thing about running a faction is this: If you dislike someone, don't take them in. It's not worth it, and will probaly lead to both of you wanting to do something else.
Jack Handey Wrote:I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.
Very interesting topic and all aspiring faction leaders should read this.
I'd like to add one thing as an observer. Faction leaders, get a trusted second in command or get 2 of them. No one man can really handle the load too long. Having an active second in command gives faction leaders good respite.
Faction leaders, hunt and try to recruit at least one guy who's interested in inventing & setting up events. It does not have to be anything big, but any small event is better than the regular hang-out. So those guys who bring new ideas to faction and it's events are worth their weight in gold in the long run.
Best way to keep people onboard is to provide them something to do or to strive towards. Factions are get-togethers and doing something fun together.
One untapped potential in the server are the traders in pirating factions. I haven't seen anyone recruited in-game or in-forums to a pirating faction to be a trader/smuggler in it. People usually start out as traders since all of us need money. So why not try to grab those people and let them have a smooth faction introduction that way also? Especially all those faction virgin (i.e. it's their first faction) are usually the most active ones and contribute a lot to server visibility.
Especially with all the 4.85 promised no-need-to-fly-an-regular-trader-to-fund-the-pirating-factions trade route and commodity price balances this would be very good niche to fill and get ready setting up plans as a faction leader when it happens. Maybe before you can move on to fighters and bigger you'd have to serve your time financing your fighter flying the faction owned transport. This would give all the new guys a clearly set goal to go for and old guys something new to do to keep the transport untouched.
' Wrote:1. The leader of the faction should spend most of his time actually in the game. It promotes the faction and serves as a model in how to role play the character.
This is a useful thing, but not really practical. Back before AW went in its wait-state (till I get it changed to the new NPC faction and basically start from scratch except for history) I spent significantly more time on forums than in-game when it came to faction-related issues. That being said, a faction leader should devote the majority of his/her time on their faction's characters. Example for me, I spent the majority of my FL time on the Ableben, Denicalus, or Iteron. (Flagship, Recon, and Transport of AW respectively.)
' Wrote:2. Have a careful application process. This ensures that quality people are in the faction. I define quality as a person who exhibits respectful and positive behavior toward themselves and other players in the game and forums.
This I cannot agree more with. Many people will go on recruiting sprees and try getting ~ 10 recruits in a week.. Some think this is good with the justification 'we're bonud to get a few people to stay from all those.' The truth is, your not. Having an application process is key, and sticking to it is important. I've found that recruiting from New York is NEVER a good thing. If you want players new to the server, focus on those that are ~ rank 15-40. Those players show they are willing to work to get themselves up from Starflea stage, rather than try to find a faction who will give them a brand new ship to fly just for joining. Then they bore of FL and leave.. Those that work for it are much less likely to just pack up and leave immediately, or worse, name-change and take the money you give them.
In the life of AW, I've had 3 recruits that exhibited disrespectful and negative behavior.. Its not something you want to have happen, for it can cause problems in your faction, and it sets a negative example of your faction to others. Thats why getting to know a recruit before actually recruiting them is always helpful. A recruitment attempt should never start with; 'Would you like to join a faction?'
' Wrote:3. Help create fun and interesting role play. This would keep the faction lively and avoid the boredom of only having PvP with unlawfuls the only game experience.
Also very important. Role Play stories that involve all your faction members, or at least as many as you can get to post will help that person learn to Roleplay in everything they do on the server, and they themselves will become more of an asset. Also, in pvp, its a good reason to let your members know the RP interaction they should have. For example, between Outcasts and Corsairs, the characters should bitterly hate each other. So in-RP verbal jabs against each other in system chat is expected. Between the Farmers Alliance and foreign traders, speaking of them as filthy foreigner is common. AFA has done this quite well from what I've seen. Members should never go into a pvp fight silent, or simply saying 'engaging the enemy' unless they have no choice.
Also, members should know never to take RP interactions personally. Corsairs and Outcasts hate each other.. But thats no reason for the players who control Outcast and Corsair characters to hate each other.
' Wrote:4. Clearly define what the goals of the faction are and how to achieve them with concrete examples of what to do in the game.
Quite true. Almost always when I recruited a member, one of the first questions was always; 'What are the goals of your faction?' Its difficult to find the motivation to join, or use characters from a faction if that faction has no goal, long-term or short-term.
' Wrote:And his/her characters will become a target for others in game, as if there is some glory in downing that individual. It's a pain sometimes. Maybe it's just my experience.
This is true. But used correctly, it can be an advantage. I've seen faction leaders take out a Light Fighter into a fleet fight rather than a battleship. 7 Titans and 3 Praetorians can rip up a Dreadnaught. 7 Titans and 3 Praetorians trying to shoot a Scimitar while they have 10 Sabres behind them shooting them as that Scimitar plays bait can turn things rather badly for the attackers. I've seen this tactic work wonders before..
' Wrote:And I think a leader should be direct and blunt when needs be. I know I've annoyed members from time to time because I'm pedantic but one person's mistakes affect the group.
I've warned people, but never actually booted someone out, but I think leaders should exercise the power to kick people out if something really bad is done. My standard is a sanction. Someone gets one, they're out.
I agree with the need to be hard-handed. I've been in factions that were controlled extremely losely.. Those factions turned out to have a large amount of internal squables and people trying to get promoted so that they can go use the powers of rank to their own benefit.
On kicking people out, I don't see sanctions as a very good reasons. Excluding sanctions such as F1ing from a fight on purpose, shield running, and other major sanctions. But small sanctions shouldn't hurt a member unless it happens more than once for a specific sanction. New players make mistakes, punishing them even farther after the admins punishing them will risk having that player leave Disco forever. And I've seen plenty of people break small rules and be sanctioned, then become valued members of this community that I see it as a waste to push a community member away by overpunishment.