God help me, I am about to agree with Snak on something. You can enjoy the game without being official. All those saying people don't take you seriously if you aren't official, I am going to disagree, people don't take you seriously if you aren't serious. There have always been unofficial groups who have been taken seriously. Not to toot my own horn, but people take me seriously, I came back and mentioned that I was going to be playing on my AFA and I have already had people messaging me about doing RP with their factions. Why? Because they know they will get some serious RP and it will be fun for all. Play the game seriously, official or unofficial and people will take you seriously. Mind you, it takes time, it's not an overnight thing, nor should it be. You have to show people something for them to take you seriously. No one is entitled to be taken seriously without proving themselves.
The second thing that comes to mind to me in this discussion is that not all NPC factions are created equal and to think that player factions based on NPC factions that aren't equal having requirements that are equal doesn't make much sense. It will always be easier to get consistent activity as a Corsair than as a Bund. Why should the time requirements be the same for a Corsair faction and a Bund faction?
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