The Pros and Cons of Official Factions

[SnakThree]

I've led a few factions in the past that managed to get offdom, some of those, arguably, are fondly remembered. So here is my take.

Pros:

• personal subforum (catches attention of potential recruits/partners in rp + simple to navigate)
  
• customised ID (if needed. For factions like Sairs and OC it is not needed, for FL-based factions it's a big upgrade)
  
• own BB (more of a convenience, but can attract some PvP dudes to cooperate with your faction)
  

And tbh, that's it for me. Quality of RP is subjective, so I won't list OF as superior in RP. I've seen both subjectively good and terrible Rp coming out of OF, not to mention that OF also do have silent traders. Same for quality of interactions in general. These days with small population of server and many ppl fed up with their old factions, etc, there are a lot of indies/unoff that can offer you better interactions.

Cons:

• activity check (it is not difficult to meet, but it is tedious at times and causes an annoying feeling in the back of your mind that there is yet another chore you have to do. Personally, I have too many of those iRL and I would rather not worry about this in a 20 y.o. game and not bother with OFdom. Naturally, for active OFs it's not an issue).
  
• community expectations (you are supposed to be x,y,z, good at RP/PvP/forumlancing, insert your stuff. Expectations lead to stress and disappointments. Or you simply do not want to meet the expectations)
  
• burden of leadership. The leader has to please the members and give them something to do, to attract new members, to keep the internal harmony ,etc etc. this is taking its toll and can lead to a burnout with the game. At this point it becomes a job rather than a game. And too often after the passionate leadership of an OF falls off, the faciton goes into a lifesupport mode or outright dies).
  

Ofc, all of this is subjective. In my opinion, the benefits are too insignificant and situationally advantageous compared to cons that spill into irl. It's simply not worth it unless you are really passionate about the faction and/or have plenty of time to invest.

Very much agree to this. I have to add that faction perks in a form of mining bonus, additional ID lines or extra technology cells is also important advantage.

As for cons, I will also add that becoming and official factions leaves you stagnant and sticking to same old routines. Unofficial factions can spur out of interesting ideas that are not usually available or possible as an already established official faction

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