About:
Factions & Groups
Factions (along with Staff issues over the last five years) are among one of the most serious issues facing every serious roleplay sim of Second Life. It often comes down to people in large groups 'ganking' individuals who are only half aware they have enemies on the sim when those individuals are alone and weak or low level, and while much RP may have gone into the lead up to such an event -- just as often, such a victim is entirely unaware of what they did or why they are being targetted by groups of players who may individually be more powerful than they are in the first place.
Ways to curb this on many sims often include; NPC's representing zone control, putting strict OOC demands on factions and faction leaders, using faction XP systems that only encourage behavior sim owners are comfortable with, invulnerable fortresses, and also using geopolitical story backgrounds that cause large amounts of NPC's to enter into a story.
Whether this is laying siege to Casterly Rock and not being allowed to take it, being put up against ungodly number of NPC opponents that are no fun to fight, an overwhelming faction NPC with god-mode cheat-codes on, or whatever system was devised by a given sim, all of this is to keep one thing from happening: To keep one group of roleplayers who doesn't care.. from entirely destroying the roleplay desired by another group of roleplayers.
Few of these solutions are particularly conducive to good, improvised roleplay however and often aren't cited in sim rules. Many put undue strain on the player base and represent invisible lines, that when crossed ultimately change the face of the roleplay environment violently in ways that are not conducive to a player-driven world or environment, without giving players warning as to the magnitude of actions they already took -- because there's often no comparison to other mechanics in the setting, this is often the living embodiment of the Latin phrase 'Deus Ex Machina'. (Not to be confused with the video game).
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What if we "get rid" of factions?
Past sim projects (Llorkh and Mhirdrun) have attempted to turn 'Factions' on their head by simply not having official factions: The effects of this on the average player are immediate, healthy and far more inclusive. Many people, however, believe it would be "easier" to "remove" "factions" entirely, but ultimately, the main problem with this is also quite obvious: You cannot remove players right to assemble; nor should you try. Getting together with other people you like to RP with is ENTIRELY THE POINT of Roleplaying sims. Sims that limit interactions to 1 on 1, or "no hostility without my consent" quickly devolve into sex-play sims that rarely hold wide-spread appeal for the majority of the role players that enjoyed the Llorkh & Mhirdrun projects.
It's simply the death of roleplaying sims to entirely remove people's ability to fuck shit up. But it's also the death of roleplay sims when large groups of marauders don't allow any kind of non-violent, or non-bullying RP to occur because they're bored and targeting everyone they come across as they move about the sim in militant bands, exploiting strangers they have never had Roleplay interactions with.
What's the solution?
The solution, as it's always been is Wheaton's Law: Don't be a dick.
No faction is officially supported, but Players of the Standard Races have the right to organize themselves however they wish, and typically would do so anyways if forbidden from doing so. The point of the matter is: Individuals are the ones responsible for their own actions, and because there are no 'official' factions in Orcrest, it is individuals who will be held accountable for rule-breaking; not entire factions. It is therefore, of paramount importance for everyone to carefully read the rules.