Factions

Specific social networks where membership is defined by what actions are favored, disfavored, and required.

A Faction is a group that has members, criterion on membership, and accepted and disallowed behaviors. Different kinds of groups, such as a family, a gang, an army, are all examples of Factions.

Examples

Morrowind and Oblivion in the Elder Scroll Series provide many different types of Factions for players to join. Each requires certain tasks and requirements to be fulfill for membership, and having this provides access to various tools and the possibility of advancement through completing additional goals.

Players' characters in World of Warcraft can have different relations to the many Factions that exists in games. Their standings are measure by the reputation value they have to each specific Faction, and this can be affected through completing quests and killing monsters. Some rivaling factions are react diametrically different to some actions, so for example killing a pirate of the Bloodsail Buccaneers may result in a lower reputation among them while increasing ones reputation among the goblins of the Steamwheedle Cartel. However, players cannot join Factions - this is instead handled through guilds which consist solely of players.

Using the pattern

Membership in Factions can be considered from three perspectives: what is required to join, what is required to continue being a member, and what is required to advance within their organizations.

Typically a few of the members in Factions act as the Social Gatekeepers which determine who can join. The requirements that need to be fulfilled to satisfy these Social Gatekeepers can range from having the right set of Attributes, possessing the right set of Tools, completing Quests, or a combination of these. Joining Factions may be Mandatory Goals due to Narration Structures but can also be Optional Goals which in the latter case Player-Planned Character Development. If there are several Factions which can be joined, an additional design choice is if one can only be member of one of these (creating a Selectable Set of Goals) or if multiple memberships are possible.

Being, or not being, a player or human (which does not need to be the same thing due to the possibility of AI Players) is another possible requirement for be allowed to join Factions. World of Warcraft is an example of a game using this differentiation, called the organization consisting only of NPCs for Factions while those consisting only of players for Guilds. In contrast, the Single-Player Game Oblivion in the Elder Scroll Series has Factions consisting of NPCs which can be joined by the player. It can be easy to ensure that the rules of Factions are maintained, i.e. that in relation to these rules Actions Have Diegetically Social Consequences, if there is at least one Algorithmic Agent in the Factions while Guilds, which only contain human players, run under Self-Facilitated Rules. Of course, Factions can play important roles in games without players being members of them. The most obvious case is as Enemies to provide Conflict with many opponents but can also be used for NPCs to control accessibility of Quests and modifications of prices during Trading.

Since membership is the result of completing a goal, it is typically that the membership is associated with some type of Rewards. The possibility to gain New Abilities or Improved Abilities is common as this type of Reward, either in the form of training or through purchasable Tools. Another possibility is the opportunity to recruit Companions.

For each Faction used in a game, there need to be a set of Social Norms define which regulate what is actions are acceptable to the members of that Faction. For Factions to have identities of their own, unacceptable behaviors by members typically need to have Penalties, i.e. Actions Have Diegetically Social Consequences; in some cases the consequence can be that of becoming a Outcast. In addition, memberships in Factions imply Loyalty, either as a Predefined Goal or as a Committed Goal (in the latter case, the memberships needs to have some benefits). While Loyalty can be disregarded through inaction, giving players the possibility of Betrayal provides an active option and can lead to them not only becoming Outcasts but also Traitors. Somewhat less destructive, Internal Rivalry can be used to provide more Challenging Gameplay, and can be regulated by the Social Norms. The Internal Rivalry can either be achieved through static goals (often combined with the Narrative Structure) but can also become a part of the game system through the use of Information Passing as generic game events.

Advancements in Factions require Hierarchical Fractions and typically require the completion of specific tasks, and can therefore easily take the form of Quests which form a Goal Hierarchy. While advancement may be Optional Goals and independent Narration Structures, they can also be integrated into the main Narration Structure of a game.

Diegetic Aspects

Depending on the level of diegesis in the game, Factions can consist of players or their Characters (and NPCs). The diegesis typically also determines if Factions are Hierarchical Fractions or not.

Narrative Aspects

Factions can function as important components in Narration Structures. For hostile Factions they allow Conflicts that contain more than one person on each side, and thereby avoid the resolution of the Conflict as soon as an Elimination goal of an Enemy is achieved. For neutral or friendly Factions the Character Development of NPCs can instead be an important part of the story told. The use of Internal Rivalry makes it possible to have Enemies within players' own Factions to force the use of other means than Combat to complete Overcome goals.

For all types of Factions the Quests associated with them can easily form Goal Hierarchies explained by the developing storyline.

Consequences

Many times making the joining of a Faction is a Reward in that it can provide access to information, training, and trading of specific Tools. By doing so, becoming a member of a Faction can the requirement to complete a Gain Information, Gain Competence, or Gain Ownership goal, but more likely it will be a Supporting Goal to one of these goals since it may be part of an Hierarchy of Goals or require Trading. When players have had the chance of choosing whether to join Factions or not, the different goals provided in this fashion support Player-Planned Character Development.

Faction introduces simple social constructs that can be used to introduce social interaction to gameplay. While joining Factions may require befriending with or making favors to Social Gatekeepers, keeping ones status may require the Continuous Goal of Social Maintenance and advancement may support Higher-Level Closures as Gameplay Progresses through use of Hierarchy of Goals.

Given that Factions typically have Penalties for breaking Social Norms, and advancements within Factions may provoke Internal Rivalry, the use of Factions in games typically has the consequence of Actions Have Diegetically Social Consequences. These consequences imply that players have to choose between complying with an Enforced Agent Behavior, that can include both a Limited Set of Actions as well as requiring actions at certain times, or placing themselves in Risk/Reward situations through by doing actions that are not acceptable by Faction rules.

For Multiplayer Games, Factions offers a natural reason for Team Play and Alliances. This in turn often leads to Social Interaction since the Factions function as Social Organizations. While Team Play may still occur with AI Players and thereby also in Single-Player Games, Social Interaction is less likely since it would require that a player considers an Algorithmic Agent as a social individual.

Given that Factions can make goals, Rewards, and Penalties apply to all members, the pattern often provides Mutual Goals, Shared Penalties, and Shared Rewards to players.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Actions Have Diegetically Social Consequences, Alliances, Betrayal, Committed Goals, Conflict, Continuous Goals, Enemies, Enforced Agent Behavior, Gain Competence, Gain Information, Gain Ownership, Goal Hierarchies, Higher-Level Closures as Gameplay Progresses, Internal Rivalry, Loyalty, Mutual Goals, Narration Structures, Overcome, Outcasts, Penalties, Player-Planned Character Development, Predefined Goals, Quests, Rewards, Risk/Reward, Shared Penalties, Shared Rewards, Social Interaction, Social Maintenance, Social Norms, Social Organizations, Supporting Goal, Team Play, Trading, Traitors

Can Modulate

Characters, Character Development, Companions, Elimination, Improved Abilities, Narration Structures, New Abilities, Quests, Tools, Trading

Can Be Instantiated By

Guilds, Hierarchical Fractions, Social Gatekeepers

Can Be Modulated By

Algorithmic Agents, Mandatory Goals, NPCs, Optional Goals, Self-Facilitated Rules

Potentially Conflicting With

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History

An updated version of the pattern Faction, first introduced in Lankoski 2010.