About realms

[turlututuhu]

Is not a development suggestion is just to know for myself, is really better for an MMO to have three factions ? It's awesome to imagine play Skaven, Beastmen, Ogre but when i was playing War i was enjoy to fight against one realms because in my opinion fight was more intensive with two realms.

[Luth]

From a balancing viewpoint, three realms are better. With two realms, most of the time one realm dominates the other with their quantity.
But the "quality" is another question...

[Azarael]

The reason three-realm balance is superior is that it reduces the risk that any one realm will be sidelined, unless one of the three realms is pathetically weak as I once experienced first-hand in an MMO I played (and as the faction leader, was also heavily blamed for. -_-) If one single realm becomes too strong, the others will ally against it. If two realms are stronger than the third, currying the favor of the third realm (if made possible by the game) can result in advantage. And if the factions are balanced... more enemies to fight.

It also helps in game balance situations. If a realm is too powerful for game balance reasons, that realm will be continually trashed by the other two factions in concert until they accept the nerfs that are coming to them, which they will likely end up wanting to do. In two-realm balance, one overpowered realm results in unscrupulous players defending their imbalance to the death, because there's no motive for them to give it up - one of the most toxic aspects of MMO communities.

[Aceboltz]

Unfortunately it is not how it works : If one realm becomes too strong he will just farm endlessly the weaker realms and from time to time one of the weak realms will ally with the dominating one to get some battlefield rewards.
The game will be one sided and one realm will fall into the sheep people category, this is how human mind works.

[Bozzax]

Why we discuss 3 realms? All we need is order, dest, aao, +renown for the weaker faction and we are good to go.

Balance (another word for fun) can be achieved in both setups and both can fail miserably

[Glaiveheart]

Three sides to the battle is the ideal configuration, because it avoids the problem of one side becoming an unstoppable juggernaut solely through numeric advantage. You can't easily balance something like that in a two-faction game -- though you can provide incentives for the undermanned faction to come out to play if they're driven by progression (like the aforementioned AAO) -- but three factions serve as a sort of auto-correcting measure, especially if the more skilled players love being underdogs.

This was especially problematic in WAR because WAR didn't have the level of CC needed for a skilled smaller force to do significant damage to a larger force as a rule (yes, I'm sure you like I have tales of taking a warband out and farming several, but attrition eventually kicks in far more in this game than in something like DAoC or even RIFT).

As mentioned, even in a situation where realm A and realm B are 'equal', realm C can still contribute and make progress as, eventually, those two factions will target each other instead of just camping and bullying realm C.

The only time I ever hated it in DAoC was in 8v8 or 1v1 when someone from the 3rd faction would jump in -- but, unlike a two-faction system, where the only 'courteous' action you can take is disengaging and hoping your opponent can kill the encroaching foe, there were plenty of times where we'd turn on the third man in (so to speak), crush them, and go our separate ways to rebuff/heal up and fight each other again.

[Tesq]

This is why i used to create some order toons back in days.
No order to fight soo much destru and i want someone to fight, some faction ghance for balance fight should have been introduced long ago alongside with aao, i mean its a **** rvr game i play to kick ppl not gain renow.

[Grolar]

DAoC was pretty good like this. Best solution I see is to lock down a realm with a population control. As an example, the entire server can handle X number of people ( lets say 6k ). This way you allow only 2000 people to play each faction. Once it reaches it max, players can only make characters in one of the other two factions.
There is always the chance people with one or two friends will hit the server right at the end the population peak and not be able to join, but it at least it prevents too much over-realming behavior .

I do like renown as a goal oriented idea, but in the higher ranks it became too difficult to earn. I even think they made you buy an expansion pack to get 80-100. Most people don't want to spend that much time in a game. Give them the option to buy armor sets and you have something.