Keeping your faction active - any tips?

[Amaterasu]

This question goes out to all you faction members out there, especially to the leaders, and is an open invitation to everyone to discuss.

Let me preface this by admitting openly that I am probably going to use what information you're willing to share, to improve Heaven and Earth, or whatever other faction I may participate in/lead in the future. So... don't share anything you're not comfortable with having copycatted :frogpipe:

What is it that you do with your faction that is keeping it going and active? Or if you're a member, is there anything you do from your non-leading position to help keep the faction alive?

Sample questions:
-What would you say is the most "important" part of the faction's setup to get people interested? Proper goals, an awesome logo, a roster of "celebrity" characters with well-known players (e.g. Alex, Shawn, Sammy, Kelsie...), something entirely different?
-Do you keep people interested with fresh quests and events?
-Do you organize in-house events like jousting tournaments or summer vacations? Or more serious storylines to keep people engaged?
-What about your faction forums? Do(es) your faction(s) have a lot of activity in them? (this is not a request to reveal information from them, the faction forums are private for a reason!)
-For those with "canonical" factions (looking at you, Thieves Guild and Avengers), does it help that you picked something existing rather than inventing your own faction name?
-How do you manage the PR to get people's attention without annoying anyone (both IC and OOC)?
-How much time would you say are you investing into faction stuff?
-Is there a "secret trick" to it? Something that has to click and everything will flow nicely?


This also extends to anyone who may have led guilds in MMOs or similar games before, though obviously the sample questions don't really apply!

[Kuzuru]

To answer your questions in order.

- I'm not sure there is one silver bullet that interests people. My faction, being lead by an unsavory maniac and being geared towards PvP is not going to interest certain characters and players. I think being active, having a clear and concise "reason for existence", and having activities for members to participate in are all important factors.

- I've got a few quests that are repeatable with most of them geared towards PvP because we're oriented towards a PvP playstyle. I've been trying to coordinate various events, but that can be time consuming and they don't always pan out.

- We've organized in-house storylines revolving around a single plot. The two that come to mind are our hunt and execution of Ballad/ the SoSV and our foray into Dark Data. Imo in-house storylines are important to build character relationships between members.

- Our faction forum is fairly inactive and mostly used as a storage dump for info/plans/ideas. Most of our communication is done through a Skype group.

- Our faction isn't canonical, but I do think that being a canon faction has cons and pros depending on how it is handled.

- Tough question, I usually solicit people in Cbox if I think they'd be interested, I'm not pushy about it and if they say no I don't pester them. I'd love to have more members but the nature of our faction combined with the bar for entry probably drives a few people away.

- Eh most of my IC threads are faction related now, but honestly I don't feel that it is too time consuming unless we're in a storyline.

- Not sure, I mean I think having quests that pay actual rewards is a nice incentive for people, especially now that normal quest rewards are gone. Being active is also a plus, no one wants to join a dead faction, and that also means that you should put your faction out there. What I mean by that is; you should try and impact the world and do things that other players (especially newer ones) see and can react to. That's largely why I've been releasing videos on Omnitube, taunting people and doing other shenanigans.

Hope some of that helped. If you have anymore questions I'll try to answer them the best I can.

[Moon Knight]

In our case getting people interested appeals to those who have hero type characters or characters who fit our standards besides that most Avengers members are well aware of each other and all of us are generally friends. 

We tend to keep each other busy with our own personal storylines or just going out to some verse and doing good and practically anyone on the team can give out ideas for quests to do or storylines.  

We do some serious storylines just look at the current one right now (Hydra events). If it wasn't serious I wouldn't have blown up our own base. 

For Forums, we have an on-site one, a Discord, and a Skype. Currently, we're all using the Avengers Discord. We're pretty active on it, as I said most of us are friends and all ways have something to plan or talk about.   

As us being Avengers I see no difference we could have called ourselves the Defenders, JLA, or anything. People would still come because our faction is built for good guy and some Anti Hero characters to get together for team-ups and stop well universally evil.  

Personally, I just try to seek those who I feel would be good for the team. I try not to be pushy but I won't shy from asking people and if you say no I won't bother you with it again.

When I'm not too tired or at work, I usually tend to the team. I usually say good morning and good evening on most days and I've stated to every member to try and contact me if there are any questions on something. I should also say that there are two team leaders one being m (Technically second in command) and Vision. 

Sadly in my experience, there's no secret we've had members come and go. Currently, we've called ourselves the third wave of Avengers members. As long as your putting some good work toward the faction you'll at least have most of the faction going smoothly. One tip I will say and this is from my SoSV experience don't rush things and always plan for something different to happen cause stuff changes.

[Handsome Jack]

Just do everything Guu has done. Ambrosia is the most successful and long-lived Faction on the site.

[Zack Fair]

- I'm not sure there is one silver bullet that interests people. My faction, being lead by an unsavory maniac and being geared towards PvP is not going to interest certain characters and players. I think being active, having a clear and concise "reason for existence", and having activities for members to participate in are all important factors.

This is probably the best point of all. The Ashen Blades are honestly my favorite faction at the moment, despite none of my three characters or even potential fourths, having any reason to join them at the moment. They're clear cut and they establish their place without trying to do everything. Its nice to know what a faction represents in the end, no matter who it attracts or detracts. I've been solicited for a lot of factions on my various characters, and the second you try to be the "we do it all" faction I stop caring. Pick a direct goal and a role, get some like-minded individuals beforehand, stick to it, and you'll do fine.

[Amaterasu]

Thank you guys so much for all your input! It's a lot of useful info to take away, and I appreciate you being so open about your factions (if you have any, that is). The only one I'm unclear on is yours, Jeff :woah:

Just do everything Guu has done. Ambrosia is the most successful and long-lived Faction on the site.

How do you mean did Guu succeed with her faction? I realize that Ambrosia practically runs itself these days, but I am curious to hear what you mean in detail. I'd ask Guu personally, but I haven't seen her around for a while.

[Crocodile]

She spent like a year just doing Faction events. Making Ambrosia super appealing just to hang out in. Ambrose became big because it wasn't just a place for Primes to meet up, discuss plans, then go about their merry way.

[Omni]

I think in this case, you might as well ask "How do you keep people active? (and not switch)". In the factions I've been in, that's been the biggest problem. I don't really have an answer, though if I were to stand outside of my body and give myself advice, it would probably be something along the lines of "recruit more people in general so that you have people left after some of them switch/go inactive".