Isn't there a really big point you are all missing?
Why did RP grow while Factions declined? Because all Factions RPers went to Regalia to RP?
I doubt that. There is a much simpler answer than that, while RP is continuously expanding and improving its core gameplay, i.E. Lore, Noble system, etc., Factions doesn't.
Let us take a look at what people can do on Massive (that's by no means a complete list just the big goals I can see for long-term players)
- PVP
- RP
- Building
- Factions (Survival)
PVP
I am no PVPer so I will do nothing more but give my outside perspective here and I will be really blunt. For me, PVP on Massive is really boring and has a community that is desperate to cling to "their" way of gameplay. From what I can see it is simply Pot PVP with McMMo and some quirks such as Traits and Magic. It suffers from poor server performance (compared to PVP only Servers) and no real way of power projection, even if you include things like War Declarations.
So if you exclude the power Struggle that is factions, it is simply something other servers do a lot better than us. Not to mention the grind for most participants is over since a long time and it basically has turned into a material battle where everyone has more or less access to the same tools.
But as I said take this with a grain of salt as it is an outside perspective.
RP
Well, there is not much to say about RP, it has evolved to a point where it could exist as a completely separate server thanks to the continuous efforts of both players and staff. That said it is growing quite convoluted and scary for new players, but actions are taken to make it easier for new players to join.
If we take a look at the relation between Factions and RP from a pure RP standpoint we have to ask ourselves, what is it that people get for joining the Factions World, even with a system like the one Marty supposed? Well they can design their own "home" and can create their own social hierachy, on the flipside they loose "time" they could have invested in Regalia to work on their goals, i.E. being Noble, etc.
But again, this is an outside perspective only derived from my time in Worldstaff and from my friends on Massive.
Buiding
Well, that should be pretty self-explanatory. Building is something that everyone can do and is a cornerstone of Minecraft itself, but it takes a long time to reach a certain skill level. The issue is that on Massive it feels like as a decent builder you only have 2 options. You join Worldstaff and can meddle around with Regalia, etc. or you build in Factions with a high risk of whatever you are building just turning into an unused ghost town sooner or later, to hardly ever be seen.
If you build in Regalia you have access to more tools and resources but your creativity is limited by certain factors, which aren't all that bad to be honest. There is also a probability that your builds get removed in the long run.
In Factions building is a lot more work, you have no creative restraints and you can have the feeling of really having accomplished something. The flipside is that other than for the sake of building and making things look nice, the high amount of effort that goes in high level builds is easily diminished by the fact that it simply doesn't offer any reward whatsoever. Neither for you nor the faction, well except for some praise and such. But even that is sparse, to say the least.
Factions (Survival)
This is the last big "thing" you can do on Massive and is also the most diverse one. Here I am talking about all the things that don't quite fit into another category and it is also the one which most people seem to want to bring back to life.
So this section entails all the gameplay associated with Factions, being a faction leader, a Mage looking for all words or even the Librarian of a faction.
The issue I see here is that it is simply lacking functionality. Aka people don't have enough to do. While RP has evolved over the years, Factions didn't, except for some minor tweaks here and there. The reason for that is simple, to bring new gameplay to Factions you need to code it, while in RP you can just write a couple paragraphs to implement an innovative feature. While it may be the same amount of work invested in both things it is also a fact that there are way more people available to create Lore than there are to code Plugins.
So instead of discussing how to get RPers to join factions, I would suggest we start at 0 again. Let's take a look at what factions is, what we want it to be and what tools we have aviable to make that vision come to fruition.
We already have a couple tools at our disposal that could turn the whole survival world upside down. The issue I see atm is that the features we have don't work well together. It seems like different plugins like MassiveMagic, Traits, etc. are awesome on their own but in combination with the rest they just look rather misplaced.
In PVP there are no roles, there is no meaningful crafting, there is a system to bring back meaning to Factions power projection but it seems to not do so well and so on.
Now let's take a look what we can actually do. Well, first what we can't do ... it's simple, be realistic. We can't add 20 Plugins all of the sudden in an effort to change things. We first should take a look at what we already have.
A prime example for that is MassiveMagic, we already have a crafting system in there. So what stops us from taking that component and model it into a system that lets you craft armor, weapons and so much more?
It is a lot of work with no doubt, but it also a lot less than starting from scratch and if we start to evaluate all the things we have and can create a clear goal where we want to go, we might reach our ultimate goal . Making MassiveCraft Factions a truly unique experience again.
PS.: Sorry for that gibberish. I will fix it up later.
