Content geared towards FCs

[Saraide]

It might make you hate your current FC, but it would also motivate people to make their own FCs that have what they want.

FCs currently are just hives of drama. There's no reason for them not to be really. If you make exclusive meaningful content for FCs then there will be a good reason for FCs to shape themselves up in order to recruit for that content and others will be motivated to make their own FCs for said content too.

Why would FCs suddenly not be hives of drama anymore? They arent drama hives specifically because there is no content gated behind FCs. They are hives of drama because the people making them up are hives of drama.

[NekoMataMata]

Why would FCs suddenly not be hives of drama anymore? They arent drama hives specifically because there is no content gated behind FCs. They are hives of drama because the people making them up are hives of drama.

Oh, I don't know... Maybe because if FCs actually mattered then recruitment would also matter, and it would end up being important to keep your FC clean of it?

There would still be drama, you can never be rid of that, but people in FCs would make a lot more effort to avoid it.

There's no real reason to be in a FC right now outside of buffs and the workshop(which only ranks get access to anyways). This means it's a mostly social group, and that people hop between them until they find the right one or they decide that they don't need one.

If there was exclusive content for a FC suddenly most people would likely need one, but FCs would also need willing members for that content. This means there could be competitive recruitment, and competitive recruitment would lead to FCs attempting to reduce drama and treat their members better. Otherwise their FC could end up with a bad image, and therefore struggle to recruit members for said content.

[Deveryn]

Oh, I don't know... Maybe because if FCs actually mattered then recruitment would also matter, and it would end up being important to keep your FC clean of it?

There would still be drama, you can never be rid of that, but people in FCs would make a lot more effort to avoid it.

There's no real reason to be in a FC right now outside of buffs and the workshop(which only ranks get access to anyways). This means it's a mostly social group, and that people hop between them until they find the right one or they decide that they don't need one.

If there was exclusive content for a FC suddenly most people would likely need one, but FCs would also need willing members for that content. This means there could be competitive recruitment, and competitive recruitment would lead to FCs attempting to reduce drama and treat their members better. Otherwise their FC could end up with a bad image, and therefore struggle to recruit members for said content.

Competitive recruitment sounds like more shout spam. No thank you.

[VerdeLuck]

Oh, I don't know... Maybe because if FCs actually mattered then recruitment would also matter, and it would end up being important to keep your FC clean of it?

There would still be drama, you can never be rid of that, but people in FCs would make a lot more effort to avoid it.

There's no real reason to be in a FC right now outside of buffs and the workshop(which only ranks get access to anyways). This means it's a mostly social group, and that people hop between them until they find the right one or they decide that they don't need one.

If there was exclusive content for a FC suddenly most people would likely need one, but FCs would also need willing members for that content. This means there could be competitive recruitment, and competitive recruitment would lead to FCs attempting to reduce drama and treat their members better. Otherwise their FC could end up with a bad image, and therefore struggle to recruit members for said content.

Even if there was a need to make FCs be more than they are now, taking a game where they don't play a big role and deciding that almost 10 years into the life of that game you want to fundementally change that is not a very good or welcome idea. You don't shake up your core player base like that, that's how you get people leaving in droves because the game they used to like suddenly veered in a different direction. FCs are a social group and that's fine. You join one either created by your friend group or it becomes your in-game friend group and that's it. There's nothing wrong with how it is now. Any attempt to drastically change that won't be well received by the general player base.

And that's all aside from the fact that any content that would be gatekept behind FC only participation would be carved directly out of what would normally get released to the general player base. We'd be getting fewer of something else in order for it to be saved for FCs, and anyone not in a large active FC would effectively get less content released in the game going forward.

[Raven2014]

There's no real reason to be in a FC right now outside of buffs and the workshop(which only ranks get access to anyways). This means it's a mostly social group, and that people hop between them until they find the right one or they decide that they don't need one.

Which is ... exactly what it should be? This sound more like you want a static and not an FC. People group up in static for content, with or without the social aspect. But people should only be an FC if it's a good social fit.

Again, you don't want to force people who don't want to be in an FC to be in an FC. And trust me, you probably don't want to have those people in your FC either.

[Vidu]

Oh, I don't know... Maybe because if FCs actually mattered then recruitment would also matter, and it would end up being important to keep your FC clean of it?

There would still be drama, you can never be rid of that, but people in FCs would make a lot more effort to avoid it.

There's no real reason to be in a FC right now outside of buffs and the workshop(which only ranks get access to anyways). This means it's a mostly social group, and that people hop between them until they find the right one or they decide that they don't need one.

If there was exclusive content for a FC suddenly most people would likely need one, but FCs would also need willing members for that content. This means there could be competitive recruitment, and competitive recruitment would lead to FCs attempting to reduce drama and treat their members better. Otherwise their FC could end up with a bad image, and therefore struggle to recruit members for said content.

Its nice that you have such a positive outlook here, but honestly I'd suspect the opposite would happen.

FC-exclusive content would be gated by something else on top of being gated by FCs - may that be the amount of people who can participate at once, your own schedudle which may or may not allow you to play during the time your FC does the content, the amount of loot (think about how the rare drops from airships/subs are distributed within a FC...) or if its personal loot the question of everyone contributed equally to the task at hand... honestly, I can think of so many things that are basically drama waiting to happen here.

In addition to that I also see potential from turning FCs from social groups into "reward factories" where you dont join a FC or stay in it because you like the company, but because its the most efficient one for you to have access to the content/rewards. I'm being a bit hyperbolic here, but imagine people having to leave FCs with friends that they enjoy playing with because the FC is to small for the content or because everyones schedules dont line up well enough to tackle it. People staying in FCs where they dont like anyone, but get to do the content. People being kicked out of the FC because they dont contribut enough to said content. People going FC hoping to do the content more often. People threating to leave the FC if they dont get XYZ...

I actually prefer FCs being "just" social groups over being forced into a group that ends up being more or less social - and in the end potentially only focussed on getting the most out of the FC. And I'd prefer to be in a FC because people like having me, as a person, around - not because I'm useful to them because of [content].

[Raven2014]

In addition to that I also see potential from turning FCs from social groups into "reward factories" where you dont join a FC or stay in it because you like the company, but because its the most efficient one for you to have access to the content/rewards. I'm being a bit hyperbolic here, but imagine people having to leave FCs with friends that they enjoy playing with because the FC is to small for the content or because everyones schedules dont line up well enough to tackle it. People staying in FCs where they dont like anyone, but get to do the content. People being kicked out of the FC because they dont contribut enough to said content. People going FC hoping to do the content more often. People threating to leave the FC if they dont get XYZ...

It's not hyperbolic, trust me. I have played MMOs where they put extras stuff behind thing like FC/Guild, and all of that (and more) do indeed happen.

[VerdeLuck]

Its nice that you have such a positive outlook here, but honestly I'd suspect the opposite would happen.

FC-exclusive content would be gated by something else on top of being gated by FCs - may that be the amount of people who can participate at once, your own schedudle which may or may not allow you to play during the time your FC does the content, the amount of loot (think about how the rare drops from airships/subs are distributed within a FC...) or if its personal loot the question of everyone contributed equally to the task at hand... honestly, I can think of so many things that are basically drama waiting to happen here.

In addition to that I also see potential from turning FCs from social groups into "reward factories" where you dont join a FC or stay in it because you like the company, but because its the most efficient one for you to have access to the content/rewards. I'm being a bit hyperbolic here, but imagine people having to leave FCs with friends that they enjoy playing with because the FC is to small for the content or because everyones schedules dont line up well enough to tackle it. People staying in FCs where they dont like anyone, but get to do the content. People being kicked out of the FC because they dont contribut enough to said content. People going FC hoping to do the content more often. People threating to leave the FC if they dont get XYZ...

I actually prefer FCs being "just" social groups over being forced into a group that ends up being more or less social - and in the end potentially only focussed on getting the most out of the FC. And I'd prefer to be in a FC because people like having me, as a person, around - not because I'm useful to them because of [content].

The part of loot distribution is a good point. I've been a part of a few FCs and pretty much all of them keep all profits and rare items with the leader or the few at the top. Gardening profits, Subs, even decorating the house is just for the Leader and maybe 1-2 other people. Trusting FCs in this game to fairly distribute loot in the event that rare items drop would be abysmal. Most likely the leader would take it for himself first, give to the top members, and then list the rest on the MB for profit. It happens with those other things that are already in the game and are limited to FCs already so why would this be any different?

[Vidu]

The part of loot distribution is a good point. I've been a part of a few FCs and pretty much all of them keep all profits and rare items with the leader or the few at the top. Gardening profits, Subs, even decorating the house is just for the Leader and maybe 1-2 other people. Trusting FCs in this game to fairly distribute loot in the event that rare items drop would be abysmal. Most likely the leader would take it for himself first, give to the top members, and then list the rest on the MB for profit. It happens with those other things that are already in the game and are limited to FCs already so why would this be any different?

I guess one could get around this by having personal loot - as in: You have to be in a FC to access the content, maybe you even have to run a [dungeon-type-thing] with other FC-members, but everyone gets their own loot.
...which would lead to another drama-potential: Has everyone contributed enough to truely earn their loot? I'm thinking of people joining frontline matches, finding a quite corner and not doing anything for the whole match on the one hand - and absolute hardcore elitst who require you to have a purple parse to join their Aurum Vale farm for moogletomestones on the other hand. And anything in between...