TOR is like some MMOs, and unlike other MMOs, via the way that guilds can only host characters from one faction. In other words, you might be working your way through the Jedi Knight story and, let’s say, the Bounty Hunter story, but you cannot house those two characters within the same guild.
This has led to many guilds trying to be dual faction via simply creating two versions of themselves; one to sit on the Sith side, and one for the Republic side. And it’s those guilds that I want to touch upon here as I recently found myself giving some advice to a community member on this very topic.
You see, I came across a community member wondering if there was a good dual faction guild out there and I said to him that, for mine, the answer is to look to guilds that are concentrating on one faction only. In other words, join a “best of breed” Sith guild, and join a “best of breed” Republic guild.
Why? Because if you dig beneath the surface of guilds that are trying to dual faction the game, you will find they are a total compromise in every way. And they will always, always, ALWAYS end up favouring one side more than the other by the simple fact they have finite members split between the two factions and members can only be on one side or the other at any given time. Which means you might get a good (or even great) experience with one faction, but the other will suffer — guaranteed.
That’s why Beskar, for example, is proud to be a single-faction guild. See, we do the Sith side of the game — it’s our only focus. Join us, and we’ll talk Sith morning, noon and night. Then, if you want some Republic action, we’d suggest joining a great single-faction Republic guild. The result? Whichever guild you are playing in, it will be 110% focused on the faction you want to be playing at that particular moment in time; you won’t log in and find 90% of the guild occupied with the opposite faction, leaving you to play with just a handful of people who felt like playing your faction for the night.
This simple fact seems to have bypassed some people who think dual-faction guilds will be great. I beg to differ. And I think they will beg to differ when they log in, night after night, and find the faction they want to play isn’t getting much interest from their guildies. Whereas, again, if you’re in a guild where it’s focused on just one faction, you will always have access to the right people at the right time.
Another issue a lot of dual-faction guilds haven’t considered is the fact that there’s no guarantee that the two different “sides” that they create will be on the same server, especially if they’re signing up for the pre-launch guild program.