For King and Country

So, recently, I let John persuade me to pick up Star Trek Online again and level a Klingon Defense Force alt instead of a new Federation character.  I'd never tried the faction, due to a general lack of interest in the experience...but life is about trying things, so I'm giving it a shot.

The hardest part is not trying to kill all the other people I see in-game.

When you blow up Klingons for so long, you develop a natural inclination to keep doing so...it's familiar and satisfying.  I didn't know much about their society, or exactly why their AI behaved a certain way, I just knew what sound they made when they blew up.

So, this has been an interesting exercise, and it got me thinking about factions.

Motivation

So, for group content in MMOs, you have to have a clear goal.  The question always boils down to "why am I here?"

In Star Trek Online, I'm generally satisfied with a simple "to blow up the bad guys."  Not asking for much there.
With World of Warcraft, I'll settle for "it's pretty here, the fights are fun, and I can smash stuff."

With Star Wars: The Old Republic, though, you have to really motivate the experience.  When you spend so much effort on a game establishing it as a story-driven MMO, you need to have a legitimate reason for grouping up to tackle a task, and for making the call to action appealing to each player.

I spent some time yesterday in the group finder tool, just hammering out flashpoints and thinking about the content I was playing through.