Why do so many play Empire?

[Idunhavaname]

Say it with me now, Fight Club is just a movie.

 

First rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about the Fight Club!

[Thrage]

Here's the truth as to why people play Empire.

 

And it's the same reason many people played CHAOS in WAR.

 

 

 

Upwards of 90% of today's MMO gamers will have played WoW at some point in time. During WoW's early days, the Horde, the "evil" faction, was far less popular. However the faction tended to attract a much more "hardcore" player base who, on average, were much more capable than their Alliance counterparts.

 

Early Horde players benefited from near instant queues and commonly only lost against pre-made groups. This "elitist" attribute is still prevalent today and can be seen in a slightly higher win-ratio for the Horde throughout all BGs, despite factions being almost completely balanced.

 

 

However the idea that the "evil" side would be the underdog, thus attracting a more "elite" player group stuck in most players mentality. Since everyone wanted to be part of said "elite" faction, joining "evil" became a bandwagon effect that eventually reversed itself.

 

Warhammer Online was the first incarnation of this reverse affect in that due to Chaos popularity, Order ended up being the faction with instant BG invites and more of an "underdog" role.

 

SWTOR is just the next incarnation of that. People think they're joining the "underdog" / "more hardcore" / "elite" faction when in fact, everyone is doing it, thus refersing the effect.

 

This also happened in RIFT, most players were Defiants, and the good players went Guardian.

[Jedi_Bendu]

Here's the truth as to why people play Empire.

 

And it's the same reason many people played CHAOS in WAR.

 

 

 

Upwards of 90% of today's MMO gamers will have played WoW at some point in time. During WoW's early days, the Horde, the "evil" faction, was far less popular. However the faction tended to attract a much more "hardcore" player base who, on average, were much more capable than their Alliance counterparts.

 

Early Horde players benefited from near instant queues and commonly only lost against pre-made groups. This "elitist" attribute is still prevalent today and can be seen in a slightly higher win-ratio for the Horde throughout all BGs, despite factions being almost completely balanced.

 

 

However the idea that the "evil" side would be the underdog, thus attracting a more "elite" player group stuck in most players mentality. Since everyone wanted to be part of said "elite" faction, joining "evil" became a bandwagon effect that eventually reversed itself.

 

Warhammer Online was the first incarnation of this reverse affect in that due to Chaos popularity, Order ended up being the faction with instant BG invites and more of an "underdog" role.

 

SWTOR is just the next incarnation of that. People think they're joining the "underdog" / "more hardcore" / "elite" faction when in fact, everyone is doing it, thus nullifying the effect.

 

Well put. Though I play Emp's and Rep's equally as I wasn't part of the previous MMO experiences. I literally picked this game up as KOTOR 3 and am liking it as that. The fact that I am leveling both emp and rep simultaneously is fun.

 

I'm literally playing empire because it's available to play. No other reason.

[Skouros]

It's all fine in theory but nobody has any proof still that Empire is more favored across all servers.

 

Sure, individual servers may or may not have an imbalance, and many are sure to have more Empire than Republic. Its expected with how many servers there are to see some variation.

 

But until Bioware releases detailed statistics on server populations across the board you are basing all of your information on hearsay and jumping on a bandwagon.

 

This bandwagon is pretty pathetic because you intelligent few are empowering the fools. When 100 fools agree on a fact, it is nearly impossible to shut them up without irrefutable evidence, which as stated already NO ONE BUT BIOWARE HAS.

 

So please, stop with the predictions and false truths, you know NOTHING about the faction balance in this game whatsoever, you're basing all of your information on completely unreliable data.

 

Opinions do not constitute facts. We have ZERO measure of true population in this game at present.

 

I won't sway the opinions of the fools, but some of you will see the logic in what I have said and slow the bandwagon's idiotic progress.

[FoE_Viz]

The empire side is heavily advertised on the republic fleet, just look at the reflection on the floor.

 

I pointed something similar out in another thread like this one. It just seems like Republic side wasn't finished. Even the design on the Empire fleet is brighter and more colorful. On the Republic fleet you have a big yellow slum with big gates and tents everywhere.

[Jedi_Bendu]

It's all fine in theory but nobody has any proof still that Empire is more favored across all servers.

 

Sure, individual servers may or may not have an imbalance, and many are sure to have more Empire than Republic. Its expected with how many servers there are to see some variation.

 

But until Bioware releases detailed statistics on server populations across the board you are basing all of your information on hearsay and jumping on a bandwagon.

 

This bandwagon is pretty pathetic because you intelligent few are empowering the fools. When 100 fools agree on a fact, it is nearly impossible to shut them up without irrefutable evidence, which as stated already NO ONE BUT BIOWARE HAS.

 

So please, stop with the predictions and false truths, you know NOTHING about the faction balance in this game whatsoever, you're basing all of your information on completely unreliable data.

 

Opinions do not constitute facts. We have ZERO measure of true population in this game at present.

 

I won't sway the opinions of the fools, but some of you will see the logic in what I have said and slow the bandwagon's idiotic progress.

 

And 30 helens agree, that pens are good, although pencils are also good in case you make a mistake.

 

I also believe that all thirty helens were basing their claim on opinion.

[Yematul]

The evil side always has more players. Why? Beats me.

 

Actually, if you take WoW for instance, the Alliance side doubled and sometimes tripled the horde population on some servers so this is not true.

[blikkONE]

I am 100% convinced of it. Real Life has proven this to me over and over again.

 

not sure if serious or trolling

 

if you are serious, then I feel sorry for how ignorant you truly are

Edited January 18, 2012 by blikkONE

[Bald_Haliaeetus]

I play empire because my guild does. I have no true affinity to either faction.

 

Once main is capped, though, I'll roll a republic alt. This is mostly because my function in the guild is 'healer' and right now, healing is cumbersome and awkward... not fun... so I'm going to bide my time with alts until we get some UI improvements that will make healing more enjoyable... namely mouseover macros, but there are other areas that could use improvement as well.

[Florial]

I would have played Republic but dear hubby and I played Empire during beta and he absolutely loves his Sith Warrior. Of course both of us play the light side but what the heck. If it was up to me, I would have played Republic but he really loved the story on the other side.

[Darth_Grissom]

Im imperial because of the class. If they had a republic agent and an imperial agent, i would have chosen republic.

[Saviorofcamelot]

It's all fine in theory but nobody has any proof still that Empire is more favored across all servers.

 

Sure, individual servers may or may not have an imbalance, and many are sure to have more Empire than Republic. Its expected with how many servers there are to see some variation.

 

But until Bioware releases detailed statistics on server populations across the board you are basing all of your information on hearsay and jumping on a bandwagon.

 

This bandwagon is pretty pathetic because you intelligent few are empowering the fools. When 100 fools agree on a fact, it is nearly impossible to shut them up without irrefutable evidence, which as stated already NO ONE BUT BIOWARE HAS.

 

So please, stop with the predictions and false truths, you know NOTHING about the faction balance in this game whatsoever, you're basing all of your information on completely unreliable data.

 

Opinions do not constitute facts. We have ZERO measure of true population in this game at present.

 

I won't sway the opinions of the fools, but some of you will see the logic in what I have said and slow the bandwagon's idiotic progress.

 

I have 40+ co-workers that play this game and all but one of them play Empire. They created a guild but I wasn't interested because I didn't want to play Empire.

 

Everyone I know (personal or work) play Empire. My best friend wanted to play Empire too but decided to play Republic because I play Republic.

 

We're talking over 50 people here and 3 of us play Republic.

 

I don't need to see detailed server stats...

[Novare]

I have 40+ co-workers that play this game and all but one of them play Empire. They created a guild but I wasn't interested because I didn't want to play Empire.

 

Everyone I know (personal or work) play Empire. My best friend wanted to play Empire too but decided to play Republic because I play Republic.

 

We're talking over 50 people here and 3 of us play Republic.

 

I don't need to see detailed server stats...

 

A sampling that small does not constitue a good indicator for entire servers.

Also that sampling is of like mided folks, or some folks that may have been pressured by peers, so again not a good indicator of entire servers.

 

There was a post by bioware about server statistics not long ago, darned if I can remember where, and it had empire ahead on all servers.

They also said that they were suprised by the number of inquistiors.

 

Also to the person who did the long post about "because of wow" that has no basis in reality as you did not poll all wow servers or war servers to find out if that theory is true. So in other words stop stating OPINION as FACT.

 

Good Day.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Novare

[FoE_Viz]

I come from a pvp MMO where the vast majority of people rolled "light side" (nothing starwars related). And I kind of thought it'd be the same in this game... so I rolled "the bad guys". Alas, things didn't go the way I expected

 

Going to take a guess and say....Aion..

[Qoojo]

All pros play baddies to show just how pro they are.

[MetroPolice]

So hey. If being evil IRL and trying to stand out badly is normal that doesn't that make them.. well.. normal? So that means the Republic are the ones that are different. The Empire is just normal people doing normal things. I guess everyone is just too normal to be Republic.

[Skylarke]

A lot of us play both sides.

 

Indeed. I do.

[Scathan]

I played Midgard.

 

I played Horde.

 

I played Destruction.

 

I played Criminal.

 

All my D&D characters are Lawful Evil

 

I think you may see a pattern here.

 

Horde were the good guys

[Shortwave]

Horde were the good guys

 

QFT - if anything the Alliance is more related to the Empire. We think the Horde is bad for the same reason we think Somali pirates are bad. And that's all I'll say about that.

[MethodSZ]

Bioware spent the majority of their development time and effort on the empire side. Republic was basically an afterthought.

[Waiting]

Empire has 2 syllables and 6 letters.

 

Republic has 3 syllables and 8 letters.

 

With the word 'Empire' I can spell 'Erm Pie'

 

With the word 'Republic' I can spell 'Pube Licr'

 

 

I rest my case.

 

Sound logic.

 

I like pie.

[Therrak]

I only play Empire because my guildies rolled Empire. My poor portly smuggler named Porkins is languishing.

[DarthTyranid]

I always identify with villains better than heroes.

And being an IA who chooses his actions based on what he thinks is better for the Empire, while still not liking the Sith, is very interesting to me.

[CriticalDoom]

Me, My brother and my close friend rolled Empire. And i am loving it . I have alway wanted to roll empire, I am usually the good guy in most MMO Games, but at far as SWTOR i told myself before it came out i was going empire. I really think its a personal choice. But a couple of days ago my friend decided to roll a Jedi, And told us that he already got his second companion and did even have his ship yet. My question is whats up with that ??? Not to mention , no matter what side you choose there is mulitple problems with this game, the fact that wer are all paying $14.99 , IMO is some BS.

[usblues]

I tried to play Empire, I really did. But those British accents are so annoying. They are like daggers in my brain.

 

So I tried a bounty hunter, since he doesn't sound British. But then again almost everyone I talked to sounded British.

 

I couldn't get into the whole British nazi thing. It just didn't work for me. So I said screw it and rolled a Republic character.