Top 10 Reasons Why the Red Faction Deserves a Bad Reputation.

I see alot of the same usual bickering on the forums. :F

I see alot of seemingly innocuous threads being hijacked to bash on the defenseless Nefarians.

I see alot of poor reasons given to dislike that lovely little ruby of a faction. I know that every rose has its thorns, and would like to share what I think Nefarious' flaws truly are.





Falls Ex-Nefarious Master of Blades, Money Mailer, and Bearer of Many Titles' Top 10 Reasons Why Nefarious Deserves a Bad Reputation:


(Some of this might apply to other factions as well, but for the most part, it is Nefarious specific. Let it be known that it is only my opinion, except where it is fact. O:<)




10. The Furries: The Bikini Clad Vixens (Possibly with Antlers)

The percentage of which are actually women is woefully low...especially in Nefarious :S. The fact that they actually have enough TW Blood Money to buy themselves Bikinis or possibly gang up against some defenseless noobs in DT as a faction to take them further compounds the problem of forbidden love...*sigh*.

I should also note that the Nefarious Barbarians have also traditionally been fond of the bikinis...the very image of which causes problems all its own =.=


9. The Greed: Business at its finest.


Firstly, there was the Nefarious baby pet assassin extraordinaire. Complaint, complaint was all I ever heard about a certain bikini sporting Venomancer (A guy, of course Dx). However, this baby killing stuff was just business, so I had to let it go.

Of course there are also the Nefarious mercenaries who would fight for any faction for a couple of coins, and the promise of more. When they fail to see their dreams of wealth materialize, thanks mainly to a very Draconic pay system, they quit in fits xD. These people are of course what makes up the backbone of a Nefarious army :P. Its basically them and a few of the corrupt Nefarious nobility, who are rolling around in millions of coins per week while the peasants of Sanctuary eat cake. Event cake.


8. The Perversion: So sin-full


When SasakiSayuri was leader, I remember all the complaints about a certain member whose faction chat spam was just laced with sin. Some of our more angelic members had to quit to save their own innocence. Between inner faction blacklisting and a built up communal tolerance as if to a toxin, it seems as if this tumor on the chastity of Nefarians has been found mostly benign.


7. The Quitters: Some people can't even properly finish a sente


6. The Leaders: Panderers, Thieves, Snakes-in-the-Grass.

When it comes to this topic; I plead the fifth.




Well, okay, on a more serious note:




5. The Name: Nefarious: flagrantly wicked or impious, evil (synonyms: vicious)

I once asked the guild's creator SasakiSayuri why he chose the name Nefarious. That led to a very cryptic non-answer of (and I paraphrase); "...the name, that's the one thing I wouldn't change...". Although I chose not to follow up on the subject, I decided that clearly Sasaki must have had some desire to create an adversarial faction. I always felt this was a shame since I like to play the Paladin :P. In fact, I actually would have preferred to join Legendary on the first day of the server based on name alone xD.

"What is in a name?" ALOT! Much more than people give it credit for. There have been countless studies on the effects of names and titles in all fields from psychology, and politics, to economics.

The name Nefarious has certainly had a negative effect on the faction's reputation. Some small part of it which is deserved, since it is likely that many a jerk has been subconsciously lured to the faction by its name. However, this is not the only quality by which member's selected to join the faction. I believe the average player on Sanctuary server who has never considered the pros and cons of joining Nefarious, is not as well prepared to separate the name and its implications from the faction itself (Read: More likely to stereotype based on name).


4. The Color: "Red is considered an intense, or even angry, color that creates feelings of excitement or intensity." ---The Internet

Although psychologists are skeptical about the often exaggerated effects of color on mood, and studies have shown that such effects though present are usually temporary, and likely based on particular culture, there is much evidence to suggest that in the modern societies we live in, the color red carries a good deal of subconscious baggage. While the effect might be temporary, the amount of time someone spends looking at the TW Map is usually short, and for any new player, the first impression that huge glob of red on the map gives off, may trigger initial bull like instincts b:angry .


3. The Size: The faction usually hovers close to 200.

There have only been a handful of factions that could find 200 regularly active members. Such a [relatively] large sample size can be harmful when we are in the business of drawing conclusions about the quality of the individual members. Certainly, if a faction consists of five people and you have met three of them and consider them to be a A-Holes, then you can safely say that in your opinion, the majority of the faction consists of A-Holes. Such care in drawing conclusions when considering a faction like Nefarious is difficult, if not impossible. I doubt that anyone can say that they have met or even "know" 100 members of Nefarious and that they truly deserve the reputation they get. The fact is that with such a large group, many are sterotyping based on a very small sample of them. And since we know forum goers are typically self selecting complainers ;D...it is quite likely that we may have got, on these forums, a disproportionate amount of people who found their own --->limited<--- experiences with the group disagreeable.


2. The Isolationism: Since the Dawn of Sanctuary Nefarious has taken no allies and assumed World Chat Silence, by decree.

Excluding tacit agreements of non aggression between Nefarious and Legendary, and Nefarious and Outlaw for the better part of a year, Nefarious simply has never had a need to look for allies (or enemies ). Of course, this is all because being the biggest of the factions, it was generally in the best short term interest of others to leave Nefarious in peace. In actuality, I commend all of those who attacked Nefarious without provocation, simply for having enough foresight to predict the likely scenario of a monopoly or duopoly on the TW map. I personally, was in the fortunate position of being able to attack almost any faction from a very long list of self declared enemies without ever truly having to be an aggressor. I suppose it may be a fact that escapes most people, but with the exception of a couple of factions, Nefarious could easily make a case for being the most peace loving TW faction on the server xD. Of course a bad reputation stands in the way =.=

The reason a friendly peace loving image of Nefarious was never nurtured by the faction itself comes from the priorities of the members, which have typically downplayed the social aspects of MMORPGs. Popularity/Notoriety was not a great concern to the members (particularly the core ones). In fact, you can usually tell which Nefarious members cause the leadership trouble/will soon leave faction if they occasionally pop up on the World Chat with something that they might need to justify as not being spam >.> ...I liked the quiet ones xD.

The World Chat silence often led to situations were a member was encouraged to disregard a rumor/accusation/flame in yellow text. I would like to note that if there was a problem on the WC, it was usually addressed, although I never, ever saw an explanation of the solution/apology on the WC following such a resolution. Thanks, that was great for the reputation xD.

The unknown tends to make people uneasy, and since the faction members themselves didn't usually associate with the majority of the server because of levels (outside of running an FB, which I should note, I never received a complaint about), and Nefarious did not make their member's prominent on the WC, it is only natural that others who are less informed could write their story for them. This continues even today, as Nefarious members make up a very small number of the forum community --- I remember when Saitada was in Nefarious...spicy XD --- and the ones I do see on the forums are either not that great at the PR job, or supposed members of Nefarious who refuse to share their identity (Sorry if I can't put too much stock in those claims :S).


1. The TW Success: Are their egos well deserved?

I would never condescend to anyone by assuming they are "just jealous". I would find it hard to believe that any mature individual could have such shallow emotions. However, envy and admiration are unavoidable as a subconscious mechanism that drives competition, as well as being two sides of the same coin. Often, the difference between envy and admiration is based on our perception of whether or not the success we envy/aspire to is truly deserved. This is where the complication occurs. I have had many arguments in these forums concerning the amount of work required to have success as TW faction. Suffice it to say, this is one of the most pointless conversations I have ever had. Very few of us have actually had success in TW, relative to the number of players, and even then, the success we have had is based on such limited experiences relative to the total number of seemingly viable options with regard to being part of a TW Faction. I simply advise much care and thougt be included before deciding some measure of success is ill deserved.

On a side note, even I believe certain members of Nefarious to be egotistical, some ego I can handle tongue-in-cheek, but some just makes me shudder. Having known the majority of them, I feel safe in saying they are generally not *openly* egotistical [Which is the best anyone can ask for xD].


(I have only briefly logged on in the last couple of months to check the faction, but from what I see the members are about 80% the same.)



I hate to take away from the drama of the game, because I know that it actually can make it a more enjoyable experience, but I should say that if you haven't met many Nefarious members personally don't assume the worst. Its just a game after all, and even the most overzealous of Nefarious members will listen politely if you speak to them with the idea that they are another player and not a rival faction member first in your mind. Don't make the stereotype self fulfilling.




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