Neutrality

[richky]

Radsul is neutral for the reasons described in his manifesto ('Conspiracy' link in my sig). Inaro is neutral because he has friends in both factions as well as friends amongst the neutrals, and he has never been given any compelling reason why he should consider any of them to be enemies. In fact, he has yet to see anything at all worth fighting other homins for.

[arfindel]

I have been neutral for about 3 months both before and after the OP patch. I have heard a lot the preaching about the supposed advantages you have from being faction. One by one all the supposed advantages were shattered by experience. That's being said in a pacific life where we have guild hunts, solo exploring and levelling, not much pvp. People told me we will not have PR tps. Who needs PR before they get 150 digging? Who needs PR tps before being decently developped in underground digging? I was told best levelling places can be reached only by faction tps: I levelled 250 ele with no need of such tps. I constantly refused to promise I'll go kara or kami to anyone untill decided. That was never an impediment in making friends out of the people I wish they are my friends.

We didn't have an OP at the time but I am sure that friendship prevails whatever your faction is. And I can provide a concrete list of examples where kami defended kara and vice versa.

List may continue...

Finaly the storyline for me personally has a flaw: Factions, in the kara-kami layer, imply religious war. Or I personally hate so much this concept that I cannot adhere at it even in a game. Religious war was and still is maybe the biggest plague we still didn't find any vaccine for. Only by finding a slightly personal different story I could bring myself to be part of it. Also I can say the Kami lore is somewhat flexible enough to alow me to create this different personal story.

If you think you cannot trust a neutral because he is not your faction then you have a big problem. Trust is not based on game labels but in knowing the people you are relying upon. You trust friends or you just don't trust anyone.

There is though a noticeable tendency of players to resist to the complexity of the game. Some of them leave because they are never able to make an efficient action, some of them are unhappy because they cannot accept a system that has some 15 faction flavours instead of the classical 1:1.

It's not a sin, it's not to blame, it's just the natural tendency to simplify. But simplifying spoils a lot the fun So I certainly respect the people who see it all about kara versus kami but I am also sorry a bit that they refuse the huge puzzle Nevrax created for us, maybe the first true simulation of real political life in a MMO.

So personally (not talking for guild, they each chose for different reasons) I chose faction because most of us consider pvp as part of our fun, and faction certainly gives some advantages (flags, open pvp, tps, chat channel etc), because I could pick from the rich storyline something convenient as to avoid fanatism, and finally because to those friends who prefer imagining things in black and white, I thought it will be boring to strive proving our faithfullness each time they question it

The three months we stayed neutral taught me a lot of things and I am grateful we didn't go faction from the first moment. I enjoy being kami a lot but I don't see it as an upgrade from neutral but as an alternative.

[richky]

As i see it and from the faction backgrounds Atys is finite, whether destruction is from goo consuming the planet, kitins overwhelming all or dragon awakening.
This puts in my mind, kind of prompted by tales of future worlds too, that atys is a dock about to be set ablaze and there are just 2 boats to escape on, so neutrality has never been an option once i'd realised the choice. Aside from the fact that its the powers that rez you too, if they didn't rez conscientious neutrals, i doubt there would be very many considering how dangerous atys is.

This post got me thinking. Back when kami and karavan were just two different approaches to goo and kitins, there were no 'neutrals', and as far as I know, no one ever expressed a need for neutrality. We were all content to be either kami or karavan. Where that changed was when kami and karavan went into the global domination business. The story since EP2 seems to indicate that Atys is becoming more stable, and not less. We were encouraged to overdig in the old lands, we are now allowed to reopen Outposts and drill for materials, and the kami and karavan are now struggling to control the planet. Why would they want to control a doomed bundle of roots? No, Atys is obviously a place with a future or there would be no desire to fight for it. And where neutrality comes in is that there are many homins who believe that neither kami nor karavan should have full control of Atys.

For example, Radsul still believes in the kami approach to goo and kitins, but he will not support the kami (or the karavan) when they start using temples and spires to control homins.

[jamela]

Why would you prefer to not be aligned to either faction specifically?

Why would you choose to align yourself with one of the factions?

I was raised to respect and honour the Karavan because I was taught that I wouldn't be here but for their help during the Swarm. I believed that they would help us to rebuild our civilisation, discover new technologies and make Atys provide for a civilisation growing to the stars. The only thing that I see them doing, however, is exploiting hominkind. The karavan in the Dunes of Exile have at least been good enough to save my skin a few times, but no matter how much I do for them, those in Upper Bog or anywhere else have never raised a finger to acknowledge or even berate me. Are the Kami any different?

Some say that we should be grateful to the Ks for respawning us and allowing us teleportation. Why then, if we choose one side, does the other side decide to ignore us? Are Kami and Karavan at war? I don't think I have ever seen them even exchange harsh words. I don't believe they are responsible for respawning us - I can respawn at any of the gates between the lands regardless of which side I have chosen, and neither Kami nor Karavan is present. I think they are only responsible for stopping us from spawning at their altars if we have declared for the other side.

I want to rebuild homin civilisation and make it fluorish. I don't want to squabble over resources or kill people over ideologies. Certainly not for the amusement of a being that still, after all these years, asks me to go find some butterfly wings which I have pointed out to him time and time again are just behind him! He could kick a yubo further, but he won't get out a pick and go that far to dig for himself.

If my King tells me I must follow the Karavan then I will, but I no longer believe they or the Kami deserve the allegiance of any homin.

[nonde]

I prefer to not align myself with either faction as there is not a right or wrong or good or bad faction. Each faction is a collection of individuals, and in my view there are good and bad apples in both baskets.

I also have long standing friends in both factions, and have no wish to align myself with a faction which seeks to disposses friends in the opposing faction. If I embrace the stance of one faction, I would often find myself in conflict with what my conscience dictates, eg I helped to defend both CoM and MoV ops as I didn't want either to lose their ops, and I prefer conflict with those who were made unhappy by my actions than to have conflict with myself for doing or failing to do what I regarded as right action.

I also regard that embracing a faction often limits capacity to see and respond to others as individuals and that negative consequences can flow from this. Viewing individuals as an amorphous part of a class of "them who aren't us" can result in racism, ethnic cleansing and so on in the real world, and I regard we see similar in microcosm in Atys as a result of misperception that there are in fact kami or kara - kami/kara scum let's kill them I have read in region chat. People who may well be the nicest folk you would ever meet should you get to meet and know them are responded to in terms of their faction label instead of in terms of themselves. So more broadly I am anti-factions of any kind as I regard both Atys and the real world would be better places if we related individual to individual.

Zysha