I don't think one person on here has one clue about the lore.
1. Defiants are MUCH MORE ZEALOTS than Guardians. Read the lore. Learn for yourselves.
2. Both sides are "good" guys. The Defiants have committed some pretty heinous acts to get stuff accomplished. They admit it's wrong, but don't care. IE end justifies the means
3. Both sides have "bad people". Both sides have "good people".
The whole thing boils down to religion. Defiants are anti-religion. The Guardians are pro-religion. They can't agree on anything and the Guardians have issue with the Defiants using forbidden technology. We later find out much of the Defiant technology is actually HELPING Regulos. They don't know this and refuse to listen to reason from a Guardian.
So you have the religious conservatives versus the rebellious emo. Based on what we saw in beta, there will be about twice as many Defiant as Guardian. This site is a bad example as the poles I've seen do not match the beta numbers or any of the poles on the RIFT site.
There were shards that had more Guardians than Defiants. I can think of one in particular during beta. All the other shards had more Defiant than Guardian. I guess emo rebellious is more popular than conservative conformity. That seems to fit society in NA at least...
actually based on what I saw in beta the game is going to be heavily Guardian biased. Not only that, but guardians were much more PvP minded as well.
Not sure if its a server to server thing, but just saying the server I was on had much more Guardian activity. If the mind set is that people will go with what is now being considered the rebellious "emo" group, please see Aion where the Elyos out number the asmos by a great number. It was also speculated here on this site that the Asmos would outnumber the Elyos and everyone called the Asmos the "popular" class which wasnt true.
you might also want to check the definition of zealotry. Defiants believe that science is the answer to closing the rifts, while the Guardians adhere so much to their religion that they would let the rifts tear their world apart before believing that theres another answer outside of religion. The only thing the Defiants believe in is that mythical creatures and religions are not going to solve problems for them and that science is the answer.
I will go to the side where balance is most needed. There's a lot of people Defiant side, but many top-notch competitive Guilds are going Guardian. So I'm a bit undecided at the moment. If I had a choice, probably Guardian. Their lore and morals just interest me more.
You might be right on the numbers. I've seen odder things happen.
You are wrong, however, on the lore. Defiants don't support "science". They support "forbidden" technologies.
Those technologies became forbidden because of the results of using them in the past. People died, a LOT of people because of those technologies. They were considered too dangerous to use and everyone agreed and they were outlawed. They were extremely dangerous and destructive.
The defiants ignored those decisions and used the technology anyway. Regulos supports the use of some of this technology even having his own forces defend the technology and the defiants using them. You see this in the Guardians starting zone. Literally your 4th quest or so shows you Defiants using technology and guarded by death spirits.
Kinda makes the whole use science argument null...scientific method out the door.
Eugenics is a really sound scientific proposal on paper without regard to human rights or humane thought, but I don't see many scientists proposing we step up and start doing it. The Defiants don't consider the consequences they just do it. Hell with the pain and suffering it may cause. Hell with the chance it might lose the war by helping Regulos. Do it anyway. They are like every Final Fantasy bad guy ever created...good intentions bad ideas.
The Defiants believe the ends justify the means...whatever those means might be. Read the lore.
Guardians are indeed religious zealots.
Both sides have good and evil represented. It's ideology that separates them.
Zealotry is:
zealot (?z?l?t)
— n
an immoderate, fanatical, or extremely zealous adherent to a cause *(religous or otherwise)*
I think zealot would fit both sides well to be honest. The Guardians follow religion without regard to reason. The Defiants follow their leader's Ideology, without regard to reason.
Never violate a woman, nor harm a child. Do not lie, cheat or steal. These things are for lesser men. Protect the weak against the evil strong. And never allow thoughts of gain to lead you into the pursuit of evil. Never back away from an enemy. Either fight or surrender. It is not enough to say I will not be evil. Evil must be fought wherever it is found.The Iron Code"
Well, I prefered the Defiant side to the Guardian side. Just the look of the starter zones and the quests were more to my liking. The Defiants have way better racial abilities than the Guardians. It's actually kind of stupid, they need to make the Guardian racials more appealing.
The Defiant character models don't look nearly as gay and tired as the elves and dwarves on the Guardian side either.
Lore wise who cares.
Even though I prefer playing "the bad guys" I always end up playing the opposite. It's usually because of population imbalance, I'd rather play the underdogs and get quicker pvp ques.
So ya, I'll probably end up playing Guardian. Which is going to suck because I won't have the Kalari racial
From playing in the last 2 betas , and reading, forums and checking the You tube videos, and following a few other games forums It not so clear if Guardian is the underdog or if defiant is the "dark side" alot of large well know guilds ect are gravitating to both factions ect and as Briarliff is petitioned as the Offical Oceanic server who knows what type of population will be set on the remaining servers. Have to say thru the betas every thing server wise ect was very smooth. With Briarcliff larg potental population I wonder if it will lead to a similiat Dark Crag over flow crash war hammer server or even a lopsided 1 sided server.
I think the only time side balance might matter is on a PvP server. Warfronts are cross server. That being said, there is a big trend to defiant. That means guardian will have shorter queue times.
Might also mean people dont want to play the side they will play on release...but I doubt that.
Drop the next-gen marketing and people will argue if the game itself has merit.
Are there any significant differences between the two?
Two things: 1. is the Story element of the game; 2. are the Racial bonuses, which many players are blowing completely out of proportion...
That is dissapointing indeed because it means that this game is basically two cloned factions with very small differences. That makes even WAR two faction system seem diverse.
The weird bit is to find clerics in defiant's side. Although the developers did put a justification for it, if you care to read what your first cleric trainer has to say.
If it weren't for the red coloring on the Defiant logo and the blue on the Guardian's I don't really know that I would have been able to say who was "good" or "bad". The backstories don't create a clear sense of right and wrong. Quite the opposite really. I'm going to play Defiant because I like their races, but I do like what I've seen of the Guardian areas.
I don't know if there is a "good" or "evil" side from reading the lore, although most people initially think Guardians are good and Defiant are evil. Defiant side looks waayyyyyy more interesting.
But it was a little disappointing that you can't make a dark skinned character on the Guardian side. It continues the old fantasy fiction tradition of making the good guys standard European skin color. And the opposing team "the other."
The fantasy genre in fiction and gaming has always had issues with trying to show a character is evil by their physical characteristics. Like hair color, eye color, and skin color. e.g. The evil characters more often than not have black hair. Evil elves always seem to have dark skin that was somehow darkened by an evil curse or uncontrolled magic. Dark colored eyes tend to always belong to the evil characters.
Why does the moral adjective version of the term of "Dark" get turned into the physical characterics version of the term "Dark" like skin color and such in the fantasy genre? Can we move on to the 21st century? lol
If I were planning on buying, I'd go Defiant. I like the Magic/Tech combination. The starter area seems quite a bit more difficult than the Guardian side, though.
I've always been into the "For the gods!!!" type factions but the guardians in this game are screw ups lol. I'm gonna side with the defiant this time. Even though originally I was a guardian, I just can't immerse my self in their stupidity.
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actually based on what I saw in beta the game is going to be heavily Guardian biased. Not only that, but guardians were much more PvP minded as well.
Not sure if its a server to server thing, but just saying the server I was on had much more Guardian activity. If the mind set is that people will go with what is now being considered the rebellious "emo" group, please see Aion where the Elyos out number the asmos by a great number. It was also speculated here on this site that the Asmos would outnumber the Elyos and everyone called the Asmos the "popular" class which wasnt true.
you might also want to check the definition of zealotry. Defiants believe that science is the answer to closing the rifts, while the Guardians adhere so much to their religion that they would let the rifts tear their world apart before believing that theres another answer outside of religion. The only thing the Defiants believe in is that mythical creatures and religions are not going to solve problems for them and that science is the answer.
I will go to the side where balance is most needed. There's a lot of people Defiant side, but many top-notch competitive Guilds are going Guardian. So I'm a bit undecided at the moment. If I had a choice, probably Guardian. Their lore and morals just interest me more.
Defiant, I love the Eth, Egyptians rule!
At least this poll is turning out closer to what we see in game.
I can't believe anybody actually cares about the lore. I'm playing guardian at the moment because it has less cheering npcs.
Drop the next-gen marketing and people will argue if the game itself has merit.
Are there any significant differences between the two?
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Two things: 1. is the Story element of the game; 2. are the Racial bonuses, which many players are blowing completely out of proportion...
Guardians npc are asses.
As an atheist there is no way I could ever be Guardian.
The defiants know there are gods, they just want to me self reliant, or some such.
Drop the next-gen marketing and people will argue if the game itself has merit.
Hope this game is not going to be like Destruction overwhelming Order was initially.
Defiant! ...well, at least for my first character....... then Guardian for the next
You might be right on the numbers. I've seen odder things happen.
You are wrong, however, on the lore. Defiants don't support "science". They support "forbidden" technologies.
Those technologies became forbidden because of the results of using them in the past. People died, a LOT of people because of those technologies. They were considered too dangerous to use and everyone agreed and they were outlawed. They were extremely dangerous and destructive.
The defiants ignored those decisions and used the technology anyway. Regulos supports the use of some of this technology even having his own forces defend the technology and the defiants using them. You see this in the Guardians starting zone. Literally your 4th quest or so shows you Defiants using technology and guarded by death spirits.
Kinda makes the whole use science argument null...scientific method out the door.
Eugenics is a really sound scientific proposal on paper without regard to human rights or humane thought, but I don't see many scientists proposing we step up and start doing it. The Defiants don't consider the consequences they just do it. Hell with the pain and suffering it may cause. Hell with the chance it might lose the war by helping Regulos. Do it anyway. They are like every Final Fantasy bad guy ever created...good intentions bad ideas.
The Defiants believe the ends justify the means...whatever those means might be. Read the lore.
Guardians are indeed religious zealots.
Both sides have good and evil represented. It's ideology that separates them.
Zealotry is:
zealot (?z?l?t)
— n
an immoderate, fanatical, or extremely zealous adherent to a cause *(religous or otherwise)*
I think zealot would fit both sides well to be honest. The Guardians follow religion without regard to reason. The Defiants follow their leader's Ideology, without regard to reason.
Never violate a woman, nor harm a child. Do not lie, cheat or steal. These things are for lesser men. Protect the weak against the evil strong. And never allow thoughts of gain to lead you into the pursuit of evil. Never back away from an enemy. Either fight or surrender. It is not enough to say I will not be evil. Evil must be fought wherever it is found.The Iron Code"
Well, I prefered the Defiant side to the Guardian side. Just the look of the starter zones and the quests were more to my liking. The Defiants have way better racial abilities than the Guardians. It's actually kind of stupid, they need to make the Guardian racials more appealing.
The Defiant character models don't look nearly as gay and tired as the elves and dwarves on the Guardian side either.
Lore wise who cares.
Even though I prefer playing "the bad guys" I always end up playing the opposite. It's usually because of population imbalance, I'd rather play the underdogs and get quicker pvp ques.
So ya, I'll probably end up playing Guardian. Which is going to suck because I won't have the Kalari racial
From playing in the last 2 betas , and reading, forums and checking the You tube videos, and following a few other games forums It not so clear if Guardian is the underdog or if defiant is the "dark side" alot of large well know guilds ect are gravitating to both factions ect and as Briarliff is petitioned as the Offical Oceanic server who knows what type of population will be set on the remaining servers. Have to say thru the betas every thing server wise ect was very smooth. With Briarcliff larg potental population I wonder if it will lead to a similiat Dark Crag over flow crash war hammer server or even a lopsided 1 sided server.
I think the only time side balance might matter is on a PvP server. Warfronts are cross server. That being said, there is a big trend to defiant. That means guardian will have shorter queue times.
Might also mean people dont want to play the side they will play on release...but I doubt that.
Drop the next-gen marketing and people will argue if the game itself has merit.
That is dissapointing indeed because it means that this game is basically two cloned factions with very small differences. That makes even WAR two faction system seem diverse.
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Having the same classes levels the PVP playing field. But I found it rather odd lore wise myslef.
The weird bit is to find clerics in defiant's side. Although the developers did put a justification for it, if you care to read what your first cleric trainer has to say.
i might try a guardian too.....rift is the first game that made it pretty hard for me to choose tbh.
The guardian side looks cool too in rift.
(but surely not a palladin......i realy hate palli's......sorry dont mean to offend you palli's out there but thats just mho)
But my main will still be Defiant.
Defiant for me, the Eth look and sound pretty cool.
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If it weren't for the red coloring on the Defiant logo and the blue on the Guardian's I don't really know that I would have been able to say who was "good" or "bad". The backstories don't create a clear sense of right and wrong. Quite the opposite really. I'm going to play Defiant because I like their races, but I do like what I've seen of the Guardian areas.
I don't know if there is a "good" or "evil" side from reading the lore, although most people initially think Guardians are good and Defiant are evil. Defiant side looks waayyyyyy more interesting.
But it was a little disappointing that you can't make a dark skinned character on the Guardian side. It continues the old fantasy fiction tradition of making the good guys standard European skin color. And the opposing team "the other."
The fantasy genre in fiction and gaming has always had issues with trying to show a character is evil by their physical characteristics. Like hair color, eye color, and skin color. e.g. The evil characters more often than not have black hair. Evil elves always seem to have dark skin that was somehow darkened by an evil curse or uncontrolled magic. Dark colored eyes tend to always belong to the evil characters.
Why does the moral adjective version of the term of "Dark" get turned into the physical characterics version of the term "Dark" like skin color and such in the fantasy genre? Can we move on to the 21st century? lol
Though I am playing Defiant I have to say that there is no "good" or "evil" side.
If anything I would say the Defiant are more "good" than the guardian when looking at motivations but that's just my take.
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If I were planning on buying, I'd go Defiant. I like the Magic/Tech combination. The starter area seems quite a bit more difficult than the Guardian side, though.
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