Vanu Mains: What would you have played?

So with the relatively recent revelation that the game may have been first drafted as only TR & NC (Praise be the Higgles, who showers us is hovercraft)

What Faction would you have rolled?

With my habit of always picking the least populated faction I would have probably chosen New Conglomerate as my home server of Waterson had something like a 50% population of TR at the time. (Would have gone up to about 66% if Vanu players were split evenly amongst TR & NC)

So which faction would you have joined and why?

((its a good thing they did add Vanu because those first year population imbalances would have been unplayable with only two factions))

Well, because I usually pick sides based on lore, I would go with TR.
Even though they screw up keeping people on the same boat, they are still loyal to Earth and I think it would be unnecessary to divide humanity just because few officers couldn't handle the situation. Also they seems to be more open to use of alien tech, which I find as a good thing (we copy nature all the time, so why not alien race?).

But, my opinion was changing as I played, so I would probably start as NC and then move to TR, just like I did when I moved from NC to VS.
Also you can't forget that the game would have probably different lore if there were just two sides. So I could stay NC, given I wouldn't just straight dislike NC for their weapons or something.

Given the considerable promotional bias SOE showed for NC during the early stages of PS2 and still do, NC would still get a disproportionately large number of the player-base. I'd go with TR for this reason, as well as Lore reasons. Fighting up-hill for the unpopular faction has always been my thing, I don't care if the lore says the NC are the underdogs or whatever I go by what's relevant in-game and what the reality in-game is.

Hell anyone that has played EVE Online will know how much the "Minmatar are the underdogs" is worth in in-game realities, with them being the second-most represented faction next to another "underdog" - Caldari. The one faction with well over 40% of the population representing them.

If it was NC vs TR I would not play NC even if I got paid to do so. It would be hella-boring.

what?
the box art? with TR gloriously in the middle

or the old loading screen? with TR gloriously in the middle...
or this with TR glori...you get the idea.
or the trailer which leaves the NC dead and vanu as the ultimate space badasses.

it was only this year that the loading screen was changed to an NC one, i'd imagine that next year it will change to a VS one.

tr, playing warhammer 40k IG on tabletop draws me to it, also dakka.

i play vs because im a halo/stargate fanboy

I would have joined the Terran Republic, I'm just not much of a rebel.

I started off with Nc and then switched to Tr and then to Vanu so now I would have probably started off with Tr or Vanu.

i play all factions now and every one got something i like
but if i have to choose it will be TR because off my favorite weapon the hailstorm

I play all 3, with VS (Connery) being 'Main'...

I play TR more than NC, but that has a lot to do with Emerald pops more than actual faction stuff

TR, all the way. They are portrayed in a different light in this game, the last they were undoubtedly ********, with the NC being Mary Sue good guys. Now they are in more of a grey area. Their mantra is unity and order, and in that effort they may have been a little rough, but they were not wrong. Back home on earth the TR is quite benevolent, and basically has propelled humanity into a global golden age, they were protecting that, stranded in the middle of nowhere, with a crisis that undermined that unity and order they were supposed to keep. All in all, I prefer unity, over chaos, so the TR has my lot.

With the advent of the VS tho, my transhumanist bug kicks in, they could make me the girl I want to be, and for that I would fight and kill anyone they wished. Being at the forefront of science, and our transcendence is just a bonus. Even that said, I value TR ideals just as much, a structured, and unified humanity, is best. I am sure that is the goal of the VS too, tho.

Now the NC, they are backstabbing, terrorist, anarchist, SCUM. They fight for wealth, which means nothing on this forsaken world, because we have nanite technology now, so what they are really fighting for is a state of chaos who goes so far to discriminate as to go to WAR with a faction who simply wanted to form and do their own thing, because they think the things they are doing are a affront to humanity, and they are unnatural. I've been called that word so many times that I have learned to hate it, so, bleh. There might be good people in the NC, who have some sort of twisted righteous views of how its all going to end, but the truth is, their "Freedom" will come in the form of Corporate dominance, and PMC law enforcement. Their's is no Utopia. They have fun guns tho.

I would have chosen NC. How can I say no to Freedom wafflez an Liberty syrup... plus bonus checks!

Don't get your hopes up on the bonus checks.
We haven't really seen any faction specific favoritism in regards to cert gain.

Neither - becuase Tenchology equals might, Peace though power!!!, etc.
On a serious note - I generally don't like to be a one trick pone (sorry NC - but most of my encounetrs with you are either shotguns or Anchor/gauss) and I don't like to be a Rambo style gun nut (recent increased amount of TR HA's with MCG is driving me nuts).
So probably I wouldn't play PS2 at all.

TR.

I like red, dakka, badassery, loud guns, BIG guns, and something else I can't remember.

Oh yeah, I like to pretend they're Terrans from GC2.

Much like your reasoning, I would have chose NC (and did) because at release NC were underpopped and underpowered on Jaeger, and this later translated over to Waterson as well. I'm not a VS main, but I did actually shun the idea of joining VS in Beta because for a while their Magriders were the most OP thing in the game, and general consensus was that VS infantry were all overpowered due to their different ranged characteristics at the time and generally good DPS making them very powerful in most engagement ranges. TR was also very formidable because HE and AP Prowlers facerolled infantry and armor alike, and infantry weapons had large magazines with (at the time) no real balancing measures to compensate this. Then we see the NC, with a tank that is a terrible HE platform, good armor damage with AP rounds, but with a bugged main ability, and still couldn't put out like an anchored Prowler or move like a Mag... a MAX with poor range that needs to have thousands of certs into it before it's even worth pulling... an aircraft that's slow, large, but hey you can hear the Top Gun theme when you fly it... idk I fell in love with NC early on. Less gimmicks, more straightforward weaponry. You may not always win, but you will fall with the scars of determination.

Everyone always states that NC are the underdogs and the
supposed "freedom fighters". Apart from having thr best arsenal, they surprisingly have poor player retention.
I read the lore. They sound more like terrorists to me.

"terrorist" has no meaning, it was derived when one country needed the approval of the general public to invade lands which were otherwise inconsequential. (I realize this statement is controversial, but this is not the place to converse about it) There is no dividing line between "terrorist" and "freedom fighter" otherwise. Is one who yells "Allahu-Akbar!" and slaughtering his enemies really any different than one who yells "Freedom!" and doing the same? Since then, "terrorist" has been slapped across the forehead of any person or group who goes against the American popular culture, even if they are Americans themselves. Why? Because it is simply effective. Media bias is a very powerful thing.

As well as the lore goes, NC are a conglomerate of corporations, that pay their money to mercs, freedom fighters and terrorists alike. They do organised terrorists attacks (killing people with bombs, you know...) even back on Earth. Corporations want profits, but Terran government restricted them, so they are trying to get their own authority.

Back in Planetside 1, I started as the NC for the 1st week. I was attracted by their Gauss rifles. But I have switched to VS when I got more info about lore and ingame equipment. So, now I am with the VS since 2005.

If there were no VS, I would have probably stayed with NC, but I am really not sure.

If there were no magriders? I would have probably played another game.