"Faction - A Hated Term?" Topic

Weeks (months?) back a discussion on wargames noted that 'faction(s)' was annoying/erroneously used.

Any insight on why that is and what proper term(s) should be used?

I'm guessing the annoyance is when, people refer to nations as factions.

Hate it, hate it, hate it.

Yes, referring to "the Americans" or "the Soviets" as a faction is just stupid. It shows an ignorance of the actual meaning of the word.

Without knowing the use of the word "faction" that you are thinking about, the words clique, camp, gang or splinter group come to mind. Nations are not factions and should not be referred to as such. Their military would be referred to as the Slobovian Army, an infantry battalion from the Confederation of Baltic States, a fighter squadron from the Republic of Imagination, etc.

I use the term in a multi-player skirmish game.
For instance, in my "Rescue Demi Moore" FIW game, I found it handy to call each 8 man unit a "faction".
I used the term because each "faction" had different victory conditions, and some on the same nominal side had contradictory victory conditions.
I had no idea I was outraging anybody when I did it.

If it annoys enough people, maybe I will use it some more.

I would say that for some settings faction might be a pretty descriptive term. For example, when it comes to Very British Civil War setting, it would not be quite suitable to call the different sides as groups, gangs, nations, armies, races or such.

It depends on the context. "Faction" is a common and useful term when describing one of several contending forces in a fantasy or sci-fi universe, and people have a natural tendency to stick with the gaming terminology with which they are comfortable, even when they stray outside their usual genre.

Several years back I was playing in a "Spearhead" game at a local shop on a 6' by 12' table stuffed with nice terrain and miniatures, when up walked a couple 8 or 9 year old boys, their hands full of glossy supplements and codexes, exhibiting all the breathless, wide-eyed wonder of which little boys are capable.

"Wow," said one, pointing to a battalion of PzKw IVs, "what faction do they belong to?" Transmuting an involuntary cringe into a smile, I replied "That's part of the German forces in World War Two."

After letting his gaze wander up and down the table, but coming back to the panzer battalion, he said "Man, I gotta get one of those tank armies!" Knowing there was nothing to be gained by pointing out that it was a tank battalion, I simply replied "They are awesome." He said, in an awestruck whisper, "Yeaaaah!" and scampered off to secure his purchases.

Now, if one of my gaming buddies referred to the British in the Peninsula as a "faction", I would be considerably less kind.

Would the term be correct in referring to Monty and Patton?

If you are describing different groups within the Allied officer corps. Yes.

Faction is a very handy word, but people saying "factions" when they mean "different armies" is somewhat irksome….

Fine when it is used correctly. Annoying and lazy writing otherwise

Faction:
A group of persons forming a cohesive, usually contentious minority within a larger group.
link

The key words in that definition are "contentious" and "minority". If there is no contention and/or it isn't a minority, it ain't a faction.

Hate the word when it is used in the wrong context.

I've never used the word in reference to any real nation. But looking from the outside Humanity as whole can easily be considered a group as can the United Nations. As such a nation can be defined as a faction.

Annoying, but not as annoying as hearing someone's miniatures collection described as an "army".

If it annoys enough people, maybe I will use it some more.

Sigh….he is a bad man

I don't have the energy to get upset about calling a unit or a side a faction. Maybe one day I will, but I have more serious things keeping me awake at night…..

It is clearly used incorrectly in current gamer parlance. But the mistake is so ingrained there is no use trying to correct people. So I just try to avoid misusing it myself, and worry about other things.

I dislike it on the context of army lists that are mutually exclusive from each other. As in, you can use these models with these other models because they are in the same faction, but you can't use them with those models (::points over there::) because that's a different faction.

I tend to prefer games that let me piece together my own gang or warband using a point system or premade list of units.

Yes … truly nauseating when misused (in the same league as mini … ) I had never encountered it used in relation to wargame contingents til I started visiting TMP (so I have always assumed it must have some special usage in GW or some other weirdness) …

Phil

What Phil said.

Perhaps it is a transatlanticism?

Even more nauseating would be faction's.

In Latin "Factio" (faction) was also the word for one of the various teams that fielded chariots in the Circus Maximus. So, in that sense it's reasonably appropriate for a "team" from which you can choose your troops.

In Latin "Factio" (faction) was also the word for one of the various teams that fielded chariots in the Circus Maximus. So, in that sense it's reasonably appropriate for a "team" from which you can choose your troops.

Well, that'a point of view … I'd say it just made it appropriate for specialised use in chariot racing … I'd not say it made it appropriate for, say, different Dark Age forces (an example of where I have seen it used in a way that didn't seem helpful or appropriate) … army, contingent, tribe, nation, people …all would have been better (in UK, 'non-gamer' English, anyway*)

Phil
*i.e. the term confused me as (from my normal usage) it seemed to imply groups which were splinters or break aways or rival groups within the same broader entity … so made the post in question unintelligible until I clicked that it actually meant different peoples … Now I am wiser and when I see the term used that way I just click out of the thread and move on.

Annoying, but not as annoying as hearing someone's miniatures collection described as an "army".

Considering the size of some gamer's miniature collections, they might actually qualify as a historical army.

For example, if you happen to have 600 T-34s and a sufficient amount of truck-borne infantry, you might be able to field a late WWII Soviet tank army.

Doesn't make the top hundred on my list of annoyingly misused words. And quite honestly, in wargaming the word "faction" has become a jargon term that has taken on its own meaning, separate from its common use in English.

I don't care what the kiddies call them, so long as they play with them. Factions, armies, guyz, army men. I also don't mind when a female will look at them and croon in oozing syrupy tones "Oh aren't they Soooooooo cute!" Whatever. But once they start playing with them and are having fun…..

Softly, softly catchee Monkee.