I think I should clarify something here, since it's relevant for this type of game: when I say "if player A does not want to interact with player B, they shouldn't have to", I mean in a long-standing CR or multiple threads kind of way. For example, if A doesn't want to interact with B, and B is the highest ranked member of Faction 1, then put A in factions 2, 3, or 4. That way they're not expected to have positive interactions on a regular basis with B just from their close proximity to each other. Now if A and B are both top-ranking faction members and end up having to do some big faction meeting, that's a situation where I would say "okay, A and B don't have to directly comment to each other, but they can both be present in this log and participate". It's not a 100% ideal workaround, but those kinds of situations where characters have to interact with each other should be minimal.
But that comes to another problem: rankings in multiple factions. I'm of the mind that players should only be able to get substantial rank and responsibilities in one faction. If they have characters in other factions that's fine, but those other characters should be limited to 0 or 1 stars. A single player really shouldn't have substantial power over more than one faction, and the reasons you stated above are exactly why: the more factions a player has power in, the fewer options there are for players who want to opt out of that player. It also goes the other way too: if player C decides to opt out of playing with player D, but player C has the highest ranked character in faction 2 and a high-ranked character in faction 3, what options are there for player D? That puts player D (and the mods, since they have to coordinate all of this too) in a bad spot, and while C shouldn't have to play with anyone they don't want to it still causes a huge problem if they have power over that much of the game and now suddenly a player can't effectively play in the game because of that. (especially if D is already in a faction that C controls, and their choices are 'be iced out of all plot for this faction and be unable to do anything' or 'switch factions'.)
(Also I'm specifying 'player' here and not just mod because, while this is definitely a possible problem with the player/mod I mentioned before, it could also happen with literally any player who gets heavily invested in multiple factions. So keeping the same baseline for everyone, not just mods, is helpful here.)
So I guess my ultimate thought here is, there shouldn't be a way for one player to ice another out of the game, even if the icing out is unintentional. The game design should be shifted so that either one player isn't holding up the whole faction (having at least two different players at the top of each faction would at least give people options for who to talk to within their faction), or individual players should not hold substantial rank in more than one faction at a time. Or hell, both is good! Both of these things would be positive changes.
Also I want to say that I don't think anything I've described here has happened on purpose. I think the situations I'm describing are unintended consequences of a system not build to handle DNIs. The good news is that, since they're unintended consequences, they can be fixed! But they do need to be fixed.
no subject
But that comes to another problem: rankings in multiple factions. I'm of the mind that players should only be able to get substantial rank and responsibilities in one faction. If they have characters in other factions that's fine, but those other characters should be limited to 0 or 1 stars. A single player really shouldn't have substantial power over more than one faction, and the reasons you stated above are exactly why: the more factions a player has power in, the fewer options there are for players who want to opt out of that player. It also goes the other way too: if player C decides to opt out of playing with player D, but player C has the highest ranked character in faction 2 and a high-ranked character in faction 3, what options are there for player D? That puts player D (and the mods, since they have to coordinate all of this too) in a bad spot, and while C shouldn't have to play with anyone they don't want to it still causes a huge problem if they have power over that much of the game and now suddenly a player can't effectively play in the game because of that. (especially if D is already in a faction that C controls, and their choices are 'be iced out of all plot for this faction and be unable to do anything' or 'switch factions'.)
(Also I'm specifying 'player' here and not just mod because, while this is definitely a possible problem with the player/mod I mentioned before, it could also happen with literally any player who gets heavily invested in multiple factions. So keeping the same baseline for everyone, not just mods, is helpful here.)
So I guess my ultimate thought here is, there shouldn't be a way for one player to ice another out of the game, even if the icing out is unintentional. The game design should be shifted so that either one player isn't holding up the whole faction (having at least two different players at the top of each faction would at least give people options for who to talk to within their faction), or individual players should not hold substantial rank in more than one faction at a time. Or hell, both is good! Both of these things would be positive changes.
Also I want to say that I don't think anything I've described here has happened on purpose. I think the situations I'm describing are unintended consequences of a system not build to handle DNIs. The good news is that, since they're unintended consequences, they can be fixed! But they do need to be fixed.