I remember playing EQ1 as a high elven paladin. I could get into Freeport, but East, West, and South Freeport were virtually cut off. I had to take backways and tunnels in order to get to North Freeport. I had no faction with the other three areas as those areas were controlled by a corrupt sheriff. Of course, ambushing his corrupt agents didn't help with faction. Faction was a big element in that game.

Waiter, there's a 'bug' in my soup. Sounds like a quest point that kept looping through it self. There was one I encountered in BBM near the docks that wouldn't quit. Don't remember if I ever finished that quest.

The worst were the factions you could never under any circumstances increase, but which you could easily ruin.

One example was an obsolete raid that you didn't dare do even once if you wanted to enter your home town afterwards.

As a basis for determining what side you're on it's fun mechanic, once management priorities changed it went wrong in a myriad of ways. Like a lot of things, it needs planning and maintenance.

The WoW and Rift implementations of reputation are pretty obnoxious. They force you in to long rep grinds just to keep your character current. Grinds have their place, but as the default mechanic for keeping the players occupied they are evil. I would hope a community-sourced game won't resort to blackmailing the players like that.

Cobbling together some ideas from hither and yon, including CoH and WoW ... one thought I've had is, what if your Day Job is what gave you Reputation with particular groups, and that you could then "use" that Reputation through your Secret Identity.

Specifically ... let's say you Log Out in a area that is dominated by the Skulls. Well, while you're logged out you start gaining Reputation with the Skulls (because you're "in the neighborhood" a lot). During gameplay, once your Reputation has hit certain marks, the different ranks (Minion, Lieutenant, Boss) of Skulls switch from being Aggro On Sight to being merely Aggro If Attacked [i]while you're in your Secret Identity[/i]. This then gives you a "free pass" through areas these Mobs "control" or have a large presence in, allowing you to avoid fighting them if you don't want to. It's something that would give your Secret Identity a "meaningful purpose" in actual gameplay when it comes to navigating your way around the streets.

And just to be clear, these sorts of Reputation Gains for your Secret Identity with various Foe Groups wouldn't be "permanent" so in order to maintain them you'd need to "keep up your Day Job" when logging out if you want to stay on good terms with them. What I mean by that is that Reputation would "decay" if it isn't "refreshed" often enough through your Day Job while logged out.

Note that this sort of idea could potentially yield some very interesting alternatives for how to complete mission objectives, leading to an almost (but not quite) Stalker-ish way of bypassing direct battles on the way to reaching objectives, [i]both inside and outside of instances[/i] simply by using your Secret Identity. In effect, you would be "infiltrating" a particular group of NPCs Foes while logged out using your Secret Identity ... which would then (potentially) give you carte blanche to just [i]walk right into a Nemesis base[/i] and steal the super secret plans you need [i]and then walk right back out again[/i] without anyone realizing that you're a "mole" infiltrator simply because your "reputation" with Nemesis (the organization, not the guy) is just that good.

Your Day Job is to be an employee at Crey Industries. Walk in and steal the lab notes you need and walk right back out, because you've got "clearance" with Crey Industries to do that in your Secret Identity.

An interesting side effect of setting things up that way is that you'd NEVER be able to have "perfect" reputation with ALL of the NPC Foe groups at the same time, because you'd have to pick and choose. Another possibility is that every time an Aggro On Sight is "deferred" by your Reputation, that Reputation drops, because you're "spending" that Reputation to avoid aggro. That means that you can only pull this trick but so many times before these groups start getting "wise" to your "suspicious" behavior. You can then set things up such that Elite Bosses, Arch Villains and Giant Monsters are simply "never fooled" by this particular gambit, meaning you'll want to steer clear of them while in your Secret Identity.