My last server had the same concept but instead of races, we call it factions. (http://forum.ratemyserver.net/low-rates/sorinro/ (http://forum.ratemyserver.net/low-rates/sorinro/))
- Each faction has their own bonus statuses, advantages, and disadvantages.
- Part of our plan is to have a monthly faction war.
The server failed because of the following issues:
1. People chooses the same faction over and over again. So if possible, don't give your players the freedom to choose. What happened was 60% of the population joined the strongest faction, 30% are on the antagonist's faction, and the new players (who have no idea about the faction drama yet) joined the smallest faction.
2. We didn't have a long-term plan on how to keep the faction war healthy and rewarding.
3. Because of the faction drama, players have started griefing (sabotaging parties and boss hunting of known groups). There was a day when drama was everywhere--in-game, Facebook group, and forum. I talked to the guilds involved and both aren't amenable to discussion and wouldn't agree to my resolution.
During the drama, I just decided to close the server. I realized that it's not a good idea to promote competitiveness when your players are mostly Filipinos. (
I'm also a Filipino btw)
I suggest that you plan your features well and think of possible scenarios (good and bad) and how you would deal with them.