MMORPG guides

MMORPGs with three factions: who still runs a three-sided war

Three-faction MMORPGs are rare. Since Dark Age of Camelot invented the format in 2001, only about ten online games have put three player sides on one map, and seven of them are running in October 2026: Dark Age of Camelot, RF Online, Metin2, Guild Wars 2, The Elder Scrolls Online, PlanetSide 2 and the Frontline mode of Final Fantasy XIV. New World closes on 31 January 2027, Crowfall has been offline since 2022, and Camelot Unchained is in early access.

Published 21 October 2026. Prices and status were checked on that day; the sources are listed at the end.

A race control chip in the Crag Mine during the Chip War in RF Online, with players gathered around its base — RF Online: a race control chip in the Crag Mine, minutes before a Chip War. Official screenshot.

Why a third side changes the war

In a two-faction game the bigger side wins and keeps winning, because nothing stops it. With three sides, the two weaker ones attack the leader. Every game below is built on that: the leader gets attacked from two directions, alliances form and break without any treaty system, and a map can turn in an evening. Dark Age of Camelot called it Realm versus Realm, RvR, and the name stuck to the whole genre.

The list is strict about the "three" part. A game needs three sides that players choose and fight for in the open world or in a persistent war zone. Games with two factions and a monster race as the third (Aion), with guild wars and no factions (Albion Online, Lineage 2) or with four or more militias (EVE Online) are left out; the questions at the end say why.

The games at a glance

Game	The three sides	Where they fight	Platforms	Price	Status, October 2026
Dark Age of Camelot (2001)	Albion, Hibernia, Midgard	One shared frontier: keeps, towers, relics	Windows	Subscription; a free Endless Conquest account with limits	Running; 25th anniversary
RF Online	Bellato Union, Holy Alliance Cora, Accretian Empire	Everywhere outside the three headquarters; the Chip War three times a day	Windows; Mac through our app	Free	Running here, version 2.1.5; RF Online VK in Russia
Metin2 (2004)	Shinsoo, Chunjo, Jinno	Open PvP from level 15, guild wars	Windows	Free	Running; 19 years in January 2026
Guild Wars 2 (2012)	Red, blue and green teams built from WvW guilds	World vs World: four maps and Edge of the Mists, one-week matches	Windows (Mac client ended 2021)	Core game free; WvW at level 60 on a free account	Running
The Elder Scrolls Online (2014)	Aldmeri Dominion, Daggerfall Covenant, Ebonheart Pact	Cyrodiil: keeps, Elder Scrolls, an Emperor	Windows, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox	$19.99 base game on Steam; optional ESO Plus	Running
PlanetSide 2 (2012)	Terran Republic, New Conglomerate, Vanu Sovereignty	Whole continents; a first-person shooter	Windows, PlayStation 4	Free	Running; hotfix on 15 October 2026
Final Fantasy XIV, Frontline	Maelstrom, Order of the Twin Adder, Immortal Flames	Instanced 24 v 24 v 24 battles	Windows, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox	Subscription; the free trial has no PvP	Running
New World: Aeternum (2021)	Marauders, Syndicate, Covenant	Wars for settlements between companies	Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series	Delisted on 15 January 2026	Servers close on 31 January 2027
Camelot Unchained	Arthurians, Vikings, Tuatha Dé Danann	RvR for resources	Windows (Steam)	Paid early access; a subscription is planned	Early access since 2 June 2026; servers up Friday to Monday
Crowfall (2021)	Order, Balance, Chaos in faction campaigns	Campaign worlds that end	Windows	Was buy to play	Offline since 22 November 2022

Dark Age of Camelot (2001)

The game that named the genre. Albion, Hibernia and Midgard each have their own lands for levelling and share one frontier where the war is fought. The frontier has keeps and towers to capture, relics that give a realm-wide bonus to whoever holds them, and the entrance to the Darkness Falls dungeon, which opens for the realm that holds the most keeps. Agramon, an island in the middle, joins the three frontiers and has no keeps at all (Wikipedia).

Broadsword Online Games still runs it, on ten clustered Ywain servers plus Gaheris, a co-op server, and the game marked its 25th anniversary in October 2026 (official news). Accounts are by subscription, with a free Endless Conquest option since 2019 that limits races, classes and housing but can reach the level cap and the realm ranks. Windows only, and the engine is from 2001.

For: keep sieges, relic raids and the original three-realm balance. Against: the graphics, the subscription for the full game, and a population that fits in one frontier, so the fights happen at prime time.

RF Online

The only sci-fi game on this list, and the only one where the three sides play differently. The Bellato Union pilots MAU battle mechs. The Holy Alliance Cora summon the Animus, spirits bound by a blood contract. The Accretian Empire has no magic at all and fights in machine bodies with launchers and a siege mode. On paper the classes repeat across the races, but a Bellato ranger, a Cora ranger and an Accretian ranger are three different games. The races in detail.

Outside the three headquarters any player can attack any player of another race at any time. On top of that open war comes the Chip War, three times a day at fixed hours, in the Crag Mine at the centre of the map. Each race has a control chip there. Destroy another race's chip before yours falls and your race wins: the Altar Keeper spawns to guard your miners, and for up to seven hours the race digs the richest ore in the game. How long exactly depends on how much health your own chip kept and on whether the player who struck the last blow carries the chip to the centre within ten minutes. Lose, and everyone who took the war quest loses status points. How the mine war works.

Each race also elects its leader every week. The Patriarch and the Archons are chosen by a vote in which a candidate pays a fee in race currency and every vote is weighted by the voter's rank. The elected hold race-wide buffs, a race chat, the right to see the chips' health and the right to buy and fire a nuclear missile. How the vote works.

A Cora spiritualist with a summoned Animus at the gate of a base in RF Online — A Cora spiritualist with an Animus. The spirit grows with its summoner. Official screenshot.

An Accretian soldier in a machine body standing in the gate of the Accretian base in RF Online — An Accretian soldier at the gate of the Empire. The Accretians have no Force and fight with launchers. Official screenshot.

The game is free here, in English or Russian, with the original Episode 2 client (version 2.1.5). It is a 4.2 GB download and runs on a Pentium-class PC with 512 MB of memory (system requirements), on Windows 10 and 11, and on a Mac through our app, which is still experimental. Netmarble's sequel, RF Online Next, launched worldwide on 16 June 2026 with the same three races in a new engine (announcement), and a Russian service, RF Online VK, opened on VK Play in September 2026. Where the original stands today.

For: three sides that look and fight differently, mechs, and a game that runs on almost anything, Macs included. Against: 2006 graphics, levelling that takes months, and a world far smaller than it was in 2007.

Metin2 (2004)

A Korean game from the same years as RF Online, in an East Asian martial-arts setting. You pick one of three kingdoms, Shinsoo, Chunjo or Jinno, which are at war with each other; players of the other kingdoms cannot even read your chat without a language book. PvP is open in the world from level 15, with guild wars and kingdom events on top. Gameforge runs it for Europe and much of the world, free, Windows only, in sixteen languages including Russian and Turkish (Steam). It marked 19 years in January 2026, with the Tyranny of Aamon expansion out since November 2025 (press release). The item shop sells things that matter in PvP, so expect money to count.

Guild Wars 2, World vs World (2012)

Guild Wars 2 has no factions in its story. The three sides exist only in World vs World, its persistent war zone: red, blue and green teams fighting over four maps, the Eternal Battlegrounds with Stonemist Castle in the centre and three Borderlands, with Edge of the Mists for the queue. The objectives are camps, towers, keeps and the castle; a match lasts a week and is scored in 84 two-hour skirmishes (wiki). Since June 2024 the teams are no longer servers: ArenaNet's World Restructuring builds them from WvW guilds and regular WvW players and rebuilds them at intervals (World Restructuring).

The core game has been free since 2015, and a free account gets into WvW once a character reaches level 60, against 31 on a paid account (free accounts). Windows only: the Mac client was discontinued on 18 February 2021 (ArenaNet). No Russian localisation.

For: a large, modern three-sided battlefield with no subscription. Against: the three sides are colours, not peoples, and outside WvW the game is a PvE MMO.

The Elder Scrolls Online (2014)

Three alliances of three races each: the Aldmeri Dominion (High Elves, Wood Elves, Khajiit), the Daggerfall Covenant (Bretons, Orcs, Redguards) and the Ebonheart Pact (Nords, Dark Elves, Argonians). Your race sets your alliance. The war is in Cyrodiil, one huge zone open from level 10, where alliances take keeps, outposts and resources with siege engines, steal each other's Elder Scrolls for passive bonuses, and crown an Emperor when one alliance holds all six keeps around the Imperial City. Campaigns are separate copies of Cyrodiil with their own scoreboards; you pick a home campaign and are scored there (UESP).

The base game costs $19.99 on Steam, with an optional ESO Plus subscription (Steam), and it runs on Windows, Mac, PlayStation and Xbox; the Mac client is the Intel build, so on Apple silicon it depends on Rosetta. Russian text has been in the game since 26 May 2020 (ZeniMax).

For: a huge three-sided map, consoles, and a game you can play alone for a thousand hours before you ever go to war. Against: the base game is paid, and the Mac build is the old Intel one.

PlanetSide 2 (2012)

Not a role-playing game: a first-person shooter with persistent continents and hundreds of players in one fight. The Terran Republic, the New Conglomerate and the Vanu Sovereignty take and hold bases across whole continents, with tanks, aircraft and infantry on one map (Wikipedia). If what you want from "three factions" is the territory war itself, this is the purest version of it.

Free to play, on Windows and PlayStation 4, with a Russian interface (Steam). The PlanetSide rights changed hands twice in two years and moved to Tencent in a June 2026 filing (Massively Overpowered), but the patches keep coming: the latest hotfix is dated 15 October 2026 (patch notes).

Final Fantasy XIV, Frontline

Final Fantasy XIV has three Grand Companies, the Maelstrom, the Order of the Twin Adder and the Immortal Flames, and its Frontline mode sets them against each other: three teams of up to 24 players, 72 in one battle, on a map that rotates daily (The Lodestone). It is instanced and queued, so there is no territory to hold between matches, but it is the easiest way on this list to try a three-sided fight, because you never have to pick a side for good. Windows, Mac, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series and Steam; the free trial reaches level 80 but excludes PvP (free trial).

New World: Aeternum (2021)

Amazon's MMO has three factions, the Marauders, the Syndicate and the Covenant (newworld.com), and the territory map is the point of them: companies of one faction declare war on a settlement held by another and fight an instanced siege for it, and the company that holds a territory sets its taxes. The game was delisted from every store on 15 January 2026, and Amazon has said the servers go offline on 31 January 2027 (Amazon Games). Owners can play until then; nobody else can join. Windows, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series; no Russian.

Camelot Unchained

The successor to Dark Age of Camelot, from a studio led by Mark Jacobs, who co-founded Mythic (Wikipedia). Three realms, the Arthurians, the Vikings and the Tuatha Dé Danann, fight for resources in a game built around RvR and nothing else (official site). After thirteen years of development it entered paid early access on Steam on 2 June 2026, with the servers up from Friday to Monday and a monthly subscription planned once they run full-time; the studio's target for leaving early access is December 2026 (Steam).

Crowfall (2021)

Crowfall's faction campaigns put Order, Balance and Chaos on worlds that last from a month to a year and then end, with Balance winning if neither of the other two wins outright (MMOs.com). The game launched on 6 July 2021 and went offline on 22 November 2022 so that the studio could rework it (Wikipedia, PC Gamer). It has not come back, and its owner, Monumental, has given no date.

Which one to pick

Keep sieges, relics and the original realm balance: Dark Age of Camelot.
A modern engine and no money down: Guild Wars 2, World vs World.
A console, or a huge map: The Elder Scrolls Online.
Sides that differ in how they fight, mechs, sci-fi, and a game that runs on an old laptop or a Mac: RF Online.
A shooter: PlanetSide 2.
Martial-arts fantasy, free, in your own language: Metin2.
A quick taste of a three-way fight with no side to commit to: Frontline in Final Fantasy XIV.

An open-field battle between players of different races in RF Online, with explosions and spell effects — An open-field fight between races in RF Online. Outside the headquarters anyone can attack anyone of another race. Official screenshot.

Questions people ask

Which MMORPGs have three factions?

Running in October 2026: Dark Age of Camelot (Albion, Hibernia, Midgard), RF Online (Bellato Union, Holy Alliance Cora, Accretian Empire), Metin2 (Shinsoo, Chunjo, Jinno), Guild Wars 2 in World vs World, The Elder Scrolls Online (Aldmeri Dominion, Daggerfall Covenant, Ebonheart Pact) and PlanetSide 2 (Terran Republic, New Conglomerate, Vanu Sovereignty), plus the Frontline mode of Final Fantasy XIV. Camelot Unchained is in early access. New World: Aeternum runs until 31 January 2027. Crowfall is offline.

Which was the first three-faction MMORPG?

Dark Age of Camelot, released in October 2001. It coined the term Realm versus Realm.

What does RvR mean?

Realm versus Realm: war between whole factions of a game, with every player on a side from the day they make a character. The term comes from Dark Age of Camelot, where the factions are called realms.

Does Aion have three factions?

Two playable ones, the Elyos and the Asmodians. The third force, the Balaur, is controlled by the computer and attacks both sides in the Abyss.

Does World of Warcraft have three factions?

No. The Alliance and the Horde, two.

What about Warhammer Online?

Two factions, Order and Destruction. The official service closed in 2013; a fan server, Return of Reckoning, keeps the game running.

Which three-faction MMORPGs are free?

RF Online, Metin2 and PlanetSide 2 are free to play. Guild Wars 2 gives away the core game, which includes World vs World from level 60. Dark Age of Camelot has a free Endless Conquest account with limits. Final Fantasy XIV’s free trial excludes PvP, so Frontline needs a subscription.

Is RF Online still playable?

Yes. The original, version 2.1.5, runs here for free with an English or a Russian client. Netmarble’s sequel RF Online Next launched in June 2026, and RF Online VK runs in Russia on VK Play.

Try the sci-fi one

RF Online is free here, in English or Russian, on Windows and Mac. Create an account, press Play and pick a race.

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