Quote Originally Posted by SerTabris View Post
Final Fantasy XIV also does a sort-of-faction system where all of the factions are on the same side. At around level 20 you join a Grand Company of one of the three main cities, and while they have somewhat different characterization and philosophy they're overall allied and it's not like you can go off and join the Empire instead or anything. Apparently the PvP mode's battles (all of which are on a separate island from everything else) used to group based on your actual Grand Company, but now they randomize the teams since the Maelstrom kept winning too much.
And you can switch Grand Companies (almost) at will, although you have to rank up in the new one (which is fairly easy). And the overall effect is that a couple quests point you to one city instead of another, mainly early on. And your turn-in location for certain items/vendors for certain items are in different cities.

That's about it.