Christ. I think you are older than me Wildcard...LOL. Plaetside was official Elph, Jet was the lead on it and I even bought the game because of that. It was short lived at best but fun.
We did send people to EQ, but it was also short lived and most of the people who went there ended up being members who departed KGB and formed TAO. They still exist in EQ 2 as far as I know.

CS faction was an official one, although I don't recall that it ever had tons of people.

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