What's Blizzard doing with The Horde right now?

[Rhlor]

Yeah, and Draenei are spacegoats. What of it?

But in truth, Blood Elves are not humans with long ears. I'm not sure why this is trending all of a sudden. Just because they're Paladins (and have been since BC, not like this is new) doesn't give your sarcasm any weight. I think this is basically salt that Alliance will never get High Elves. It's Ally's way of justifying why they don't have a race as cool as Blood Elves.

The alliance will never have thalassian elves because of the population balance

[Rhlor]

What is this population balance you speak of? I've never heard Blizzard mention this which leads me to believe it's just your opinion and not an official design position.

I'm sure they strive for equality between the factions (i.e. Gnomes for Alliance and Goblins for Horde), but there are very much story-related reasons these races joining back in 2.0.

In vanilla the population of the horde was minimal, the alliance triplicated to the horde. That is why the elves were added to the horde so that the population is equated between the factions

[Deleted]

In vanilla the population of the horde was minimal, the alliance triplicated to the horde. That is why the elves were added to the horde so that the population is equated between the factions

Yet the Horde community was great in vanilla, so i dont think anybody was complaining atleast i never saw it.

[arcaneshot]

But in truth, Blood Elves are not humans with long ears. I'm not sure why this is trending all of a sudden. .

It's not, it's the same two people repeating it over and over.

[Zulkhan]

someone got ganked today.

Pretty sure it happens everyday, like the guy who once said that anyone who plays Horde is an enemy of his IRL or something.

Then why are you playing Horde?

That's a moderately retarded question given how he shitted on everything the Alliance currently represents for the entirety of the last page.

Translation: the alternative to not play Horde would be not playing WoW in the first place.

OT: That question must be worth some money because I'm not sure if Blizzard itself has any precise idea on the matter. I mean, if they have surely wasn't their first, they're clearly doing one hell of a mess to somehow mend the crap they've done with the whole Garrosh storyline. And while such storyline hasn't been handled well, the aftermath has possibly been handled worse. Right when the faction needed stability after the mess, they screwed it up further.

Now we have an undead elf as Warchief, two of the Horde's supposedly most important races led by the equivalent of placeholder characters, one joke race and a legion of goddamn fucking elves. Seriously, I don't mind having the faction sitting idle while the Alliance gets the spotlight but it's the current status of said faction that is quite jarring. The lack of development and the consequent impossibility to see any valuable progress in any better direction simply makes it worse.

[StationaryHawk]

After focusing our attention on a former Horde leader and a Horde rebellion in Mists and a lot of orcs on Draenor I don't mind letting the Alliance have some spotlight.

Although I would like to have some of those answers, like proper Orc Leader announcement, Vol'jin's replacement for Trolls, Sylvanas' plans, all that stuff. XP

Which is one of my biggest qualms with the OP, actually. Horde representation for them boils down to the actions of the racial leaders, going as far as to disregard the involvement of the blood elves in Suramar because Lor'themar was not personally present. It's when secondary characters are not given the opportunity to be built up that issues like the lack of a suitable replacement for Vol'jin occurs.

[Khirok]

It must be soooooooooooo horrible to not have the story be based around the Horde for once /sarcasm

[Khirok]

It is. Because the Alliance is quite boring and... weak.

What a big surprise, Blizz spent Cata to WoD removing everything fun or interesting from the Alliance when they weren't just ignoring it.

[Zulkhan]

What a big surprise, Blizz spent Cata to WoD removing everything fun or interesting from the Alliance when they weren't just ignoring it.

Funny, because in fact that's what they achieved with the Horde in that exact time span, coming up with a messy storyline that ultimately tore it apart.

[Arrashi]

Funny, because in fact that's what they achieved with the Horde in that exact time span, coming up with a messy storyline that ultimately tore it apart.

Blizzard wants horde to be as miserable and depressing as Go'el is.

[Deleted]

Blizzard wants horde to be as miserable and depressing as Go'el is.

Guess so, the question is till what point the community will keep going along with it.

[Arrashi]

Guess so, the question is till what point the community will keep going along with it.

Implying that community will go along with it in a first place. Some for instance will turn into mudmug shitposters, unable to take lore seriously.

[Zulkhan]

Implying that community will go along with it in a first place. Some for instance will turn into mudmug shitposters, unable to take lore seriously.

Sounds like the prologue for an autobiography. If you gonna publish it I'm going to buy that shit for real.

[Arrashi]

Sounds like the prologue for an autobiography. If you gonna publish it I'm going to buy that shit for real.

"It was in the moment of my greatest despair when i finally heard his voice. A faint whisper saying "Yello, av a bru frend""

[Mehrunes]

I am struggling really hard to find the logic in the idea that 1.5 expansions focused on butchering various non-player Hordes and Horde-associated races is supposed to be some sort of an equivalent to only Alliance getting new lore now (especially since there still were Alliance stories going on at the time). So far without any tangible results. Oh, well, still better than "one shouldn't expect faction stories in faction-based game". When the last major patch that didn't include faction-specific stories was (and that's a maybe, I don't remember for sure) Gods of fucking Zul'Aman. Released few months short of 10 years ago. And that wasn't a "one faction gets a story while the second one rots" type of thing.

I've never once seen a dedicated Horde player acknowledge even a single complaint from the Alliance as legitimate.

So, when I see Horde whining about something, my immediate response is basically "Bye, Felicia"

I'm with you there. Years of "Thrall doing things is Horde favoritism even when there are Alliance characters doing things", "how dares Blizzard equalize the amount of leveling zones for both factions, Alliance is entitled to have more", "Alliance losing fights in Cata is Horde favoritism even though it's lore justification for the previous thing and them losing made sense in-lore as well, since they spread their forces paper thin", "Horde exists", "the Alliance fist-pump moment of MoP isn't fist-pumpy enough, we're entitled to a better one", "ermahgerd Horde didn't stop being a thing after SoO, who'd have thunk that'd be how things turn out to be in a faction-based MMO" are extremely legitimate issues and something should be done about them pronto.

Also, trolls do have a racial leader, it's Rokhan. It was done off-screen just like Saurfang.

He's not listed as one on Troll page of the official site, so no.

It is not essential that every faction and/or every race has equal representation in the storyline of an expansion.

In fact, it is rather stupid to consider that this would be the case.

Yes, that makes all the sense in a faction-based role-playing game. Totes.

Now we have an undead elf as Warchief, two of the Horde's supposedly most important races led by the equivalent of placeholder characters, one joke race and a legion of goddamn fucking elves.

Which is which? Are the placeholder-led races Orcs and Tauren? And the joke race Trolls?

[Stelio Kontos]

I'm with you there. Years of "Thrall doing things is Horde favoritism even when there are Alliance characters doing things", "how dares Blizzard equalize the amount of leveling zones for both factions, Alliance is entitled to have more", "Alliance losing fights in Cata is Horde favoritism even though it's lore justification for the previous thing and them losing made sense in-lore as well, since they spread their forces paper thin", "Horde exists", "the Alliance fist-pump moment of MoP isn't fist-pumpy enough, we're entitled to a better one", "ermahgerd Horde didn't stop being a thing after SoO, who'd have thunk that'd be how things turn out to be in a faction-based MMO" are extremely legitimate issues and something should be done about them pronto.

Another fine example of what I was talking about. Very compelling reasoning for why I should give a rat's ass for the Whored.

--- snipped ---

Infracted.

[LoLcano]

Didnt we just have 2 expansion focusing on horde and orcs ? MoP with Garrosh going hitler mode and WoD basically being "previously on horde!" , God forbid alliance get some screen time and by that i mean their leader get blown into little shards !

[Combatbutler]

Didnt we just have 2 expansion focusing on horde and orcs ? MoP with Garrosh going hitler mode and WoD basically being "previously on horde!" , God forbid alliance get some screen time and by that i mean their leader get blown into little shards !

I can give you MoP, but not WoD true it is orc lore, but not horde lore. Just Imagine Kul'tiras would return and declare war to the world and then is put down, it develops humans but it most certainly isn't alliance lore.

The real problem is blizz has no real idea what to do with the factions anymore, all out conflict is pretty much impossible, since neither side simply cannot win, due to the nature of this game and they can't get rid of the factions either, so horde and Alliance are still there, doing pretty much the exact same thing with very few exceptions.

What we have in legion isn't an alliance focus either, since the Alliance itself is pretty much nonexistent with troops etc., just like the horde, due to the fact that most of the leadership is tied up in neutrality and the order halls, velen might be standing there in the grand cinematics, but right now he doesn't bear the colors of the Alliance, but rather the priset order hall, the ones who are not part of any order hall Genn and Anduin are simply nowhere to be seen.


To put it simply the horde and Alliance were portrayed as unreliable at the very beginning of the expack and were replaced through other factions and they most likely don't get any kind of development in the near future.

- - - Updated - - -

Sounds like the prologue for an autobiography. If you gonna publish it I'm going to buy that shit for real.

It must contain the secrets of mudmug, that alone makes it worth buying.

[Aucald]

Personally I think the Horde vs. Alliance "faction war" narrative is kind of played out, and has been since the days of WC3 really. The Warcraft universe began long ago with WC1 and WC2 having an "Orcs vs. Humans" narrative that was as engaging as it was simple - Orcs were bad, Humans were good, and the two sides essentially mirrored one-another both functionally and thematically. WC3 expanded the races (and thus the appeal) of both factions and made them both essentially "neutral" in terms of moral outlook - and further cast both of them against a greater and extra-dimensional threat in the form of the invading Legion. Given the slow expansion of that plot and ramping up toward a more universal/primeval "Light vs. Shadow" narrative with the Old Gods, Void Lords, and the grand Army of the Light the faction conflict feels more and more like an old and out-of-date engine that is chugging the last wisps of its fuel.

I don't know what abandoning the faction conflict would mean for PvP, but PvP is already an isolated meta-game in its own way divorced from the more centralized story of the leveling, dungeon, and raiding PvE-oriented content. That's just my $0.02, of course; other people may feel quite differently on the matter.

[KrazyK923]

Malfurion and Khadgar Alliance heroes?

They're as much Alliance heroes as Illidan is. Velen is barely an Alliance hero at this point.

It is really stupid that Baine doesn't have a huge role in Highmountain and Lor'themar didn't show up in 7.1.