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  1. #1
    Banned Jaylock's Avatar
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    Does Blizzard Favor Alliance Now?

    It seems that all the lore, and quests and gear revolving around Alliance have been much better written, and the gear has been better modeled for Alliance side. The intro to panda land is a much better story line than the intro on horde side imho.

    Is the obvious Horde favoritism blizzard has shown for years finally starting to die down?

  2. #2
    In all fairness, its impossible to judge at this point. Horde lore will obviously be backloaded this expansion because their will have to be significant lore revolving around a new Warchief.

  3. #3
    The Undying Slowpoke is a Gamer's Avatar
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    Favor? No, everything is still building up to the Horde's shining moment of awesome. Alliance is just along for the ride.

    If anything, Blizz is trying hard to drag the Alliance's reputation through the mud via Jaina.
    FFXIV - Maduin (Dynamis DC)

  4. #4
    @OP How the hell do you figure that?
    Twas brillig

  5. #5
    I've played both ends and one didn't stand out as significantly better to me than the other; everything that happens on one end is pretty much duplicated on the other so I'm not sure what you're citing as evidence for "the story line being much better on Alliance side."

  6. #6
    Honorary PvM "Mod" Darsithis's Avatar
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    All of that is subjective...I don't see how you have any empirical evidence.

  7. #7
    Stood in the Fire
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    Having played through both sides, different factions shine in different places.

    The Horde, for example, have a much better interaction with Lorewalker Cho in the Jade Forest. Aside from that questline, however, I found that the Alliance Jade Forest was much better than the Horde Jade Forest. The Alliance has a reason to be there; they're looking for Anduin. The Horde is basically only fighting the Alliance to have something to bring back to Garrosh when he finds out that his new airship has been completely totaled.

    In Krarasang, the competition is close. The Horde's storyline with Sunwalker Dezco is very heartfelt, but it sort of tapers off after you do the final showdown with the Mogu, leading to the orc officer's death. The Alliance storyline has a very unimpressive beginning, but the sacrifice at the end of the Incursion storyline is so touching that overall it leaves a much bigger impact than Dezco's storyline. Both father and daughter are so obsessed with their goals that they both lose sight of what's important, and as a result they lose each other for it. Dezco's twins is an interesting storyline, but we never see how the death of his wife affects him; he only see him stoically pressing forward without ever showing remorse or sorrow or even talking much about his boys ever again.

    Kun-Lai is lackluster all around. It suffers heavily from having too many stories to tell and not enough time to tell them. The Horde and Alliance camps go absolutely nowhere; they just sit there and train. Its a waste of time for both parties involved.

    In 5.1, its difficult to pick Alliance over Horde and vice versa. The Horde storyline is very much about watching the Horde crumble from underneath Garrosh. All of their quests have the Horde almost entirely on the defensive except for one daily hub where you attack Lion's Landing. The Alliance, on the other hand, is almost entirely on the offensive despite being called Operation: Shield Wall. They're ahead of the Horde at every turn and they deal significant damage. Where the Horde is killing people and stealing supplies, the Alliance is destroying everything from oil rigs to supplies to major officers. They're using crazy new techniques and strategies and freakish gnome UFOs to abduct vital Horde resources. In terms of who's winning the war, you never feel like you're winning Horde side and Alliance side you feel like you're crushing the Horde easily.

    Despite this, the Horde story quests are much more powerful than the Alliance ones, especially where Lor'themar is involved. You can really feel Lor'themar's frustration, like he's caught between a rock and a hard place. Vol'jin' story is short and sweet, clearly he's being set up for bigger and better things and the Chen cameo was very much appreciated. Alliance side is a lot of debate and turmoil. The storyline is about figuring out the Horde's goals and blocking them, which you very clearly do. Garrosh's big "victory" wasn't even a victory; he hurt Anduin, but he's not dead. Garrosh underestimates everyone, from the Alliance to his own allies which is a common theme of both sides of the story. Varian's transformation is somewhat sudden mostly because none of his character development in the books is ever shown in-game. He's just super nice and patient out of left field, which understandably frazzles players. I'm always confused by why Alliance players call foul when Varian dismisses you to take care of his son. Why? Because he's a warrior, he's not allowed to love his kid? I honestly think that as much as people dislike Anduin for his naivety, Anduin's presence is what has always kept Varian from becoming Garrosh. The love of a family is the one thing Garrosh has absolutely never known and I would not be surprised if its referenced at his death scene.

    Now the real question is: Who gets the killing blow on Garrosh canon-wise? Is it Vol'jin, who sore to be the one who kills him in Cataclysm, or Varian, who swears over Anduin's broken body, or Jaina, who swears while tripping on arcane magic? Only time will tell!

  8. #8
    They pretty blatantly favor Alliance. The only reason Horde have any story in pandaria at all is they don't want to lose 50% of their subs. Just look at the Jade Forest plots for each faction.

  9. #9
    Warchief Byniri's Avatar
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    Ugh enough of this stupid 'favoring' garbage. With 2 different sides, one is bound to have slightly better quests than the other.

    edit: oh it's Jaylock, why am I not surprised.
    PEPE SILVA, PEPE SILVA

  10. #10
    Banned Jaylock's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Darsithis View Post
    All of that is subjective...I don't see how you have any empirical evidence.
    It just seems the quests are well written in the starting area of jade forest compared to the hordes quests. Also the story so far about Jaina has been excellent, and horde is the same ole boring: "I am Garrosh! I will crush you!" type semantics. Not thrilling at all.

  11. #11
    Stood in the Fire
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    Quote Originally Posted by Darmalus View Post
    They pretty blatantly favor Alliance. The only reason Horde have any story in pandaria at all is they don't want to lose 50% of their subs. Just look at the Jade Forest plots for each faction.
    Question: How do you measure a good story? Is it by one side trouncing the other? Because by that very definition, both sides can't possibly be equal. If they were, one side wouldn't be winning and therefore both sides would suck. Is it through character development? Both Horde and Alliance have this throughout Pandaria; its in different places and in different ways, but if there was a redemption story on both sides, a loss story on both sides, a love story on both sides, etc. then you'd get bored pretty quickly.

    Really the only way to do it is to use the screen time you've got as effectively as you can. Horde gets a lot of good moments in 5.1 and the "collapsing government" theme is very interesting to watch, where the Alliance is only getting stronger. Which one is more interesting? That depends on the reader.

    One thing that surprises me that TONS of my friends complain about the story of Warcraft this expansion without actually experiencing the daily quest content or reading the questlines for themselves. That's like reading the back cover of a book and complaining that it wasn't a good book. You haven't even read it yet!

  12. #12
    I measure a good story by not having the Horde Hozen be the worst hozen.

    I mean seriously Chief Kah-kah?

    I'm all for jokes when they're funny and fit but the poop names, poop bombs, and just general stupidity of the Horde's dealings with the forest hozen are infuriating.

    ---------- Post added 2013-02-06 at 11:23 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Rhozul View Post

    One thing that surprises me that TONS of my friends complain about the story of Warcraft this expansion without actually experiencing the daily quest content or reading the questlines for themselves. That's like reading the back cover of a book and complaining that it wasn't a good book. You haven't even read it yet!
    Joe questgiver in zone Q won't do anything to salvage the fact that the overall themes for the playable races make little sense and suck in general.
    Twas brillig

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Rhozul View Post
    Question: How do you measure a good story? Is it by one side trouncing the other? Because by that very definition, both sides can't possibly be equal. If they were, one side wouldn't be winning and therefore both sides would suck. Is it through character development? Both Horde and Alliance have this throughout Pandaria; its in different places and in different ways, but if there was a redemption story on both sides, a loss story on both sides, a love story on both sides, etc. then you'd get bored pretty quickly.

    Really the only way to do it is to use the screen time you've got as effectively as you can. Horde gets a lot of good moments in 5.1 and the "collapsing government" theme is very interesting to watch, where the Alliance is only getting stronger. Which one is more interesting? That depends on the reader.

    One thing that surprises me that TONS of my friends complain about the story of Warcraft this expansion without actually experiencing the daily quest content or reading the questlines for themselves. That's like reading the back cover of a book and complaining that it wasn't a good book. You haven't even read it yet!
    To sum up my feelings on Jade Forest: The Horde are a bunch of baby-eating monsters who should have no friends in Pandaria and the whole continent should be Alliance friendly territory. But it isn't because Blizz wants subscriptions.

    I've done both sides of Jade Forest. It's depressing Blizz can't write a conflict without one side being white knights and the other total monsters.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Darsithis View Post
    All of that is subjective...I don't see how you have any empirical evidence.
    Exactly. No faction is being "favored"...

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by dokhidamo View Post
    Favor? No, everything is still building up to the Horde's shining moment of awesome. Alliance is just along for the ride.

    If anything, Blizz is trying hard to drag the Alliance's reputation through the mud via Jaina.
    I can see the ending now. We "invade" Orgrimmar but are forbidden to attack ANYONE besides Garrosh and maybe a few nameless NPCs that are Garrosh loyalists. Before we get the killing blow, GO'EL descends upon high with glowing green light and accompanied by a choir to stop us in order to give Garrosh a lecture. Then Garrosh pulls a Vanessa Van Cleef, and Jaina mass ports out the Alliance army, becuase Garrosh is dead and she has no reason to hate the horde anymore, since Garrosh is the scapegoat for the entire fraction's war crimes.

  16. #16
    Storytelling-wise, Horde's still favored. Yes, Alliance is slapping the hell out of the Horde right now in lore battles/skirmishes, but it's the Horde who has a growing Tyrant of a warchief, an assassination attempt on faction leader, the return of Thrall, rise of blood elfs. They've got drama. Honestly more interesting than consistently showing Varian and Anduin being awesome leaders and Jaina raging (I actually like this part of the Alliance story).

  17. #17
    The problem is that after Horde behavior in Jade Forest, there shouldn't have been a horde story line to have drama with at all! It's like blizzard treated the Horde as a standard Always Chatoic Evil NPC faction, then remembered it was a player faction with 50% of their income at the last minute. We weren't given a story, we were given a "Get Out of Jail Free, Please Remain Subbed." card.

  18. #18
    Deleted
    i wonder how the gear has been better modeled for the alliance side, considering all the sets the have released so far in MoP and which are coming in 5.2 are similiar for both sides.

    sure the 5.2 pvp sets non-elite are faction coloured but thats it.

  19. #19
    I can see the pattern:

    TBC = Horde
    WotLK = Alliance
    Cata = Horde
    MoP = Alliance

    Atleast in the next expansion, its the Horde's turn again :P

  20. #20
    I am Murloc! Scummer's Avatar
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    If we're talking quality I'd say the opposite is true. Whining mode, activate!

    The Purge of Dalaran is better presented on the Horde side. Whereas with the Alliance you pretty much show up and are given a few quests to do the usual questing criteria with very little narrative by both the leader Vereesa/Jaina and by the general population who just seem to run around scared. Then with the Horde side you given a far better narrative with Rommath talking you through the events and infiltrating you through Dalaran all while he is talking with and then when you do have to kill things you are met with the SC's oppressive responses to the Sunreavers and the Sunreavers pleas and then thanks as you free them.

    I also don't need to compare the 5.1 scenarios, it's practically common knowledge at this point that the Trial of Patience scenario featured some pretty bad moments for Tyrande where according to Kosak she was supposed to be all angry and is instead portrayed as a clueless idiot.
    The whole Tyrande incident get's more aggravating when by Kosak's own mouth a few months ago he said they had some bad ass things planned for the Night Elves and the Blood Elves. Then there's the other Night Elf idiocy of the dying Sentinel pretty much revealing the location of the bell like some cheap cartoon character.

    The meeting with Cho in Jade Forest is also worse on the Alliance side. Whereas the Horde are given a personal account of Cho's finding's on your race and it's past, all Alliance races are there to paint a picture of the Prince of Stormwind.
    This along with the current 5.1 trend of Alliance = Humans is another thing that isn't mirrored in the Horde questing experience.


    However after all of that I don't think there is any validity in saying that MoP is biased, yet. The things I have pointed are there to show that in the current story of the expansion it is the Horde and not the Alliance that has gotten the better story so far due to the slips in quality that are rather noticeable.
    We will have to see how the rest of the expansion fairs though. However as with any post I make about Alliance lore I'd be lying if I said wasn't pessimistic in regards to it's story after what lore they were given last expansion.
    If this expansion seriously turns into the Alliance being used as a punching bag for the Horde to relieve itself and then discover that it was wrong followed by the Alliance helping Thrall get back on the throne, then can we call it biased.
    Last edited by Scummer; 2013-02-06 at 07:30 PM.

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