Why do alliance hang out and duel in stormwind now instead of ironforge?

[Razecog]

IF sucked. SW sucks. Give me Gilneas.

[Stasso]

Ok, i use to play wow back in the level 60 days (vanilla i think you guys call it)
and i stopped for a few years and came back and now i notice everybody on the alliance now hangs out and duels outside Stormwind.

The alliance use to duel outside Ironforge and they use to be in the AH at Ironforge. now they are at stormwind. And Ironforge is empty.
Can somebody tell me why everybody moved to stormwind? and when this happended?
if you understand what im talking about.
Thanks

Because in the Burning crusade they introduced the raid karazhan which is closest to Stormwind, which lead to more people hanging out there prior to raids, but it was made the offical allaince capital when varian wyrnn returned in wrath of the lich king.

[dercaderca]

Ironforge has always been my main city, don't see that changing anytime soon.


In cata they really forced everyone into SW and Org, still have no idea why.

[Stasso]

Ironforge has always been my main city, don't see that changing anytime soon.


In cata they really forced everyone into SW and Org, still have no idea why.

Because they wanted the factions to have a center, and since warcraft was originally orcs and humans they made those political parties the de facto head of their factions which required them to centralize

[killidan]

When Stormwind became the main Alliance hub (portals, anything and everything important happened in Stormwind) back in Cata, I guess. And when they revamped the city and shortened the path between the main bank/auction house.. that sure helped.

This. Portals are in SW.

IF used to be equal to SW as a hub, or quite close. Portals changed that.

In addition, if you want a duel, you go to where other dueling people are. Simply WoW lost ~20% of players since the peak. An average realm is bound to have 20% fewer players, and given that duelists are a small percentage of the players, there may not be sufficient number of duelists to support "two" dueling locations. So instead, to meet other willing players, they end up going to the biggest hub, SW.

[NatePsy]

Gonna go with newer generation of players while the older generation just follows wherever the populace goes. I do miss the old days of going through Ironforge and it would be so populated. Now? Not so much, though I'm sure there's a server out there that treats Ironforge as the main go-to-city, I'd love to find that.

[Deleted]

Well let see
In Vanilla IF was the closest point from where you can run to anywhere in the world.Thats why every one was there
Now all crosspaths are concentrated in SW you got portal to Dark portal shipyard to Northend and Darnassus/Exodar and portal to Pandaria even portals from Dalaran and Shattrath lead to SW

[Drilnos]

Ironforge used to be the go-to city back in the day because of its proximity to both Menethil, gateway to Kalimdor, and Blackrock Mountain, where most of Vanilla's raiding action was (for the less than the best, anyway). Travel time meant something back then. The proximity of the bank to the auction house was an added bonus.

Stormwind took the limelight in TBC, when the portal out of the expansion's hub city led there. It hasn't given it up since.

[Justignoreme]

Stormwind took the limelight in TBC, when the portal out of the expansion's hub city led there. It hasn't given it up since.

Iunno about that. On my server IF was the city until Cata, which effectively wrecked every other city's usefulness on account of SW having *everything* necessary.

[Flaks]

SW/OGR is boring.
Ironforge, Exodar, Silvermoon and Thunder Bluff is where it's at. Or Dalaran if you wanna be cool.

Actually Undercity has always been the "Horde IF" in terms of hang out spots. TB rarely ever saw action even in Vanilla/tBC. Even in WotLK when the zepplin to Howling Fjord was outside UC.

[Bloodrein]

I remember when I use to play on Khaz'Goroth (PvE, Oceanic) back in Vanilla, everyone was hanging out at Darnassus!
But towards the end IF was the place to be, especially when I started on Jubie'thos (oceanic).

With TBC we had Shattrath City, although IF was still very popular then too.
But once WOTLK hit SW (and dalaran) has been the place to be with ships and portals. The new Xrealms have given some life to IF, but not what it use to be like.
To all the other players out there, the IF cart is still my cart!!!

[Vaelorian]

Don't get me wrong, I loved IF, well still do. But I love Stormwind far more. Must be because I'm a paladin. But I do sometimes miss idling in IF on the bridge or jumping around in front of the bank. That said, they should have portals in to anywhere in any major city except to the shrine (else people could get their flying skill too easy I guess usung Blizzards logic (not as if there aren't other methods...)). I would probably switch around a whole lot more between cities.

[Deleted]

I'd say, the developers changed this intentionally due to the "market area" in IF being too close to doors, too visible and too flat area due to the heavy PvP-raids that Horde did. Regardless of PvP being a very important part of the game, the devs. have intentionally been shutting it down in every possible level.

[Orby]

As mentioned its all down to accessibility, unfortunately Stormwind has everything now. Altohugh I do feel Blizzard messed up (or blessed depending how you look at it) wit that.

Long gone are the days of Lagforge and to be honest Ironforge was my home pre-Cata. I loved hanging out there, and there were loads of people there too. I always wanted Blizzard to make every city special so people can pick and choose, but now they are forced to stay in Stormwind.

Although to be honest I have seen (especially on my realm) a large gathering in Darnassus.

[dope_danny]

dalaran followed by portals to cata zones in sw made it as redundant as the exodar, which is a shame considering it was the alliance hub for vanilla and bc for most servers.

Its also kind of mind boggling why neither of the shamanic racial capitals got the portals but sw did. But i suppose its the old orcs and humans bias where every other race is a second class flavor and filler for loading screens but its always going to be humans first for any alliance upgrades.

[Wyrt]

SW has portals to all the Cata zones and Pandaria, boats to Northrend, Reforging, transmog, item upgrades, void storage, etc. Basically it's superior in just about every way because humans are our over lords and lesser races don't deserve anything, not even updated cities.

[Vaelorian]

SW has portals to all the Cata zones and Pandaria, boats to Northrend, Reforging, transmog, item upgrades, void storage, etc. Basically it's superior in just about every way because humans are our over lords and lesser races don't deserve anything, not even updated cities.

Yes and you shall serve us forever and ever until the Burning Legion comes and kicks our asses.

[Pull My Finger]

I quit in Vanilla and came back when TBC came out and I remember being surprised that everyone hung out in SW instead of IF. It didn't happen with Cata/portals, but way earlier. I guess people migrated when they made auction houses in every major city. Guess people liked SW more in the first place, or maybe it was better in terms of travelling, questing or whatever?

[Vaelorian]

I quit in Vanilla and came back when TBC came out and I remember being surprised that everyone hung out in SW instead of IF. It didn't happen with Cata/portals, but way earlier. I guess people migrated when they made auction houses in every major city. Guess people liked SW more in the first place, or maybe it was better in terms of travelling, questing or whatever?

Dunno, perhaps that was how it was like on your server.

From where I am standing IF was the place to be in TBC apart from Shatrah City. This City didn't have an AH but was well crowded on my server. Loads of screenshots made when people formed up with their Bears gotten from that 5 man instance. Also many screenshots made with people on those Dragons/Drakes gotten from Reputation.

So while IF was also a tad crowded due to the AH being there... SW was more or less still a town for levelers. I also don't remember having an AH on SW until the end of TBC or WOTLK. But not sure since you say that this was during TBC.

[Deleted]

I seem to remember SW gaining some popularity in WotLK, but I guess every server is a little bit different. Although, these days, the Alliance on my server seem to prefer hanging out in Halfhill and SW is a ghost town so I guess my server is just a little strange that way.