The Alliance Warcry and other stuff about it

[Mihalik]

After Blizzcon a legitimate question has been raised. Why is the Horde considerd cool and the Alliance not so much. The issue came up from the question that was raised about Alliance warcry's or real lack of one at Blizzcon. The Blizzard official response was a rather evasive, half joke "Well we had no good idea's about the issue yet."

I think the aproach taken to the whole issue is faulty. For The Alliance can be just as resonant as For The Horde. The problem is not really with the warcry but with what it stands for.

Basicaly, while for the Horde the slogan has meaning from a story involvement point of view, Alliance warcry's stand for nothing and mean nothing. What the Horde has and the Alliance lacks is a CAUSE.

I will elaborate on this abit (Wall of Text incoming, pop your cooldowns now!!!).

The Horde.

A faction of misfits, savages, outcasts, survivors, warrior's and tragic heroes. Often with painful but glorious past's. Looking for a place in a world, looking to forge a new destiny for themselfs, to avenge the harm done to them or to redeem themselfs from the harm they have caused.

The Orcs: Once an honourable people, twisted and corrupted by fate, whom caused untold damage to themselfs, and countless others. Destroyed nations and worlds, commited genocides and sold their souls to the devil (literaly in WoW terms). Yet when beaten and defeated, they found themselfs again, breaking free of the corruption that griped them, and just as they sold themselfs out, their reclaimed their own destiny, paying for their freedom with blood. Now they have CAUSE. To regain what they lost, to build a future on the world that is now irrevocably their own.

The Trolls: One of the oldest civilizations of Azeroth. Savages? Perhaps. But they were building Empires when there was not even a hint to come of the other major races of Azeroth. They have an ancient and interesting culture (the fact that their culture is also inspired by the carribean culture that has fascinated the west and then the world for at least the past 30 to 50 years also contributes), but for millenia they have fell on hard times. Slowly watching as the world simply passed them by and sidelined them. Now they are searching for a destiny of their own in these changing times, rediscovering the past and trying to find a future for their declining civilization. This is their cause.

The Tauren: An ancient, noble and proud people. Hard pressed by the times and pushed on the brink of extinction (Warcraft 3). They are once again pushed to the limits in Cataclysm, hard tried again. Their cause is simply to live a nother day, to keep the world habitable and secure a future for their people.

The Forsaken: A tragic people, who have suffered greatly, but fate found them a powerful and focused leader whom saved them from slavery. Cast out by those who they used to belong too, they were pushed on the brink of insanity. They hate the world that cast them out, and they hate the new allies they been forced to associate themselfs with. They are admitedly out to take their revenge on those who "forsaken" them and they dont seem to mind if their newfound allies might end up as collateral casualties. They owe no loyalty to anyone, and in this isolation and in being so different from anyone else (everyone else is ALIVE), they seem to be pushing the boundries of what other races might consider sane. The Forsaken cause is to basicaly to kill everything they can, reclaim what was theirs in life, so they can hold on to it in death, and to ensure their survival as a people by finding a way to refill their thining ranks.

The Blood Elves: A people with a long but very ambigous history. Filled with arrogance, betrayal (they betrayed others more often then they have been betrayed). Selfish turncoats, whom had their world burned around them, and then made many horrible arrogant decisions. But in the end they have found themselfs a CAUSE. To redeem themselfs, and to rebuild a new nation, on better foundations then the ones before. Arguably they have one of the weakest but most explored backgrounds of all the Horde races. Their popularity has much to do with their visuals.

On the other hand you have The Alliance. An old mans party, standing for old ideals, looking to conserve their world as they remember it and to stand against the none existing evil of the Horde. They face internal enemies more often then external ones. Much of their problems are political in nature, caused by how rigidly conservative are the members of the Alliance.

The Humans: One of the more complex and interesting races in the game. But oddly for the same reason one of the most boring aswell. They represent the very essence of good and evil. They are some of the greatest heroes of the world and their greatest villains. They can be just, tolerant and strong. But so can they be evil, intolerant and destructive. The Kingdom Of Stormwind as a faction has done next to nothing for the ideal's it is suppose to stand for. It did not reclaim the lost lands of humanity. It did not vanquish the Horde, and its more involved in political machinations then world changing events. The only humans who do make a difference are the ones who broke away from the establishment and forged their own paths. Oddly enough, this is actualy all plain boring. Why? Because if you turn on the TV its the same crap that you get in your everyday life. Politicians bullshiting, young men sent to do the dirty work of morons in god forsaken wars, political bickering, and alot of tall tales, about change, reform, saving the world etc. but as usuall nothing ever changes. And as usuall the only ones who make a difference are the ones who drop out of the rat race, but they can do to little, because they dont really matter that much.

Moral ambiguety is a rotten tomato in the case of Humanity in WoW. Its not working, and is boring. Humans need a better definition for who they are, and what they want to do in this world. And then players need to seem them going for that.

The Draenei. They fall out of the sky 4 years ago. Out to find a refuge from the Burning Legion and allies. They find it. They beat the Burning Legion back, some return to Outlands, many other settle on Azeroth. Yet 4 years into the game, they still live in the wreckage of their destroyed ship. They build nothing, they matter not, and do nothing. Their goal might be to return ot Argus ont he long term, but they do nothing about it. Neither they seem to be really involved in building a home for themselfs on Azeroth.

Blizzard really needs to outline what the spacegoats want from the world. They need a short term goal, and you need to see them making a few steps to get to it. Plain and simple, their story is stuck at the end of TBC, they have 2 years of catching up to do.

The Gnomes: Okey. Their are cute and funny. Techno wizards whom managed to blow themselfs into kingdom come, while atempting to deal with a severe vermin problem. O RLY? They spent the next couple of years as being a popular punt, and when they made a serious (aparently) atempt to fix the mess their made, and move out of their cousins (dwarfs) cellar, all they acomplished was....well nothing really. Well they handed out a bunch of nice tabards.

Seriously, they might be a comic relief, but give em some slack.

Dwarfs: Their cause was the preservation of their kingdom and the final discovery of their origins and history. An interesting, comical but also cool faction and race. But the Kingdom of Ironforge is gone, Magni (tho he really did not ever do much) is gone. Ironforge is ruled by a council of outsiders. What we get again is politics. I am sorry but i am developing a chronic adversion to politics.

None the less this is an interesting plotline. And i am looking forward to seeing it develop. But considering the rate of alliance political developments (once per two years) i am not holding my breath for anything meaning full in the close future. Blizzard has a chance here to deliver.

Night Elves: While they were terribly exiting and exotic in the original Warcraft game and had a hard as a rock story arc, they are plain and simple boring in WoW. They have not done anything in the past 5 years, but plant a few trees, act arogant and give the world a bunch of pixelated females with bouncing boobs. They were hints of them losing their immortality and having to leave their isolation, once again making an impact on the world. Nothing of that was delivered. Now their precious forests are crawling with Horde, one of their most iconic heroes has gone Neutral (Malfurion....FU Blizz).

Now there are some hints for changing times. Them reaching out to the Worgen, the comeback of the Highborn, and what impact that might have on their society. It is Blizzard chance now to deliver a Night elf story Arc that matters and is impacting.

As of the Worgen and Goblins, i dont think we have seen enough of them to pass judgement yet.

To summarize, the Alliance does not need a warcry. The Alliance needs some cool factor. Needs a hero and great cause worth "playing for". The warcry will come by itself when the players will be proud of being Alliance. One of the story arc mistakes of WotLK was pitting Varian against Thrall. Thrall is basicaly a green Jesus with a big hammer, shooting bolts of lightning out of his ass. He is a liberator and a nation builder. Players have endeared to him. You cant just pull out a dude with a pony tail, and a cool chin from a comic and then have him go have a shouting match with Thrall. Blizz could have done a lot of things with Varian, but they spoiled their own product already.

Now that Thrall is being "Neutralized" and Garosh promoted to Head Idiot status, it would be a lot easyer to make up a character who can stand up to him, and call him names as much as he would like, without offending the loyalties of the player base. They really have a good chance with Crowley for exemple. The dude has abit of a spark of a genius in him. Tell the story right, and you might end up with a dude who could walk up to Ogrimmar and kick the gate down with a roundhouse kick. Glue a worthy Cause to the guy and you have a cool story to tell, that just might atract some people over to the Blue side of things.

Wall of Text out. (Sorry about the criple english.)

[Aris]

i skiped the middle but i aggre with the last paragraph, they should do something with Crowley!

Kill of her doughter and make him /nerdrage at everyone

[Shokzman]

I agree. Playing alliance is dull and boring. If it wasn't for us making our own story for our guild, I would have gone horde long ago.

[P4R45171K]

There is nothing with For the Alliance, someone screams for the Horde in your face, you smack them upside the head yell for the Alliance back. 90% of the time they get confused you stood up for once.

[Sinsyxx]

re-roll Horde

/thread

FOR THE HORDE!!!

[Ihnasir]

If he came into Orgrimmar, I think my shaman would Thunderstorm him back to Razor Hill and melt his face with Lava

[Zaelsino]

Yeah, Saurfang read about this "new Alliance Saurfang" in the Garadar newspaper.

He laughed so hard it turned Deathwing insane and caused the cataclysm. From Outland.

...

[Deleted]

Yeah, Saurfang read about this "new Alliance Saurfang" in the Garadar newspaper.

He laughed so hard it turned Deathwing insane and caused the cataclysm. From Outland.

...

lmao

On topic its just players blowing things out of proportion. Is the alliance not cool? Subjective. Maybe if so many fanboys werent fighting to defend their faction blizz could actually discern a problem and solution .

[ungar]

the alliance used to have a warcry... it was "for Lordaeron!" and then Lordaeron was destroyed.... so it may be a bad thing to put something you care about in your battlecry as it makes your home a target for your enemies.

[Snebbles]

For Khaz Modan!


Dwarves don't have a battlecry problem

[Penguintamer]

As much as I love horde, it would be appropriate for them to solidify the worgen storyline. Even I, as much as I love the Forsaken quests in Silverpine, sympathize for worgen players when their storyline there is completely cut off, Crowley disappears and Greymane pretty much abandons them to go to Stormwind. There are some worgen towns in various places (Felwood, Blasted Lands, Stonetalon, Feralas) but there could certainly be some story-mending to fill in the gaps on what exactly happened with Crowley and Greymane afterwards.

[Zaelsino]

As much as I love horde, it would be appropriate for them to solidify the worgen storyline. Even I, as much as I love the Forsaken quests in Silverpine, sympathize for worgen players when their storyline there is completely cut off, Crowley disappears and Greymane pretty much abandons them to go to Stormwind. There are some worgen towns in various places (Felwood, Blasted Lands, Stonetalon, Feralas) but there could certainly be some story-mending to fill in the gaps on what exactly happened with Crowley and Greymane afterwards.

This is true, you shouldn't really be forced to roll Horde to experience the continuation of their storyline. It's a little anti-climatic to be pawned off to collecting ten boar snouts in the Night Elf areas.

[Shotzy]

On the bright side, you can all adopt a hipster mentality and bask in the glory that your faction isn't mainstream.

I'm only Horde because my friends are (and they're only horde because they're too broke to switch). I would love to be Alliance. It looks different, fun, and it's a whole part of the game I haven't tried.

I'll just say that the Alliance should be proud of who they are, they don't need to be featured at Blizzcon or be popular all around.

[Chickensoup23]

This is true, you shouldn't really be forced to roll Horde to experience the continuation of their storyline. It's a little anti-climatic to be pawned off to collecting ten bour snouts in the Night Elf areas.

Night Elves are cool brah.

[Deleted]

I'm just glad we are having less yelling idiots in battlegrounds compared to the Horde. Those kind of idiots who stops up, sends their pet in battle, and starts to type "FOR THE HORghhhhhh.." only to be send to their graveyard before they press enter. At least that was how it worked in Vanilla when I played horde. I am glad I rerolled before TBC.

On topic, yes I agree to some extent. However I like the fact that the Alliance aren't fighting for a greater cause, but instead we are having time to do all kinds of fun gimmicks, such as doing RP in Goldshire or saving a few trees in the Night Elf forest for money and acceptance, later to plant a campfire at the exact same spot.
The Alliance is what you make it out to be, that is why it is so hilarious to play a female dwarf. No one really expects anything of you.

[Willeonge]

I always liked "Glory to the Alliance"

[Grimbold21]

What do you expect? The alliance heroes are either put in a corner doing nothing or made neutral, hence no cause.

Who wants to bet Alleria and Turalyon will be made neutral in some faction which goal is the demise of the Burning Legion?

[Penguintamer]

What do you expect? The alliance heroes are either put in a corner doing nothing or made neutral, hence no cause.

Who wants to bet Alleria and Turalyon will be made neutral in some faction which goal is the demise of the Burning Legion?

Yes but the Horde lost Thrall. And he's green Gandhi.

[Grimbold21]

Yes but the Horde lost Thrall. And he's green Gandhi.

So you lost one... :P

[Mihalik]

What do you expect? The alliance heroes are either put in a corner doing nothing or made neutral, hence no cause.

Who wants to bet Alleria and Turalyon will be made neutral in some faction which goal is the demise of the Burning Legion?

When i turned out that Malfurion will be neutral, i on one hand felt a need to spit on my screen, on the other hand i felt like the dude just literaly got his balls cut off. With a spoon.