Originally Posted by
Omedon
I think one of the driving forces behind BFA having the theme it does is to give the hardline “you can’t even talk to them” barriers and the lore that motivates them one last hurrah before WoW gets with modern MMO expectations and simply lifts the faction divide on a purely mechanical front. No third faction, no disbandment or merging: Baine becomes warchief, Calia Menethil rules the forsaken (repackaged as the loyal subjects of the kingdom of Lordaeron), alliance and horde coexist and the devs get out of ever dividing their PVE efforts this extremely ever again. Leveling game remains as is, every race still belongs to one faction, but the factions *as gameplay limitations between players* dissolve once and for all. It’s a multipurpose bandaids for competitive content racial/factional imbalance, and honestly... there is literally no reason to limit players this way.
More than a “war expansion,” BFA is a faction identity expansion, which is exactly what’s needed to draw a line of personality between the factions instead of defining them as “we war with the other guys.” There is so much more to both factions than that, and that’s what BFA is about: What does it mean to be alliance/horde above and beyond warring with the other side?