8.1.5 factionometer readings! Are we in for a huge change?

[Omedon]

Blizzard is terrified of ever removing the faction line, or dual faction bullshit, and thus the story has suffered tremendously. Not ever going to happen, even though I'd welcome it.

But, again, there’s an evergreen “good ol’ days” service coming later this year, that may very well include in its sales pitch “faction war just like you remember it” alongside all the other antiquated features that WoW has outgrown!

[Omedon]

Regarding the OP and the changes/transformation that might come to the factions.

Ah, ok! I also believe Alex Afrasiabi said at blizzcon that the alliance and horde grouping together was a hope/goal for “some day!”

[Dastreus]

But, again, there’s an evergreen “good ol’ days” service coming later this year, that may very well include in its sales pitch “faction war just like you remember it” alongside all the other antiquated features that WoW has outgrown!

Pay money for the shitty version and better is free? okay. (I don't know what you mean by "good ol days service" and assume they're coming out with some pay-for-pvp-servers thing or something.)

[Eggroll]

Ah, ok! I also believe Alex Afrasiabi said at blizzcon that the alliance and horde grouping together was a hope/goal for “some day!”

I mean it's more about an order other than just Horde/Alliance.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Blizzard is terrified of ever removing the faction line, or dual faction bullshit, and thus the story has suffered tremendously. Not ever going to happen, even though I'd welcome it.

Oh come on man. The tried a true "we are at war!!!!" expansion folllwed by the "we need each other or we are dead!!!!" expansion cycle that pretty much just repeats since WoW entered the lazy as fuck part of its life makes for a great story..........


/s

[Deleted]

It's too early yet. There will be changes to the racials.

If it were to come out like this, there would be no more hope for faction balance.

But yes, they need to end the faction barrier. It would literally solve a huge amount of issues born from it, it would allow more design freedom and it would increase the amount of content available to each player. Separate factions is not worth all those pluses we're missing. It is literally a barrier to the improvement of this game.

[crusadernero]

Doubt it. They will just give us AIs for bgs and probably every other end game content activity. Meaning no long queue times.

[Omedon]

Pay money for the shitty version and better is free? okay. (I don't know what you mean by "good ol days service" and assume they're coming out with some pay-for-pvp-servers thing or something.)

I mean that It's possible that they're planning to warp WoW so far from its original form (for the sake of necessary evolution and progress) that maybe they think they have their asses covered for those that like that original form if they just put out classic. I'm sure there will be people that will pay the one sub fee for classic and consider current WoW the freebie not worth touching, and that's ok!

[Soon-TM]

The odds of Alliance and Horde teaming up dropped to virtually nothing the second this expansion launched. I cannot fathom them working together ever again.

Imagine undead fighting alongside worgen, or how about undead fighting alongside night elves?

Never going to happen. Not ever.

Well, you have had blood elves teaming up with trolls since BC... And Blizz doesn't care anymore about the lore anyway.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Crazy thought after that Lore Interview.

Have we considered the idea of phased Warchiefs? Where if you side with Sylvanas in BFA she's the Warchief in 9.0, and if you side with Saurfang in BFA he's the Warchief in 9.0?

[Soon-TM]

Crazy thought after that Lore Interview.

Have we considered the idea of phased Warchiefs? Where if you side with Sylvanas in BFA she's the Warchief in 9.0, and if you side with Saurfang in BFA he's the Warchief in 9.0?

I'd /drool all over the idea... but it seems a bit far fetched

[Omedon]

Crazy thought after that Lore Interview.

Have we considered the idea of phased Warchiefs? Where if you side with Sylvanas in BFA she's the Warchief in 9.0, and if you side with Saurfang in BFA he's the Warchief in 9.0?

While hitting other details with this approach would be neat, something like the station of the warchief would probably need to have a root in a singular canon for future stories.

[Alopex Major]

Should it? Yes.
Will it? No.

[Omedon]

Doubt it. They will just give us AIs for bgs and probably every other end game content activity. Meaning no long queue times.

I would absolutely love something like this, but why is it mutually exclusive from a factional paradigm shift? We can have both!

[Magnagarde]

Factions are the best thing that happened to WoW. The only issue is that two aren't enough to keep a variety of players interested and nothing new has been offered for nearly 15 years.

Having these two factions only has lead to all playable options being narrowed down and even those that end up being picked either have to comform to faction-based themes or they ruin established faction-based themes of the faction they end up joining. If feels like playable races are where they shouldn't be, with their respective themes, aesthetics and role in the story being able to potentially offer more if they could form a new faction of their own (ie blood elves, night elves, undead).

[Omedon]

Factions are the best thing that happened to WoW. The only issue is that two aren't enough to keep a variety of players interested and nothing new has been offered for nearly 15 years.

Having these two factions only has lead to all playable options being narrowed down and even those that end up being picked either have to comform to faction-based themes or they ruin established faction-based themes of the faction they end up joining. If feels like playable races are where they shouldn't be, with their respective themes, aesthetics and role in the story being able to potentially offer more if they could form a new faction of their own (ie blood elves, night elves, undead).

I mean I’m all for as many factions as they want provided that (and this would absolutely be established first) everyone can group with everyone. We will never see the playerbase sliced into more bits without erasing the hard walls between those slices.

Now I’m hungry.

[crusadernero]

I would absolutely love something like this, but why is it mutually exclusive from a factional paradigm shift? We can have both!

For sure, it would really change the landscape in azeroth. Very interesting concept, probably hard to apply.

[Omedon]

this kumbaya bullshit

The real question to look at in this whole issue is this: How in-character is your 1000th dungeon run? It's not. So if, after say your first run of a dungeon, you happen to be in a group that meshes alliance and horde... is anything healthy truly stepped on? WE, reading this message on MMO champion, are not alliance or horde. We're not. To claim otherwise is unhealthy (and I'm a roleplay type!). We're WoW players. Most of us, I'd wager, have characters on both sides. WoW hasn't encouraged the "one character" game since legion. We're "supposed to" have alts now, and for BFA we're "supposed to" have alts on both factions.

If we reach a moment in time where the people of Azeroth are canonically working together, after what's happened recently that will be extremely significant. The lore can acknowledge that some people hold grudges, and war mode is for them, the lore can also acknowledge that individuals aren't their factions.

I asked an opinion question and all opinions are valid, so I'm not telling you that yours is wrong, I'm just presenting a point of view from the perspective that half of the respondents to my poll as of this post think there's at least a glimmer of a possibility that something factional is going to happen... and it doesn't need to be a blanket, hand holdy kumbayah story, all it needs to do is present a plausible deniability of a generalist blanket of hate for just a moment, a moment that justifies a permanent feature that, to the players with their heads screwed on straight, would be a positive change.

There are, after all, no nightelves or forsaken playing WoW.

[zlygork]

missing the "endless cycle" option. The paradigm shift will last an expansion or two and then switch back to the old one and then switch back again to the new one and so on ad nauseum

[therealbowser]

... And Blizz doesn't care anymore about the lore anyway.

... And this is the point at which your argument becomes irrelevant.

If your argument revolves around "Well they don't care anyways" when they put this much work into the story, then you're blatantly wrong. You may not like the story, you may consider it poorly written (and this is probably true ), but Blizzard definitely cares about the lore. It may be nonsensical, but it's what pieces the game together.