Faction imbalance a social issue? Requiring a social solution?

[deenman]

not really. in order to fix it Blizzard would have to make Alliance Racials OP then completely rework racials again to make things balanced.

thats actualy the worst thing they could posibly do lol,not only will it shift the issue,its also a very deceitful move if they then nerf them all after people buy transfers

there are 2 fair ways to handle this at this point....rework the racials now and give some free transfers,this one isnt perfect because many people would still not leave the more populated faction

now the thing that would completly fix it...is cross faction play

[Akka]

It is absolutely a social issue without a doubt. Either faction could easily argue favoritism so it has nothing to do with developer bias.

Anyone can always argue about anything. Doesn't mean they're right, nor does it mean facts don't matter.
Blizzard is massively pro-Horde (though I do believe they try to be even, but they fail) and it's felt through the game.

[Yriel]

The easy solution is to get rid of the meaningless factions. In the end we’re always fighting some bigger threat as a team anyway. Why not let players just do that the entire time?

I'd really like that, too.

For me, the irony in every one of those "We have to get more people to alliance" threads is that on the realm i play, the vast majority of players are alliance. Every WQ i get to is a sea of orange names, it's really annoying and time-consuming to find and tag a mob while the alliance zerg aoes everything everywhere.
I get it that this is a specific problem with my realm but i really don't want more incentive for people to play alliance.

Thus one fraction would really help in my case.

[Aphrel]

Well they are correct that the faction imbalance is most noticeable at the top end. Wich is true, but i feel they are missing the scope on how big the top end really is.

We arent talking only about top 100 guilds in raid rankings. even if thats where you see the discrepency the most.

we are talking every single aspect of the game on the top end side (except curiously enough rated bgs, not sure why that is). From achievement farming to mythic+ to raids to highend arenas.

In every single category it is so much easier to find pug groups as horde. Basically, if you ever have done a 16 or higher in m+, or a single one of the glory of the raider achievs in a pug, or looked for new arena partners on over 2100, or ever joined a group to farm a mount. You are part of the group that would greatly benefit from being horde.

[username993720]

The easy solution is to get rid of the meaningless factions. In the end we’re always fighting some bigger threat as a team anyway. Why not let players just do that the entire time?

It's called World of Warcraft.
Not World of Friends and Family.

Eliminating the factions and creating an unanimous peace, will ruin the game's setting and story.

I'd say there's even room for more factions. Like 4, instead of 2.

[Meleti]

I originally switched to Horde because there were more guild opportunities for me to raid with on the Horde side, back in MoP. And I’ve stayed Horde since then, because even though I’m no longer raiding,if I were to start raiding or doing a lot of M+ I know that it would be much easier for me if I were a Horde player.

So yes, I think it’s a social phenomenon. I don’t even care about maximizing any of my characters — I was never a World First type player — but it’s much nicer to play on the high population faction for organized endgame content where I need to find other people to play with.

[ButterBeast]

Maybe people go horde because alliance players are seen as big whiny babies, Atleast on these forums jeez

[Relapses]

He keeps barely anyone happy though. Everyone hates the loot changes from Shadowlands, everyone hates the current kiting-focussed design of m+, everyone hates the state of class balance, everyone hates their lazyness with the upcoming raid sets, everyone hates the fact that blizz ditches customization and heritage armors, everyone complains for years about the state of faction imbalance and he does nothing. He actually even keeps making systems which were well received worse.

What you define as "everyone" is in reality the vocal minority that bitch about everything on the forums. You're sorely mistaken if you think the voices you hear on this website are anything more than a faint blip on Blizzard's radar. Very rarely is any of the criticism offered around here remotely constructive and most of the time people are simply seeking validation for their reasons for being disengaged with a video game that was once something they enjoyed quite a bit. That isn't to say that all criticism is void if you're simply looking for somebody to agree with your personal reasons for disliking the game; just that a better way to communicate that dissatisfaction is to provide well-reasoned feedback and to vote with your wallet by unsubscribing. Calling the developers a bunch of fucking retards or taking out all of your frustration on Ion because he has a punchable face is hardly productive and that describes a depressingly large percentage of the posts you find around here.

[ceall]

warcraft to me is like 50% music, that's why i always pick alliance, when creating a toon
listening to war drums during your chill time is bad for your health, 100% guarantee

You should try moshing alongside heavy metal. THAT is relaxing.

[Tanaria]

SNIP

Alliance already have their own unique version of "Nether Elf" in the Void Elves.

I don't think void elf fans will be happy to see blood elves taking elements that are inherent within the Ren'dorei.

Sin'dorei on the Horde are perfect the way they are. They are not "High Elf in the way they live" because they've actually grown and part of their change comes from their use of Blood and Fire Magic, as well as introducing Blood Knights. These are core Blood Elf things, that Silvermoon has.

Alliance and Horde already have their "Death-like Elves" in Dark Rangers, Elven Death Knights and San'layn.
Fel Elves also exist through Warlocks and Demon Hunters.

So, your not giving the Horde anything - your just being selfish with "Waah waah, I want arcane elves on the alliance."

[username993720]

Yes, and the wars we most often fight are against shit like old gods and whatnot.

And, each other.
It's called PvP.

[ONCHEhap]

i say they are full of it. they are the ones who created this issues by making horde racials OP.

horde racials have been OP during a very short period of the game's life,afterwards,they've been balanced and even skewed in favour of the alliance a few times.

Nowadays the horde is only the best because more raiders are there,which in turn attracts more new players to the horde as it's the best faction. It's absolutely a social issue,but one that can't be fixed and that will keep growing over time

[huth]

And, each other.
It's called PvP.

PvP isn't war. It's also not called World of War-between-Horde-and-Alliance-craft. Any war counts.

[omeomorfismo]

Weapon racials only helped specific classes within specific specs. They meant nothing to Alliance casters. Blood Fury and Berserking helped ALL of their race's classes and all specs. And you missed the part where I said I mainly played Alliance Priests and Warlocks since vanilla. Will of the Forsaken essentially gave Undead two trinkets to break their fear and charm effects (and also become immune so that it could be used pre-emptively). For Priests, Psychic Scream was their ONLY defensive for so long and it was easily negated.

Alliance didn't get racials that CC or cause damage until what.....BFA?

rotfl? worgen had always dps racial, draenei even had the hit rating aura. arguably even the gnome with their expanded
resource pool and human with the improved spirit...

mirroring what are you saying, did the horde ever had an aoe buff like alliance? or a racial stealth? or a racial stealth detection?

edit: a mistake D:

[Gorsameth]

It's called World of Warcraft.
Not World of Friends and Family.

Eliminating the factions and creating an unanimous peace, will ruin the game's setting and story.

I'd say there's even room for more factions. Like 4, instead of 2.

allowing the heroes of Azeroth to work somewhat independently from factions as they battle yet another cosmic evil does not mean the Horde and Alliance have to have a tea party with cookies.

Nevermind the fact that the expansions are full of time after time where Horde and Alliance have worked together against a common foe.

[Meleti]

rotfl? nelf and worgen had always dps racial, damn, draenei even had the hit rating aura. arguably even the gnome with their expanded
resource pool...

mirroring what are you saying, did the horde ever had an aoe buff like alliance? or a racial stealth? or a racial stealth detection?

What was the night elf DPS racial? Genuinely curious here.

[huth]

What was the night elf DPS racial? Genuinely curious here.

He's wrong. Prior to WoD, Night Elves didn't have one.

[MoanaLisa]

It's called World of Warcraft.
Not World of Friends and Family.

There are all sorts of things to be at war with instead of binary Red-Team / Blue Team factions.

[Essem]

Faction imbalance is impossible to keep balanced, anyone thinking over such a long time to be able to have a 50-50 split is in a fairytale land. If it wasnt horde favored it would be alliance favored.

It started to shift towards because of racials and people being able to pay for faction transfers. The barrier to change became low enough that whatever faction was the 1% better people would slowly shift towards it. And from there it is impossible to stop. More people = more things to do more easily. More groups for stuff, your friends are there and so on. And now it is way too late, making alliance mega OP miight be able to swing things, but that is just bad game design.

The only way to stop it was to change the needle back and forth intentionally every new tier a long time ago. Making horde better one tier and making alliance better the next.

[huth]

Faction imbalance is impossible to keep balanced, anyone thinking over such a long time to be able to have a 50-50 split is in a fairytale land. If it wasnt horde favored it would be alliance favored.

It started to shift towards because of racials and people being able to pay for faction transfers. The barrier to change became low enough that whatever faction was the 1% better people would slowly shift towards it. And from there it is impossible to stop. More people = more things to do more easily. More groups for stuff, your friends are there and so on. And now it is way too late, making alliance mega OP miight be able to swing things, but that is just bad game design.

The only way to stop it was to change the needle back and forth intentionally every new tier a long time ago. Making horde better one tier and making alliance better the next.

Which is why the most reasonable solution is removal of the faction barrier, as that would in fact stop the problem from existing, while the supposed cost is mostly imaginary. It wouldn't even require a lore change.