Blizzards new 'Big Thing' at the end of mist: Cross Faction Groups?

[Kraenen]

No...please no. It would be as bad as when they sent drenei on a spaceship to azeroth

[Venziir]

I can't see it happening at all. This game is called World of WARcraft, not PEACEcraft.

Blizzard didn't reintroduce the war element to Warcraft to then allow both factions to join hands.

And even if you fight Garrosh at the end of the expansion there is no need to join forces with the players from the other faction. It is also counter to Blizzard being against cross-faction communication.

No! It's called World of warcRAFT, I WANT MAH RAFTS! Sigh please never ever use that utterly moronic argument, it's so stupid it makes the combined IQ of the universe drop by about 10%.....

There's been War in WoW since day f'ing 1; War against the Legion, the Scourge, Illidan, Deathwing, Qiraji, Old Gods, Gnolls, Kobolds etc etc etc.

---------- Post added 2013-02-05 at 04:23 PM ----------

I ain't fighting alonside no stinky green/blueskins

Tauren are ok.

What about Draenei and Night Elves?

[DeicideUH]

I also think Cross-faction grouping is a strong possibility. I'd love it! Since I'm an Alliance guild officer, my horde toons don't socialize much, and I'd love to help my regular guild with them.

Storyline-wise, Horde and Alliance have been partners (even when less than friendly ones) on taking big baddies like Illidan, Kil'jaeden or Deathwing. I see no reason why we coultdn't make temporary allies to do raids or dungeons.

This is how I think it could work:

- World PvP is not affected. There's still animosity between Alliance and Horde, you can't just enter an enemy territory;

- NPCs don't behave differently toward cross-faction parties. They'll attack party members of the opposite faction, but not members of their own faction;

- If you're in a cross-faction party and some of you are PvP-enabled, people in your party can't attack you, but players not grouped with you can still attack you as normal;

- While on /party, /raid or /instance chats, the language barrier is lifted up (it already works on /party, /instance and /guild chats! Try to speak in your racial language in guild chat, and everyone will understand you!

- You can only make premade cross-faction groups with friends with RealId or Battletag;

- LFR and LFD will partner up cross-faction people, but only if they can't find an appropriate same-faction group for you after a few minutes. It will also work on scenarios, but cross-faction groups can't enter faction-specific scenarios (thought this may change depending on how the new other-faction scenarios will be done in 5.2). You can opt to only join groups of your faction if you wish;

- When you enter a dungeon or raid that has faction-specific content (like Icecrown Citadel), the dungeon or raid will be set according to the dominant faction (the one with most players) or, if in a tie, as per the raid leader's faction. If some people leave and other people join, the dungeon/raid keeps its setup until it's finished or reset.

- For PvP, you can do cross-faction Arenas but not cross-faction Battlegrounds (unless you're playing a War Game between two premade groups).

[Hyve]

Oh how I wish it would be multi-classing, but that isn't going to happen any time soon

With Blizzards record of Class Balance, I would really hope this never happens!

[BeastmasterGuardian]

I have to deal with enough Horde as it is. Bad enough I have to smell them when I pass through certain zones, and had to deal with them in certain towns throughout the world and Outland. Last thing I want to do is fight shoulder to shoulder with an orc or troll ON PURPOSE.

If they want to allow any class to play either faction, that is one thing. But I am Alliance for a reason. Always have been, always will be. DEATH TO THE HORDE!

[Grocalis]

Would love Cross Faction Grouping. It does not have to be across the board, but RealID/BattleTag? Get rid of that barrier. I have a lot of friends on both sides I have to constantly switch characters just to play around with.

[Ettan]

Cross faction groups?
I do not even know why you would want this. The horde/ alliance is there only to be a perpetual enemy of the alliance/horde.
To me the alliance/ horde struggle has always been the core of world of warcraft.
And I never want to see you or anyone else touch it with their greasy peace/harmony panda hippy idealist claws.

[Deleted]

Cross-faction groups? No way. If that were ever implemented I wouldn't be surprised to see at least 1 million subscribers leave. Maaaaybe just for the SoO raid but then it wouldn't be a big feature.

[jsz]

My money is on gear scaling. So at 90 you can group with a lowbie friend and all your stats scale to his or her level. The majority of the architecture is there already I feel like.

[Azrile]

Come on. look at the things they have added recently.

1. Challenge modes (gear scaling)
2. PVP scaling at low levels ( everyone in a bracket is now max level for that bracket

IMHO, it is pretty obvious that they are going to incorporate those two features into old dungeons. You will now be able to do old raids and dungeons ´at level´ with scaled gear. All of the big tech things they have been doing this expansion just point to it.

A lot of players will love it (especially those who now can use their mains to help friends level toons), but a lot of players won´t use it at all. (that´s it).

[Grocalis]

To me the alliance/ horde struggle has always been the core of world of warcraft.

You must have hated WC3 then, considering the horde/alliance struggle took about 15% of the whole story before they started teaming up.

In the end though, NO ONE is asking for the factions to be abolished or the factions to start holding hands like hippies. Conflict will always exist. However, PLAYERS shouldn't be bound 100% to those conflicts.

Fun fact, but the Horde and Alliance IN NPCs have worked together more then the players, and have done so in every iteration of the game. We did during the Might of Kalimdor, we did during the War versus Illidan, we saw it when Velen redeemed the Blood Elves, we continued it during the war versus the Lich King up to the events at the Wrathgate, and even during the battle with Deathwing saw us working together to defend Thrall at Wyrmrest. Let's not even bring up the fact that my characters have been doing free agent work for so many neutral groups that my head spins. My orc has worked for Draenei, my Draenei has saved orcs and trolls, my Blood Elf made friends with the Aldor.

Yet even through all that, I can't group with my friend who played a orc warrior unless I too, am on a horde character. My draenei paladin who has no hate towards the other faction is BARRED from such an act, even when I have worked with hundreds of NPC orcs before.

[Thehealbus]

There is no way it would ever work, the general player base would absolutely not get along, all communication would just be insults.

I seem to remember blood elves or something could speak the alliance language, and they had to disable it because of all the trashtalking that was going on.

[Pyr]

Granted, the idea of a cross faction raid, or dungeons is a novel idea, I do agree with the statement that most will be appalled by the idea, but at the same time we need to remember a quote used quite often by Blizzard in advertising. specifically for the faction change service. The quote is "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." Nothing is impossible friends.

[Falrinn]

I don't think that the Horde are going to be happy, with the Alliance trampling through Orgrimmar and killing its former members. Whatever happens, I doubt we'll see the Alliance and Horde working together.

I don't believe we've seen Wrathions full intentions, and I feel that he is going to be vital in the whole war continuing. We see an achievement called: Judgement of the Black Prince. I feel he will come to terms, as with many natives to Pandaria that our War is not coming to an end.

I would disagree with that assessment.

The Horde/Alliance conflict might not ever be completely over, but if the faction's don't at least come to an understanding after the Siege of Orgrimmar, then nothing is really resolved. From the Alliance perspective all they would of succeeded in doing is replacing one hostile Warchief with another. From a Horde perspective they would of overthrown Garrosh just to keep many of his policies (at least when dealing with things outside the Horde) intact. The whole expansion would basically just be the Horde dealing with an internal power struggle with the Alliance just along for the ride.

From a more mechanical point of view, the Siege of Orgrimmar raid itself would be difficult to have a satisfying conclusion if the factions don't work together (even if not formal alliance is made). The point of the Alliance having a sizable army inside the Horde's capital is going to have to be resolved somehow, and there aren't very many good ways to do it that both .

- The Alliance could destroy Orgrimmar or place it under occupation. Obviously would be unacceptable to Horde players.
- The Horde drives the Alliance from the city. While perhaps not as bad as the first option, this would be unacceptable to Alliance players.
- The Alliance version of the raid is entirely non-canon, as far as the official lore is concerned the Alliance never enters the city in significant numbers. Unacceptable to Alliance players.
- The Alliance leaves the city after defeating Garrosh entirely of it's own free will. This could be acceptable to Alliance players, but only if there is a very good reason presented for this. If there isn't at least a short-term peace between the factions, then there cannot possibly be a good reason for them to do this.

[delus]

Cross faction groups?
I do not even know why you would want this. The horde/ alliance is there only to be a perpetual enemy of the alliance/horde.
To me the alliance/ horde struggle has always been the core of world of warcraft.
And I never want to see you or anyone else touch it with their greasy peace/harmony panda hippy idealist claws.

Except the Struggle between alliance and horde hasn't been the bigger focus and wasn't meant to be since warcraft 3. That whole game is about humans and orcs working together to overcome the legion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f96hKqkY_Y

[Iso]

Language barrier!

[Phuongvi]

I don't really care about teamning up with someone from the opposite faction, for me, the difference beetween an horde or an alliance it is the starting zone and the main capitol city. Garrosh is a douche, Varian is a douche.

We are all fighting for the same reason, the end game content (PvE) are the same boss and we want to kill them for the same reason.
I don't see any problem with the PvP side, why are we fighting the same faction in arena ?

It might solve the high qq ganking area like Dark Portal, Hellfire

[shadofall]

i can see cross faction groups. but only between realid/battle tag friends.

the taruen with the gnome holloween mask on...

[Grocalis]

There is no way it would ever work, the general player base would absolutely not get along, all communication would just be insults. I seem to remember blood elves or something could speak the alliance language, and they had to disable it because of all the trashtalking that was going on.

That was the undead, and it did happen sometimes, and other times not so much. However the only reason it DID happen was because the game already was faction PVP oriented. If undead could have grouped with humans, or humans with orcs, right out the gate, then the trash talking wouldn't have been a problem. It was the faction divide that caused the trash talking.

Either way, no one is asking for the barrier to communicate to be removed.

Again, let me reiterate the intention and rules for "Cross Faction Groups".

1) You can only communicate with someone from the other faction while in a group. Not in a group? Then the language barrier persists. Don't want to talk with the other side? Never group with them. That orc annoying you with all his group spams because he wants to trash talk you? Put him on ignore.
2) Faction conflict still exists. Battlegrounds will still occur, but the players, who by nature are adventurers, can group with other faction players either out in the world or for dungeons. They can't queue for the same battlegrounds but can join arena teams.
3) All RealID/BattleTag functions work between factions, but still not battlegrounds.

Again, I reiterate. No one is asking for the Horde and Alliance from ceasing to exist, or for players to be FORCED to play with the enemy faction. PVP rules still apply on PVP servers, etc...

All it's asking is that my Draenei, who I like to play, become allowed to group with my friend, who right now wants to focus on his Orc warrior. Right now we are both barred from playing with eachother over a stupid antiqued barrier.

[treehumper]

My money is on gear scaling. So at 90 you can group with a lowbie friend and all your stats scale to his or her level. The majority of the architecture is there already I feel like.

This. It's already in a ton of other MMOs that it's strange Blizzard hasn't attempted to implement it yet. EQ2 launched around the same time and has had a system like this in place since only a year or so after launch. I used to group with lower level buddies with my gear scaled down all the time. It would've been nice if it had let you redo quests, albeit with no reward... maybe Blizz can do that.