Will the factions change? Should they?

[Fion Silberpfeil]

Worst idea ever. Don't you see the war in WARcraft ? Its like asking for peace in Warhammer 40K LOL You people don't like the warcraft at all

It made sense before WoW. But now it doesnt. It is forced, it is dumb and it is boring. We will never have a winner or a looser, we will never loose anything important on one side etc etc.

Also, there can be War without it being Alliance vs Horde -.- Fu** off with that.

[Daedius]

Wouldn't mind doing away with faction restricted races. There are numerous horse races on the Alliance, like that SI7 goblin.

[Omedon]

Its just absurd and no one except a few ask for that.

Do they need to, though?

WoW has the stats. They know how many people play both sides. They can guess those people have friends on both sides. Blizzard's mantra is "we bring friends together," you don't think they're putting two and two together?

Let me be my own devil's advocate for just a moment: I've had a counter theory this whole time that says that allied races are indeed their olive branch to people that want to see their opposite faction friends more often. By offering more conceptual options for customization on each side, we get less of the whining about only wanting to play, say alliance races for their prettiness. Hell, I am one of the most ardent debaters for faction softening and I fully admit that I will bow right out of all of these talks the second nightelf paladins are confirmed...

But it's fun to speculate, and if you're looking for the clues (Calia, Baine, Orange Nameplates, Being able to see the other faction's faction specific recipes in crafting UI, a big threat to Sylvanas who is the CORE pillar for the war's perpetuity once Jaina gets her redemption arc)... there's a lot to chew on.

[Ifeanychukwu]

It'll be Horde and Alliance til the day the game shuts down.

I hope not. The dynamic has become boring and feels forced most of the time anyway.

[chubbybunny]

Be good is there was a neutral faction, that was made up of both factions that became disillusioned with their faction leader, anyone could join after a short scenario where they faced up to their leader saying how badly they felt the direction they were taking their faction and you have deicded to turn your back on them.

[Sigxy]

Maybe they could just add in a 'neutral faction'. You can only join it when you're high enough level (AKA the level that belongs to the expansion it's introduced). You'll become "Disliked" (though not hostile) by whatever faction you used to belong to, still hated by the opposing faction. But this is still the faction that would probably represent the 'Heroes of Azeroth' the best as they can actually throw away their dislike of the other faction and get things done.

Though hey, if PvP is involved - at least you'll have 3 factions for PvP, rather than just 2. Which is a bit horrible if one side is dominating the other majority of the time.

[Omedon]

It's also worth pointing out that there is, in the pipeline as we speak, a product in development where the alliance and horde are warring and feuding and will forever more. This... might actually make them think they can do whatever they want to current WoW... including mess with racial/factional grouping limitations.

Just sayin.

[Mestalis]

I think people are overthinking how small a change would be desired by those sick of the faction divide.

Imagine WoW exactly as it is now. Same quests, same factions, same PVP, same everything, maybe a few leadership changes (we all know Sylvanas as warchief is doomed) but...

But on the other side of a certain story... looka that! My friend playing a troll can send my nightelf a group invite! And I can join a community with him! And it might take you a few dungeons to notice that the tank in your daily heroic dungeon was from the other faction!

That's literally all that'd need to change to make most "faction war eye-rollers" happy!

It doesn't destroy friendships. It doesn't destroy guilds. Worst case, a guild establishes a "both factions" raiding subcommunity, and communities potentially become just as viable to earn raid achievements as guilds.

That is literally it. A tauren leveling in 9.0 doesn't have goldshire as an option, indeed the sales pitch of the other faction becomes their stories and their quest content while leveling.

And war never ends. We just imprisoned the very thing keeping the Void from making a play for the entire cosmos... we are going to be busy doing Sargeras' job for him... only without the demons! Except warlocks, they can bring demons. You get the point.



Mercenary mode waves back.

I think that's a fantastic idea, and I'm honestly surprised by the number of people so closely associating the "war" in Warcraft to the Alliance vs. Horde conflict. With so many races, neutral parties, and malevolent forces, there is so much room for conflict, even pvp conflict, outside of the Alliance vs. Horde divide. In my mind this is the least of the changes they could make.

I also find it very interesting, that, while 100 votes isn't a particularly large subject pool, almost exactly 2/3 of the votes are people who believe there should be a change.

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Be good is there was a neutral faction, that was made up of both factions that became disillusioned with their faction leader, anyone could join after a short scenario where they faced up to their leader saying how badly they felt the direction they were taking their faction and you have deicded to turn your back on them.

I love that idea! I think a third faction of any make-up would be interesting, but I do wonder about the technical complications in a game that is so founded on the dual factions.

[Omedon]

I also find it very interesting, that, while 100 votes isn't a particularly large subject pool, almost exactly 2/3 of the votes are people who believe there should be a change.

I ran a similar poll a couple weeks ago (https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...-know-them-now) and just flat out asked if people were willing to predict a change. 1/3 of my modest turnout was willing to make that prediction, and there was a lot of "I wish, but no" in the comments.

So again, not the biggest sample in the world, but WoW has the numbers of the silent types, they know how many people would have something to gain by having their friends on both sides potentially able to play together.

It's not impossible.

[Mr chub]

From the perspective of a higher end raider it would benefit me if the two factions folded into each other.

[vashe9]

I hope not. The dynamic has become boring and feels forced most of the time anyway.

Its a totally SUBJECTIVE view. Why cant you understand that you are NOT the majority and Blizzard has no interest at all. JUST PLAY ALTS ON BOTH SIDE OMG. Everyone has several alts now. PERIOD
ex : My friends came to horde because I switched to horde because I followed other frieds to horde.

It would broke everything and every logic in the game, every BG,... mercernries ? Thank goodness none of you is running Blizzard

And I'm playing since the warcraft games, I'd be very upsed if they decide to destroy their licence like htis

RED vs BLUE

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Do they need to, though?

WoW has the stats. They know how many people play both sides. They can guess those people have friends on both sides. Blizzard's mantra is "we bring friends together," you don't think they're putting two and two together?

Let me be my own devil's advocate for just a moment: I've had a counter theory this whole time that says that allied races are indeed their olive branch to people that want to see their opposite faction friends more often. By offering more conceptual options for customization on each side, we get less of the whining about only wanting to play, say alliance races for their prettiness. Hell, I am one of the most ardent debaters for faction softening and I fully admit that I will bow right out of all of these talks the second nightelf paladins are confirmed...

But it's fun to speculate, and if you're looking for the clues (Calia, Baine, Orange Nameplates, Being able to see the other faction's faction specific recipes in crafting UI, a big threat to Sylvanas who is the CORE pillar for the war's perpetuity once Jaina gets her redemption arc)... there's a lot to chew on.

Total nonsense, why push an entire extension on horde vs alliance to have them merge at the end... My life before allowing a living Kal'Dorei in Silvermoon

[Destinas]

I could see splinter factions of certain races switching sides, but not a complete overhaul of the playable races as they are. We've already seen this happen, somewhat, with Void Elves.

For instance, with the lore from Before the Storm, we learn that some Forsaken are willing to go to the Alliance with Calia, as well as the fact that Calia becomes a Lightforged-Forsaken hybrid herself. In the future, it wouldn't be odd or surprising to see some Lightforged Forsaken on the Alliance, and perhaps something like Leper Gnomes on the Horde (since some already work for the Forsaken in WoW). However, the base Forsaken and Gnome player races would stay on their original factions. This can be done easily with Allied Races, and provide more lore for each faction and race.

It doesn't seem likely to have a third Forsaken faction. Sure, it could have literally any race that can be made undead (which is most races), and any class could work in that. But I don't really see where the story could go for that. It would work and make sense for an expansion centralized in the Shadowlands, or a Lich King 2.0 - but after that? What's the point? Where would they level when most zones are either faction-specific or have faction hubs (especially in WoD and BfA content)? What would their pvp/honor rewards be? How would faction-changing raids and dungeons (ToC, ICC's ship battle, Siege of Boralus, etc) work for them?

It just seems like it would be too messy to do, as much as it could potentially make a cool story.

[Andromedes]

I always wanted 4 factions just like in warcraft 3. My ideal setup would be this i posted on official forums:

Forsaken in the horde dont make sense. Night elves should not be in the Alliance. There should be 4 factions.

For gameplay purposes night elven faction of various nature based races would be neutral with the alliance, they could visit their cities, maybe even group up together, but their story should take different path, because night elves didnt benefit at all being in the alliance. They should come back to their feral roots, kill horde at sight, be cautious towards alliance. Same basically goes to forsaken faction.

My ideal factions:

Alliance: humans, kul tiran humans, bronzebeard and wildhammer dwarves, gnomes, high elves, worgen, draenei, lightforged draenei, pandaren

Horde: Orcs, maghar orcs, darkspear trolls, zandalari trolls, forest trolls, tauren, highmountain tauren, goblins, ogres, pandaren

Sentinels: Night elves, worgen, furbolg, children of forest, pandaren, tauren, (maybe even forest trolls and wildhammers)
-neutral towards alliance, leveling in old content would be alliance based, new leveling content should be Sentinels faction only. BGs would be played against Forsaken or Horde

Forsaken: Undead, Blood elves, Satyr, Naga, Nightborne, Dark iron dwarves, leper gnomes,(maybe broken or lost ones draenei )
-neutral towards horde, leveling in old content would be horde based, new leveling content should be Forsaken faction only. BGs would be played against Sentinels or Alliance

There would be two options for pvp flagging. You could flag yourself to be against all other factions, or you could be allied with faction you are neutral with (forsaken with horde or sentinels with alliance)
I admit it is not greatest idea, also allied races complicate things. For example dark irons are canonically alliance, but i see them together with sinister faction of Forsaken. Also i dont know where to go with void elves.

I also gave Sentinels Tauren and Worgen, because i believe those races should have a choice to join them.

[Directionalk9]

I just don't see any added bonus to the game by removing the faction barriers. Horde/Alliance are pretty intrinsic to the Warcraft franchise, I just don't see this game moving forward without those aspects in place. On top of that, while having a binary choice of what side to play on, isn't super nuanced, it's more nuanced than just, "ya'll in the same group."

I'll be honest, I was surprised when BfA announcement came and I found people asking for no more factions... And this is the internet there should be no more surprises.

In an expansion billed as the faction war, I don't see it ending with Horde and Alliance merging or just setting aside their difference, the latter doesn't even make sense and would be the largest lore-snafu to date. However, I can see both factions breaking apart, adding two more factions to the game. I laid it out in another thread not too long ago, but...

Horde could be split with the inclusion of the Zandalari, they don't feel like a race that will want to suddenly bow down to a Warchief, but they might want to expand their empire beyond just trolls. I can definitely see some Horde races wanting to join up with them to escape the warmongering the Horde seems to love.

Alliance have a couple fissures that Blizzard doesn't want to pull. Anduin is leading the charge and peace and harmony (a somewhat boring narrative in a game based around war) I could see that not extending to all the Alliance nations. Gilneas, Night Elves and Kul'Tirans have a pretty strong through-line of hating the Horde, Dreanei could easily be added to that list as well.

As far as PvE grouping goes I'm not against it happening only from a gameplay perspective, I can see that need arising down the road, but I don't see it being an out of control issue at the moment.

TL,DR 2 factions better than 1, 4 factions could be more fun.

[Ifeanychukwu]

Its a totally SUBJECTIVE view. Why cant you understand that you are NOT the majority and Blizzard has no interest at all. JUST PLAY ALTS ON BOTH SIDE OMG. Everyone has several alts now. PERIOD
ex : My friends came to horde because I switched to horde because I followed other frieds to horde.

I never said the majority shared my view anyway so don't be putting words into my mouth please. I do have max level characters on both sides as well by the way. It's just boring, I've been playing this game for over 10 years and the dynamic hasn't changed, and the dynamic has never felt important either. They use their shoddy writing to justify why we should hate each other even after we end up helping each other in pretty much every single expansion. I don't even want the absolute removal of factions anyway, I want a neutral faction that could take races to either side. There's already horde races that are basically part of the Alliance already, why not have a faction for them?

[Nobleshield]

People keep thinking a faction merge will mean humans in orgrimmar and night elves in silvermoon. It doesn't have to mean that at all. In fact, they could likely add it without even touching BGs, faction cities or even old content. It would just be for the expansion it's introduced in and forward; neutral areas, neutral cities (like Dalaran or Shattrath already are), neutral quests. Nothing else needs to change. You could still have your PVP battlegrounds and areas.

Look at how most other games that added cross-faction gameplay have done it. It's not "ruining" the game to have it there. WoW would have to do it the way RIFT did (since RIFT was a WoW clone, there's a lot of similarities), which basically ONLY allowed cross-faction grouping and added neutral quests for both factions. Nothing else changed. In effect, the factions were still in a state of conflict but the PCs were not. That approach would absolutely work for WoW.

[Fahrenheit]

Won't change, and I don't think it should. That being said, as the years have worn on, the Tauren being allied with the Forsaken make less and less sense.

[Mestalis]

Its a totally SUBJECTIVE view. Why cant you understand that you are NOT the majority and Blizzard has no interest at all. JUST PLAY ALTS ON BOTH SIDE OMG. Everyone has several alts now. PERIOD

I've been playing since Vanilla Beta, as a casual quest driven player for my entire time in Azeroth, I've only ever had one main toon, I've always wanted to be able to interact with the other faction, and I know many players who can say the same. When you're dealing with millions of players, there is no "everyone" and "no one." I assure you that you can find at least tens of thousands of players who would be interested in any change Bliz could possibly make; and as you can see with this poll, 2/3 of the respondents believe that there should be a major factional change.

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My ideal factions:

Alliance: humans, kul tiran humans, bronzebeard and wildhammer dwarves, gnomes, high elves, worgen, draenei, lightforged draenei, pandaren

Horde: Orcs, maghar orcs, darkspear trolls, zandalari trolls, forest trolls, tauren, highmountain tauren, goblins, ogres, pandaren

Sentinels: Night elves, worgen, furbolg, children of forest, pandaren, tauren, (maybe even forest trolls and wildhammers)
-neutral towards alliance, leveling in old content would be alliance based, new leveling content should be Sentinels faction only. BGs would be played against Forsaken or Horde

Forsaken: Undead, Blood elves, Satyr, Naga, Nightborne, Dark iron dwarves, leper gnomes,(maybe broken or lost ones draenei )
-neutral towards horde, leveling in old content would be horde based, new leveling content should be Forsaken faction only. BGs would be played against Sentinels or Alliance

I love this idea and think such a drastic change would be incredibly exciting; that being said, it is such a significant change I don't know that the technical back end challenges are even feasible, let alone if they would be worth the payoff. Only time will tell!

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I ran a similar poll a couple weeks ago (https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...-know-them-now) and just flat out asked if people were willing to predict a change. 1/3 of my modest turnout was willing to make that prediction, and there was a lot of "I wish, but no" in the comments.

So again, not the biggest sample in the world, but WoW has the numbers of the silent types, they know how many people would have something to gain by having their friends on both sides potentially able to play together.

It's not impossible.

Thanks for the link! Some interesting posts there. I agree with you, and I look forward to seeing what happens. I can't believe it drops tomorrow! Ahh!

[Coolthulhu]

It'd be very interesting if they did, but they most likely won't.

[Triptych]

I think it's a neat idea, but it would be very hard (impossible?) for Blizzard to do and keep everyone happy.

Remember how much they stressed out with something as comparatively minor as the new player models a few years ago? I'd assume that a character's faction identity is much more important than the shape/texture of their hands and kneecaps. Changing this would be a bold, but very dangerous, move.