Vizions of N'zoth Interview with Patrick Dawson

[FlubberPuddy]

http://lorekeeper.net/en/world-of-wa...atrick-dawson/

It's been posted on Reddit but thought I'd post it here for discussion as well.

My main thing that I'm happy with is one of the interviewers actually asked the burning question I was wondering for a long while

[Ezgi] My question is not strictly 8.3 related but it has some kind of relation to it. As we know, from a lore point of view, that Horde and Alliance decided to “break the cycle.” But as we know from BlizzCon, there will be no faction merge or “Let’s be friends and play together!” situation. Do you have any plans to address this or maybe even ease the faction restrictions? Will we see any progress towards “breaking the cycle” in 8.3?

In terms of breaking the cycle, that was definitely a really powerful story moment for us. It doesn’t come with any gameplay changes as of now. In the future, you never know what is going to happen, where the story is going to take us, and what makes sense for the game.

To me as a Horde player, I actually still enjoy going out in the world PvP and smashing Alliance. That feels good! And I think there is a large part of our player base that still needs that, and we want to serve that too.

In terms of cross-faction though, we’ve experimented with that a little bit internally to see what it’d feel like. We don’t have anything to announce today but it’s a cool idea.

So looks like some form of cross-faction may not be strictly out the question. Especially since Dawson agrees that it was a really powerful story moment with no gameplay follow up as of now.

I personally always considered it dumb that they had those amazing cinematics play out like that and say "breaking the cycle" and then at Blizzcon it was pretty much hand-waved away.

I think when people ask for Cross-faction it's not usually "get rid of Horde and Alliance" which appears to be how it was taken at Blizzcon, but more akin to simply doing end-game content (pvp/raids/dungeons, etc) with a group that ends up consisting of Horde and Alliance individuals.

[matrix123mko]

Sounds better than Blizzcon stance with "factions can't change".

[Onikaroshi]

It's meaningless. There's no doubt that they considered doing something along those lines, but clearly they couldn't make it work satisfactorily and/or it got nixed by the higher-ups for brand reasons.

Or it just wasn't the time for it yet.

You don't just come out of war and are suddenly friends with your enemy, shit takes time.

[Nefarious Tea]

Or it just wasn't the time for it yet.

You don't just come out of war and are suddenly friends with your enemy, shit takes time.

It all depends on if there's a bigger enemy.

Allied nations spent billions on getting Germany back on its feet after WW2, because they didn't want Russia to swoop in as they did with eastern Europe.

With Sylvanas being a big ol fascist problem, the Horde and Alliance will likely be a lot more friendly in Shadowlands than they've been since WOTLK.

[Onikaroshi]

It all depends on if there's a bigger enemy.

Allied nations spent billions on getting Germany back on its feet after WW2, because they didn't want Russia to swoop in as they did with eastern Europe.

With Sylvanas being a big ol fascist problem, the Horde and Alliance will likely be a lot more friendly in Shadowlands than they've been since WOTLK.

I still don't think that's "play with each other 100%" even with the Germany thing in WWII you still had east and west Germany. A lot of the ideals within both factions are still EXTREMELY anti the other faction.

[Doffen]

Definitely a better answer than just "no, factions matter" like in Blizzcon.

I also like to smash hordies on my Night Elf Demon Hunter, and I love to heal up my horde brethren on my Blood Elf Paladin during battle, but we can do that with cross faction PvE play as well. It will be the same as it is today, just more fun.

[thilicen]

I would be fine with x-faction instanced content, but making PvP available means the tension simply has to be there for it to make any sense. Simple as.

[huth]

I still don't think that's "play with each other 100%" even with the Germany thing in WWII you still had east and west Germany. A lot of the ideals within both factions are still EXTREMELY anti the other faction.

People are quick to overlook differences when their house is on fire.

Not sure what you're trying to get at with east and west Germany... that's exactly what Tea was talking about.

[Dracullus]

Imo they are missing big opportunity with world PVP in SL. They could drop H/A bullshit at least for expac and make it between covenants. Something like that:

- covenants are purely cosmetic thing
- war mode and pvp is between covenants (2 vs. 2)
- each week RNG picks which covenants are allied
- you can earn cosmetic stuff from all covenants, but you can switch it only 1-2 days before reset (few k gold cost)
- on reset day alliance (2 covenants) with less players get bonus and quest (like Allian.. smaller faction right now)

[Onikaroshi]

People are quick to overlook differences when their house is on fire.

Not sure what you're trying to get at with east and west Germany... that's exactly what Tea was talking about.

But you don't get in bed with the LAST person that lit your house on fire, literally.

I don't see night elves honoring any treaty or alliance any time soon

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

"We can't merge factions because what would happen with World PvP."

Blizzard.... I usually don't say you're just being lazy and/or incompetent, but there's an easy solution here. When you turn on War Mode, all that cross faction stuff goes bye bye. Not like anyone can World PvP without War Mode anyway.

[A Chozo]

Maybe they couldn't make Cross-Faction work in time for 9.0 without Kael'thas going bald and the waterfalls falling upwards again.

Could happen in a subsequent patch. Or never.

[Mirishka]

Just knowing that they've messed around with it internally gives me hope. Keep War mode for the people who want that 'FOR MUH HORDE/ALLIANCE' stuff and let the rest of us just... play with our damn friends already.

[Yarathir]

In terms of breaking the cycle, that was definitely a really powerful story moment for us.

Well I'm glad that was a powerful story moment for somebody.

[crakerjack]

I think what's more likely is they'll have some raid when the void lord expansion comes out and we'll have to fight side by side. Instead of having actual horde/alliance players mixed, they'll do something like they did in BoD where they'll change the raid to look like the oppose faction. The raid/encounter will change 1/2 the raid to the opposing faction to make it look like it's a mixed raid, but factions are still technically segregated.

[FlubberPuddy]

To me the response here and the response at Blizzcon is most likely because the Blizzcon response was more a knee-jerk response. "What ?! Horde and Alliance IS Warcraft you can't do away with them!" when typically people mention cross-faction stuff as simply being able to complete end-game content with groups that consist of both Horde and Alliance players.

Blizzard must've first taken it as people wanting to do away with Horde and Alliance completely, but probably afterwards with much more player responses to THEIR initial knee-jerk reaction saw that players aren't asking for doing away with the two great factions. Simply gaining access to everyone in PvE group content.

War Mode still exists for people who like to "smash the other faction" as Dawson puts it.

That he states they've done some internal testing and his response comes off as more level-headed than the Blizzcon one implies they must've gotten more feedback that is pro-cross faction grouping rather than staunchly same-faction grouping.

I mean just like eventually doing away with PvP and PvE servers as we're in a new age of WoW player mindset, I do think sometime down the road they'll possibly allow a form of cross-faction grouping. Especially with the words stated by Dawson being more receptive and "cool thing" and "what makes sense for the game".

Since as much as they like to state they design the game themselves, there's ofc a portion of player satisfaction they must meet in order to keep the game itself profitable for everyone working on it, hence all of the QoL updates to the game.

[Nagawithlegs]

Blizzard must've first taken it as people wanting to do away with Horde and Alliance completely, but probably afterwards with much more player responses to THEIR initial knee-jerk reaction saw that players aren't asking for doing away with the two great factions. Simply gaining access to everyone in PvE group content.

Considering there IS a sizable portion of the fanbase that wants to get rid of the Horde and Alliance completely (despite that being improbable) it's an easy mistake to make, but it isn't one that a team like Blizzard that SHOULD have a more close eye on their fanbase should have made.

[FlubberPuddy]

Considering there IS a sizable portion of the fanbase that wants to get rid of the Horde and Alliance completely (despite that being improbable) it's an easy mistake to make, but it isn't one that a team like Blizzard that SHOULD have a more close eye on their fanbase should have made.

Well they tend to do this a lot. Like how they kept defending the pruning for far too long and then admitted they went too far about 3-4 years later.

I think maybe internally there's a threshold they have for feedback that it must look almost unanimous for them to be receptive to it. So even if a portion of the community had been saying something from the get-go they want the feedback to be big enough that it does show.

[DemonDays]

The guy being interviewed definitely studied at the "Ion Hazzicostas Center for Answering Questions Without Actually Answering Them at all."

[Soon-TM]

Just knowing that they've messed around with it internally gives me hope. Keep War mode for the people who want that 'FOR MUH HORDE/ALLIANCE' stuff and let the rest of us just... play with our damn friends already.

They could simply create inner struggle within each faction, with Anduin/Baine being the "doves" whereas Tyrande/Genn and [insert hardliner Hordie here] (are there any left, btw? Everyone Horde-side seems to be fawning upon the boiking...) are the "hawks" who refuse to bury the proverbial hatchet.