Factional "Never say never" is borderline insulting at this point.

[dwarven]

The change would be so massive for the story uniting the factions would have to segue into other major changes, like a significantly expanded guild system, totally revamped war mode, or even an entirely new game. Knowing Blizzard, they won't just smoosh the two factions together and call it a day. There will be a special Blizzard twist on the whole thing if they do it.

[bdmxd]

You must love mercenary mode...

You must have glanced at what I wrote maybe you need to take another look at it.

[huth]

And? Why is that an issue? Horde has always had better players.

It isn't an issue for you, of course. But it is an issue for the game. You're irrelevant.

[Mysterymask]

The change would be so massive for the story uniting the factions would have to segue into other major changes, like a significantly expanded guild system, totally revamped war mode, or even an entirely new game. Knowing Blizzard, they won't just smoosh the two factions together and call it a day. There will be a special Blizzard twist on the whole thing if they do it.

Best way is to basically call it a diplomatic truce
Warmode is still a thing unrated bgs still a thing let rated arenas and bgs mix factions let guilds mix factions let pve mix factions and opposite faction players entering the wrong city still get killed on sight

Story is only moderately altered but still going the course

[Th3Scourge]

No factions, no WoW. Faction conflict, in one form or another, is the core of Warcraft.

[Kelduril]

It isn't an issue for you, of course. But it is an issue for the game. You're irrelevant.

Pretty sure the game is doing just fine without cross faction.

I recommend playing ESO or one of the other failed MMOs that had to mix their playerbases. This one should not do that.

[huth]

Best way is to basically call it a diplomatic truce
Warmode is still a thing unrated bgs still a thing let rated arenas and bgs mix factions let guilds mix factions let pve mix factions and opposite faction players entering the wrong city still get killed on sight

Story is only moderately altered but still going the course

Most BGs are timelocked in an era that's already long past at this point anyway, and arenas are basically a sport in-universe, so they're not an issue. I'm not sure if the game would really be hurt by world PvP just plain being removed outside of FFA zones. It doesn't seem like there are that many people actually interested in actual PvP in Warmode.

Pretty sure the game is doing just fine without cross faction.

Then you're pretty wrong, it's a known issue and has been for years. Even Blizzard has acknowledged it as far back as Legion. They just thought they could fix it without opening cross-faction grouping.

[Kelduril]

name ONE dude that was in the original horde leadership and is in ogrimmar today,there are a few old veteran soldiers like eitrigg,and guess what?he has human friends and is against the conflict

Considering the original horde leadership was 1 person that's a pretty cherry picked situation from you.

Racism is integral to warcraft, it's what the setting is built on and why we don't immediately roflstomp every enemy. Because every fight is an Alliance vs Horde vs bad guy triple threat.

Mixing the factions makes no sense.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

They absolutely shouldn't. When they remove the barrier they become the same as the other failed MMOs like ESO who had to break down the factions because their playerbase wasn't big enough.

Warcraft is built on the Alliance vs Horde conflict, it's its identity. If they bring down the walls EVERYONE will just roll Human.

No thanks.

No, they definitely wouldn't all roll human. The faction conflict has been sidelined every bloody expansion in favor of a greater threat, to the point that it feels silly that we even have a faction conflict that prevents the champions(players) of each faction from working together (despite the leaders of the factions being entirely capable of doing exactly that).

[Kelduril]

No, they definitely wouldn't all roll human.

Yes they would. The racial's busted.

- - - Updated - - -

Then you're pretty wrong, it's a known issue and has been for years.

The Horde having higher performances because good players like it more isn't an issue.

This has been a thing since Vanilla.

[Karrde]

Normal mode = cross faction play
War Mode = faction war. Can't warmode unless you click it in the main city as well.

Before SL, I hoped for this. Anduin and Thrall/ Vol / Baine / whoever the horde leader of the hour is wanted peace. You click warmode and you get a quest to talk to Genn / Sylvannas, the leaders that are working more in the shadows to undermine their leader and slay the other faction. Of course, if asked by their king / war cheif they refuse it and say they are loyal to the peace.

[Jurani]

Just remove this faction barrier and finish it already. What is the point of the barrier anyway??? PVP? Hahaha. Keep it for Warmode.

In the current state, we have more bad than good with the separation and I just don't see any other solution and Blizzard also...

Ion said in the same interview that they waited for to long with the Realm imbalance problem, now they are waiting for to long with the faction imbalance. Until it will be ruined beyond repair.

They already did wait too long to balance the factions. Now they need to fix what they ignored for so long.

[Logwyn]

I mean, yeah. People are going to be toxic over fantasy racism in cross faction groups but over time it will probably fade. I think it would be a good thing for "faction pride" to be less toxic.

People are toxic towards races of their own faction. I've known a few guilds that were NO GNOME ALLOWED!! or Only Elves.

[deenman]

Considering the original horde leadership was 1 person that's a pretty cherry picked situation from you.

Racism is integral to warcraft, it's what the setting is built on and why we don't immediately roflstomp every enemy. Because every fight is an Alliance vs Horde vs bad guy triple threat.

Mixing the factions makes no sense.

And why do you think working more directly with the oposite faction would magicaly eliminate racism lol? this happens in real life and in history often,rome and germanic tribes for example

We can have a pve mercenary mode,we can have cross faction raiding etc and still hate each other,most guilds do this in wow daily haha

[bdmxd]

In my opinion, if they mixed factions in three to five years WOW will be dead and gone.

[huth]

The Horde having higher performances because good players like it more isn't an issue.

This has been a thing since Vanilla.

No, it hasn't. Originally, they were mostly Alliance even.

Besides, the good players don't like the Horde. They're on the Horde because it's easier to build functioning raid groups there, not because it is the Horde. Which causes even more players to switch to Horde, which then reinforces the effect even more. At this rate, in 1-2 expansions there won't be any functioning Alliance Mythic raids anymore.

Your precious faction divide will become irrelevant at that point.

Besides, you're not making much of an argument for why it would even be needed. Lore certainly isn't a good one, as the factions have proven perfectly capable of working together when need be. The faction divide is nowhere near as integral to the game as you pretend it to be.

[Puupi]

They already tried doing 10man raids for the hardest content in the game, and it failed miserably remember? Why would you want the mess it caused back?

Failed miserably? Rofl.

Mythic raiding was at its' peak popularity when 10 man mythics were around. Literally tens of thousands of guilds raiding mythic.

It has only been downhill since.

EDIT: Just some numbers from wowprogress: during Siege of Orgrimmar, there were ~24000 10 man guilds raiding mythic and ~4000 25 man guilds raiding mythic.

[huth]

Failed miserably? Rofl.

Mythic raiding was at its' peak popularity when 10 man mythics were around. Literally tens of thousands of guilds raiding mythic.

It has only been downhill since.

Mythic and 10man fixed size never existed as a combination. Besides, we'd have more classes than raid spots. Some classes would have little to no raid representation.

[Unlimited Power]

The way Ion worded it, it sounds like they're contemplating allowing the mercenary system to function in PvE. IE You can group with the opposite faction for PvE content but you'll be temporarily transformed to the opposite faction while doing so.

[Puupi]

Mythic and 10man fixed size never existed as a combination.

Yes it did, in Siege of Orgrimmar. Before that it was just called "heroic".

Besides, we'd have more classes than raid spots. Some classes would have little to no raid representation.

And we did back then. Only demon hunters have been introduced after that, it's not like things have changed a lot.

EDIT: actually I'm wrong, it was called heroic in SoE, too. Either way, it's the same thing.