What are the best ways to make the Alliance more popular and interesting?

[VladlTutushkin]

Yeah, we "win" on paper. But look at the game. Night elves lost everything. Are near extinction canonically. Horde didn't have to give back ANYTHING. Not Aszhara, not Hillsbrad, not Darkshore, not Ashenvale - nothing.
Horde also did not pay for their crimes.
So they say Alliance "wins" - but never actually gets anything out of it. How is that "winning"?

Horde was allowed to destroy TWO Alliance capitals without repercussions.
I'm telling you, it doesn't feel much like winning.

Fixation on the fact Garrosh died does not make him winning all the way till SoO less true. People just dont want to see it.

[OwenBurton]

Yeah, we "win" on paper. But look at the game. Night elves lost everything. Are near extinction canonically. Horde didn't have to give back ANYTHING. Not Aszhara, not Hillsbrad, not Darkshore, not Ashenvale - nothing.
Horde also did not pay for their crimes.
So they say Alliance "wins" - but never actually gets anything out of it. How is that "winning"?

Horde was allowed to destroy TWO Alliance capitals without repercussions.
I'm telling you, it doesn't feel much like winning.

Well, Southshore is seemingly being reconstructed at least, so some of Hillsbrad is Alliance territory. That being said, Lordaeron is essentially restored in a matter of hours while Darkshore is still destroyed. Even from the most anti-Alliance perspective, it is difficult to not feel sorry for the night elves in their current state.

Fixation on the fact Garrosh died does not make him winning all the way till SoO less true. People just dont want to see it.

I do think that Blizzard is...well, perhaps not necessarily "Horde-biased" per se, but they do seem to invest more resources and energies on developing the Horde narrative than they do the Alliance. We cannot deny that most Blizzard employees are proudly Horde players (Christie Golden might be slightly Alliance-leaning, but I think even she plays on both factions).

For example, the recent Lordaeron questline was fascinating. But it was basically giving the Forsaken their home (Tirisfal), their capital (Lordaeron Keep and Undercity), and their ruling leaders (Desolate Council) back, with the Alliance player just randomly tagging along, to learn in the end that most Forsaken night elves are still proudly Horde, with only a very small group breaking away. And that was after the Horde received another very well-developed and fleshed-out questline regarding the blood elves, which rewarded all Horde players with a brand-new mount.

For night elf fans...what did they receive in the end? Basically, the few night elf souls which were saved by the Maw going into a seed of some kind (perhaps sacrificing their existence in the process), Ysera staying in the Shadowlands, and Tyrande and Shandris returning to Azeroth to await an unknown future. No mount, no new questline, no new capital or home, just more uncertainty and vague promises of "renewal". That is hardly satisfying for most kaldorei players, I would imagine.

[sam86]

Yeah, we "win" on paper. But look at the game. Night elves lost everything. Are near extinction canonically. Horde didn't have to give back ANYTHING. Not Aszhara, not Hillsbrad, not Darkshore, not Ashenvale - nothing.
Horde also did not pay for their crimes.

so ur problem is they didn't update the old game to reflect that
I bet u feel pissed when Varian suddenly vanish after u finish wrath exp -.-
Old content is stuck in old time, cata zones show horde invasion, in Hillsbrad u see both Sylvanas and Garrosh as warchief, then in SL u see everyone hunting here, and if u ever feel pissed go solo raid SoO and punch Garrosh, something we have no equal for
So u get to enjoy weekly looting while we get to enjoy 1 time lvl zone at best... so much win, i seriously wish we 'lose' as much as alliance
And again that also ignore how alliance dominate all tournaments since years
Honestly i don't see alliance ever recover in numbers of players thanks to introduction of faction change in wrath and blizz 'promise' of 'keeping eye on it' (my server Ghostlands turned pure alliance by Cata, and generally pve servers became alliance and pvp horde), unless they make alliance racials even more broken than they are now, and honestly even then doubt it will fix numbers because live servers average player probably have years of investment in their toon to just suddenly change faction, because even payed transfer doesn't move all ur progress
anyway blizz decided to fuck it and fuck lore and just make alliance and horde best buddies teaming for pve content, yay

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For night elf fans...what did they receive in the end?

u get neither Sylvannas nor Garrosh, which is a win
but yeah nelf specially are f8cked, and prior to this exp wow was basically orcs vs humans and rest are supports
also quality of undead quest is highly questionable, u do know that for many ppl Calia is a /who meme, my friend who plays wow since wc2 days don't know her

[Eggroll]

For night elf fans...what did they receive in the end? Basically, the few night elf souls which were saved by the Maw going into a seed of some kind (perhaps sacrificing their existence in the process), Ysera staying in the Shadowlands, and Tyrande and Shandris returning to Azeroth to await an unknown future. No mount, no new questline, no new capital or home, just more uncertainty and vague promises of "renewal". That is hardly satisfying for most kaldorei players, I would imagine.

Exactly my thought, thank you.

[Loreth88]

Exactly my thought, thank you.

And they get dark ranger customization option and no one really ask for, why not give them Tyrande night warrior makeup? They will forgot many sh*t they going through (not all of them)

[Raven]

Yeah Forsaken is back in the horde like nothing ever happened, get a titel, dark ranger customization, and a city back, Night elfs got a seed that will probably be their new city in a expansion or 2 and seem to be located on a Island out in nowhere far from any of their lands they had for thousands of years, so not only lost Darnassus but seem to loose Kalimdor also if the new main city isnt there.

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight]

Better developp and use the secondary leaders and characters, and the internal opponents of the rulers. Developp the culture and unique traits of each kingdom and races.

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight]

Operation Gnomeregan should have ended with Sicco Thermaplugg and his Troggs being defeated for good and Gnomeregan being finally retaken by gnomes.

Cataclysm should then have seen the start of Gnomeregan's rebuilding and the city would have been repopulated by MOP.

[Iain]

Better developp and use the secondary leaders and characters, and the internal opponents of the rulers. Developp the culture and unique traits of each kingdom and races.

BfA Alliance was great in that sense. So much intrigue.

[Verdugo]

Operation Gnomeregan should have ended with Sicco Thermaplugg and his Troggs being defeated for good and Gnomeregan being finally retaken by gnomes.

Cataclysm should then have seen the start of Gnomeregan's rebuilding and the city would have been repopulated by MOP.

What does that have to do with making Alliance more popular.

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight]

What does that have to do with making Alliance more popular.

To give more development and focus on non-human races, instead of having the humans do things for the other Alliance races, as well as making some real achievements to a race that is treated too much and too often as just the comic-relief and to make some progress in the story instead of the eternal statue quo of WOW.

Less focus on humans, and more lore and real accomplishements and progresses for the other races of the Alliance.

[Verdugo]

To give more development and focus on non-human races, instead of having the humans do things for the other Alliance races, as well as making some real achievements to a race that is treated too much and too often as just the comic-relief and to make some progress in the story instead of the eternal statue quo of WOW.

Less focus on humans, and more lore and real accomplishements and progresses for the other races of the Alliance.

But not gnomes for fucks sake.

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight]

But not gnomes for fucks sake.

Every race should have its development and moments of awesome.

What's your problem with Gnomes anyway ?

[Verdugo]

Every race should have its development and moments of awesome.

What's your problem with Gnomes anyway ?

Look, gnomes are just not really popular. No matter how many "badass" moments you shoehorn in, they will never become popular, so just giving them spotlight will piss off people that want the real Alliance favourites like Night Elves to get spotlight without becoming punching bags.

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight]

Look, gnomes are just not really popular. No matter how many "badass" moments you shoehorn in, they will never become popular, so just giving them spotlight will piss off people that want the real Alliance favourites like Night Elves to get spotlight without becoming punching bags.

I think any race should have its own developped story and moments, and even if they still aren't the most popular race giving the gnomes some additionnal seriousness and feats won’t harm their or the Alliance popularity in general.

Similar development and treatment should be given to the Draenei, the Dwarves and the Worgens with us witnessing the rebuilding of the Exodar, the cleansing of the radiations on Azuremyst Isles and Draenei truly establishing themselves on Azeroth and develloping ties with their allies, Gilneans taking back Gilneas and working to cleanse the Plague while also interacting with other allies than Stormwind and the Night Elves, and seeing the restablishement of the relations and common politics and military between the dwarven clans and seeing the Dark Irons meet with other races while also facing suspension from their non-dwarven new allies.

[Saltysquidoon]

The Alliance always should have been the larger more established faction (because it literally was from where WCIII ended to where vanilla kicks off), theoretically stronger but paralysed by factious infighting and a leader giving competing orders, compared to the horde's smaller but more agile and vigorous leadership under thrall.
This would have worked well in vanilla (and even happens to some extent) that without a unifying foe the alliance races are so busy dealing with fires in their own backyard and competing with each other it effectively leaves it completely exposed to horde manoeuvring.

Hilariously we're now in a situation where the horde is ruled by a council and the alliance has a blue warchief.

[Unholyground]

Merging the factions is the only way /end thread.

[OwenBurton]

I think any race should have its own developped story and moments, and even if they still aren't the most popular race giving the gnomes some additionnal seriousness and feats won’t harm their or the Alliance popularity in general.

Similar development and treatment should be given to the Draenei, the Dwarves and the Worgens with us witnessing the rebuilding of the Exodar, the cleansing of the radiations on Azuremyst Isles and Draenei truly establishing themselves on Azeroth and develloping ties with their allies, Gilneans taking back Gilneas and working to cleanse the Plague while also interacting with other allies than Stormwind and the Night Elves, and seeing the restablishement of the relations and common politics and military between the dwarven clans and seeing the Dark Irons meet with other races while also facing suspension from their non-dwarven new allies.

The gnomes at least have Mechagon back, which is something new and interesting. Imagine if Erazmin and his people helped Gelbin modernize and remake all of Gnomeregan if ever they reclaimed their other city, it would be like a high-tech paradise in the middle of a fantasy world with all sorts of fancy gimmicks and flying transport machines everywhere.

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight]

And far less focus on the opposition with the Horde, with far more on the Alliance's most immediate issues and foes, and to see more of their interactions with neutral races and factions.

[VladlTutushkin]

And far less focus on the opposition with the Horde, with far more on the Alliance's most immediate issues and foes, and to see more of their interactions with neutral races and factions.

Alliance’s main problem is being wusses and weaklings when it comes to opposition with the Horde. It cannot be solved by beating on random neutral mobs and building stuff.

If of course its not building more stuff to kill Horde.