Will the factions change? Should they?

[gd8]

And the thing is, people are actually asking for exactly what that guy suggested. They want washed up "I would never do anything to hurt anyone" characters like literally every Alliance character aside from Jaina and Greymane and some Horde characters like current Saurfang and Baine in charge.

Why the hell are people asking for peace and tree hugging in a world of Warcraft? We literally need Sylvanas right now because if it wasn't for her and the cool guys in Blizzard who actually know we need a war to keep the game alive, we wouldn't even have a f***ing expansion. If Greymane becomes king, we would have an all out war and it would be absolutely awesome, we don't need boring and peace loving faction leaders.

ANYONE who wants the two buddies Baine and Anduin as faction leaders basically wants the game to end in a happy ending where the Horde and the Alliance lived happily ever after. This player base desperately needs more testosterone.

no story about war that basically just amounts to "war is cool and good lol" is worth telling. lose the edge

[Chaosweaver]

no story about war that basically just amounts to "war is cool and good lol" is worth telling. lose the edge

It's exciting and gives us content and it drives the story forward. You misjudged me for being an edgelord, what I actually meant was that peace loving and tree hugging faction leaders will make the story boring as f*** and we might as well pull the plug on the game if both factions make up and live happily ever after. It's World of Warcraft not World of Lets Be Friends.

[Splenda]

I would love to see the factions shaken up and changed. I firmly believe this will never, ever happen.

Maybe if there's a WoW2.

[Mestalis]

It's exciting and gives us content and it drives the story forward. You misjudged me for being an edgelord, what I actually meant was that peace loving and tree hugging faction leaders will make the story boring as f*** and we might as well pull the plug on the game if both factions make up and live happily ever after. It's World of Warcraft not World of Lets Be Friends.

What if rather than faction vs. faction they instead move on to race vs. race. The Alliance and the Horde could come to terms, many of the restrictions between the factions could be lifted, much less emphasis on separate stories for each faction, but conflict between specific races still exist. The night elves and worgen cant get behind the peace effort and still have active animosity towards the undead and goblins for what happened in Kalimdor. I agree that if everything were peaceful between the entire player-base, things would get boring quickly, that being said the "war" in Warcraft doesn't have to be Alliance vs. Horde, there are lots of different places blizz could take the conflict. This expansion really feels like the end of the Alliance vs. Horde to me.

- - - Updated - - -

This is assuming that the story elements steer the direction and design choices of the game. I don't think they do or have ever done. (Ref: https://twitter.com/Ghostcrawler/sta...50714209394688). The WoW team simply doesn't think in these terms - they build the story around the general theme and gameplay.

They have people who make sure the lore stays somewhat consistent - but just because something happened in one expac story, doesn't mean they will refactor the core code elements of the game.

I'd like to be wrong about this, because it would be cool if the story was the lead design factor. But I don't think so.

While I can agree that throughout the history of WoW gameplay has certainly lead the charge with Lore following after it, but given that over the past few expansions they've gone from planning one expansion at a time, to planning 2-3 expansions ahead, that could be changing. In his recent interview Metzen said they started work on BfA nearly 3 years ago. They have been leaning into storytelling and lore more and more over the course of the last few expansions, with a huge uptick in storytelling from the very beginning of this expansion. If there were ever a time for them to change their existing model, it seems like now might be that time.

[Voidism]

I'd love a shake up tbh. AvH feels a bit stale and too restrictive.

[ZazuuPriest]

in the end, eventually, they will allow players to defect from their respective factions. maybe in an expansion or two. Theyll say they will never allow it, in the end they will

[Ascius]

I was going to say that I could see some races getting a chance to choose a faction same as Pandaren do now, but with allied races I don't think this will happen.

[Soon-TM]

Well I hope they continue to be “lazy” cause the day I see Alliance chilling in Orgrimmar is the day I quit lmao

You wouldn't see "Alliance chilling in Org" lmfao. You would see humans/dwarves/draenei/whatever that decided to desert the Alliance and wear the red tabard now.

Why the hell are people asking for peace and tree hugging in a world of Warcraft?

You are confusing World of Warcraft with World of AllianceVsHordecraft. The whole reason that the faction war makes little sense is because no side will ever win, due to gameplay reasons. It follows that feeling invested in a war that you know it will end in a stalemate beforehand is a waste of time. MoP is the only moment in the history of WoW when AvH made at least some sense, and I don't think devs will simply rehash MoP story.

[Nobleshield]

I hope they get rid of the factions soon. Most other MMOs did away with the silly faction divides other than for PVP (e.g. Battlegrounds) and have done great as a result. WoW is the main outlier now that continues to split their playerbase. They could easily do cross-faction PVE and still not let you go into an enemy city and not affect BGs in any way.

[Enosh]

I think they should just bite the bullet and remove the alliance as a faction, fold the current races into the horde or something

[Shibito]

It seems evident that if a significant faction shift were ever to occur (which it may not), during or immediately following the life-cycle of BfA would be the time, and it seems like the community can feel that.

Personally my favorite theory is Alliance with current races, Horde with current races, and a new third Undead faction with undead models for every race, and the option to change faction from Alliance or Horde to Undead.

Another popular one seems to be a shift from Alliance vs. Horde to Light vs. Void with a choice to be made by the player.

Maybe we'll eventually have some version of both.

Regardless, do you believe the race/factions balance will change significantly as a result of BfA, and do you believe they should? Why?

will be void vs light as alliance is void horde is light

[Agrossive]

Would be awesome to see some tuaren and undead defect to alliance because of these recent events!

[Sastank]

No and no. This is absurd.

[Aeula]

I think getting rid of Horde vs Alliance would be a mistake on Blizzard’s part. It’s one of the core, recognisable USP’s the game has. You can’t think of Warcraft without thinking of the two big factions.

Old Gods, Legion, Void etc... are all comparably irrelevant.

[Archibalde]

I don't think that they can afford to play up the faction war to this degree and for it to not result in anything. The Alliance or Horde can't be the clear victor and loser without half of the players being upset about it. Disrupting the faction war with another catastrophe that everyone has to join together to defeat, would lead to people feeling let down by the hype. I think a shift to the factions is their only legitimate option for a resolution to what they've been pushing. I think it's the only original/unexpected option left.

Well... there's your problem. If you expect something unexpected, you are most likely going to be disappointed. Truth be told, Blizzard has never been great about doing original stories or twists that are not forced. So many of their characters across all their games have very similar stories.

This expansion seems very similar to Mists of Pandaria. Focused heavily on a faction war initially, then we discover some Titan facility, realize there's something much more threatening than the opposing faction and the focus will gradually shift. It most likely won't play out exactly like MoP, I doubt they'd go as far as making Sylvanas a raid boss this expansion... but they have been laying all the groundwork for the Forsaken's future.

Nathanos has hesitated several times now before executing his queen's order. He has been featured heavily in Stormheim and seems to play a big role again in certain questlines for BFA. Calia Menethil tried leading a small rebellion that was quickly squashed, showing that there are some Forsaken who don't want Sylvanas as their leader anymore. It's unlikely they would attempt a carbon copy of Siege of Ogrimmar with Nathanos fulfilling Vol'jin's role, but it's quite obvious they are setting up Nathanos as the Forsaken leader quite soon.

[Sentynel]

It seems evident that if a significant faction shift were ever to occur (which it may not), during or immediately following the life-cycle of BfA would be the time, and it seems like the community can feel that.

Personally my favorite theory is Alliance with current races, Horde with current races, and a new third Undead faction with undead models for every race, and the option to change faction from Alliance or Horde to Undead.

Another popular one seems to be a shift from Alliance vs. Horde to Light vs. Void with a choice to be made by the player.

Maybe we'll eventually have some version of both.

Regardless, do you believe the race/factions balance will change significantly as a result of BfA, and do you believe they should? Why?

Battlegrounds say hi.

[Omedon]

They gotta stay the same, way too many people are attached to their characters, and new fractions would tear friendships and bonds people have made over the years. and they aren't gonna force people to change their characters into races they don't want to be in, just to stay with their friends.

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.

Battlegrounds say hi.

Mercenary mode waves back.

[vashe9]

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 franchise at all. Blizzard is not mad it won't happen.
Any current bg wouldn't make sense anymore, BFA wouldn't make sense anymore... Completely impossible

Mercenary mode ? lol ? For Alterac Valley or Warsong glutch ? You can already play both faction on any server, that's enough to play with friends. Everyone has many alt nowadays because its easy to play several characters

[Omedon]

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 franchise at all. Blizzard is not mad it won't happen.
Any current bg wouldn't make sense anymore, BFA wouldn't make sense anymore... Completely impossible

Mercenary mode ? lol ? For Alterac Valley or Warsong glutch ?

What if I told you that, perhaps for a simple flick of a UI option, WoW was capable of protecting your immersion with a simple "make me see my own faction" toggle that "caverns of time'ed" your instanced grouping experiences just for you?

WoW's not getting any younger, nor is this genre, a softening of the walls between players must happen eventually. And the faction war is "the villain on the box" for this expansion.

It's far from impossible.

[vashe9]

What if I told you that, perhaps for a simple flick of a UI option, WoW was capable of protecting your immersion with a simple "make me see my own faction" toggle that "caverns of time'ed" your instanced grouping experiences just for you?

WoW's not getting any younger, nor is this genre, a softening of the walls between players must happen eventually. And the faction war is "the villain on the box" for this expansion.

It's far from impossible.

Its just absurd and no one except a few are asking for that. Blizzard has no interest in doing that, the game is NOT dying at all. The people who love the lore (go on youtube there are A LOT of people.) would me mad, I would be mad too.
Its just an absurd wish, I'm sure you can find threads like this from Vanilla time... "No one will play alliance", I remember these threads

You seem to think MMO-C forum represents the majority... I'm sorry but it isnt...

Have you watched the commercials for BFA? They are not giving any hints of what you're talking about... its in your head