With 10.1's xfaction guilds - do races or the game need to be tied to 2 factions?

[Mace]

Cross facton guilds is the last faction divide hurdle. Once we cross that.. it makes me seriously wonder if there is a point to the story forcing the same races in only 2 factons.

I'm sure the horde and alliance can continue to exist, but we can have new factions, a 3rd or fourth even.. and this can change too.

Where a race ends up isi now pretty irrelevant, and world pvp can be entirely faction bsed whatever your faction as you will never lose the ability to guild and trade with your friends.


Proposal of changes: Some race re-organisation

Option 1
Character creation remains unchanged, players who pick a race now are joining a group of that race in the faction - htis is a lore change and doens't affect the current factions you play in.

In the story only: Many races have left the 2 factions, but soldiers and adventuerers who fought with them remian, meaning players will still be in the two factions but in the story: Night elves, Blood elves, Frosaken, Lightforged Draenei, Highmountain, Nightborne, Vulpera, Zandalari and Mechagnomes ALL go neutral. Joining Pandas and Dracthyr. Players must still choose which of the two factions to go into

Goblins are different, they are now available on the alliance as Steamwheedle Cartel Goblins.


Option 2:
New factions: Character creation changes to reflect this

Alliance, Horde, Ancients and Outcasts - the existing races are re-orgnaised into these groups. A player can choose to remain in the original factions or join a differnet one that his race is now in.
Changing factions to one your race is in is free. However you can moveyour race to a faction not allied with it, but you have to grind to exalted rep to do so.

Guilds exist.

[Cheezits]

I don't see a point in additional factions when the new guilds essentially serve the purpose of additional factions.

[Z3ROR]

Warcraft will always have an Alliance and a Horde. I don't think Blizzard will ever change that. But story wise an alliance person and a horde person can be friends. So why not ingame as well? And that's why guilds can be cross faction in the new patch. But there will always be two factions. And at some point the war between those two factions will return.

[Soon-TM]

For all practical purposes, the Horde ceased to be when they turned Sylvie into Garrosh 2.0, but worse. There is effectively one single playable faction left, so these changes do nothing but to bring gameplay closer to what has already happened story wise - with the added advantage of doubling the recruiting base for raiding guilds, as well as the available playerbase for M+ pugs (without which PvE would crash down hard).

[Nathanyel]

No need to emphasize factions when the barrier between the old ones is all but gone.

New races don't need some neutral faction, just let them choose between Horde and Alliance for the purposes of older content.

[Schwert]

No.
And trying to force it out of the game completely, or just not matter at all for new races, is obnoxious, and goes against the spirit of the franchise.

If anything, most forms of gameplay it doesn't matter in means they can actually go harder on the concepts.

Can't worry about putting cool races on the "dead" faction and wasting resources on it when people can't play it.
Faction exclusive stories? Again, no need to worry about a lack of people doing it when folks can just roll the alt with no worries if it's not their faction or main.

Story's had races going to factions when we weren't in a full blown war, and we've been also scuffling and in conflicts - not a full blown war like BFA - since Vanilla.
Player characters are also outside the cycle of what the NPCs go through and do. We've always worked together, but the NPCs are going to be varied.

If you don't like factions, this is not the IP for you.
Everything being neutral is flat out boring and them taking away one of the major things that makes this franchise what it is isn't going to get more people to return. If anything, it's driving away OG fans.

[Chain Chungus]

I'd go with Warcraft 3 factions. Horde, Alliance, Scourge, and Night Elves (which will include treants, dryads, keepers, and such).

[username993720]

I'd go with Warcraft 3 factions. Horde, Alliance, Scourge, and Night Elves (which will include treants, dryads, keepers, and such).

^ this.
This will let the definition of the factions expand some more.
Horde being evil? Now we have the Scourge that you can allocate the Forsaken into.
Alliance being too peaceful? Now we have the Sentinels which you can allocate the Night elves, Worgen and others to.

[VinceVega]

While it would not make a difference after this... i think this is exactly what they should do in the long run.

BUT i wan't it based in lore. There should be a represantation of this ingame. Maybe after another timeskip you have groups of races rather associating with the other faction so you get enclaves and embassadros in the other cities.
Without the lore backing it would be a bit cringe to see nightelves or worgen in the horde for example. Or Stromwind humans. Lorewise it would not make much sense now. Maybe in the future. But not now.

And i am against more factions tbh. Don't like factions in the first place. Groups people together and pits races against each other who would not have a problem in the first place.

[Lochton]

Just because you have cross-faction guilds does NOT mean you don't need factions.

Already way back, we had connections across the factions and only just now are they addressing the fact that there have been orders/companies/guilds working together for over a decade in lore.

Blizzard should just keep it as it is, and just operate with the fact that more races can choose to work together.

[huth]

Just because you have cross-faction guilds does NOT mean you don't need factions.

Already way back, we had connections across the factions and only just now are they addressing the fact that there have been orders/companies/guilds working together for over a decade in lore.

Blizzard should just keep it as it is, and just operate with the fact that more races can choose to work together.

The Faction seperation of players should never have been a thing in the first place. They should have been relegated to story purposes. Player characters are individuals with their own motivations and decisions, not extensions of Horde or Alliance.

IMO they should just remove it entirely and only have seperate player factions for PvP that can be re-chosen every time you go into it. (e.g. similar to how you can choose roles for Dungeons)

If a story requires you to pick a side, the choice would be for that storyline and does not affect group play other than what quests you get.

[Lochton]

If a story requires you to pick a side, the choice would be for that storyline and does not affect group play other than what quests you get.

But the choice is a main part of the story in the case of Warcraft?

[Kokolums]

this is a last ditch effort to keep the primary systems running because the playerbase is so small it is in danger of not being able to support raiding if it gets much smaller.

[huth]

But the choice is a main part of the story in the case of Warcraft?

No, because it is never offered in the first place. And two thirds of the time we're working with both or neither, so it isn't nearly as important as you make it out to be.

[Lochton]

No, because it is never offered in the first place. And two thirds of the time we're working with both or neither, so it isn't nearly as important as you make it out to be.

Are you really saying you aren't offered a choice when you start to play Warcraft? When you start playing World of Warcraft? Do you just.. close your eyes on character creation and selection screens or something?

Cooperation doesn't mean unification. Cross-faction guilds can exist without any issue as guilds in lore, I don't even believe exist, and we are introduced over a loooong time that we can have organised groups across the factions. I mean, we have the Argent Dawn/Crusade, Earthern Ring, Cenerian Circle, Ebon Blade, Darkmoon Faire, Steamwheedle Cartel (Mostly any Goblin cartel (just not Bilgewater), The Kirin Tor, Ravenholt, etc, etc, etc.

[Mysterymask]

I mean why?

Guilds just can exist as a "Group of Adventurers" or a "Mercenary Club" or whatever that exists outside of faction influence. Since most PVE encounters is faction Neutral outside of the odd BoD and TOC raids they don't care who kills the giant world ending threat just who ends them

PVP outside of unrated BGs should be written as a spectator sport run by the Goblins at this point give it a little more flash and pizzaz and give Arena a reason for existing in lore other than "um here is some random things y'all fight in'

[huth]

Cooperation doesn't mean unification. Cross-faction guilds can exist without any issue as guilds in lore, I don't even believe exist, and we are introduced over a loooong time that we can have organised groups across the factions. I mean, we have the Argent Dawn/Crusade, Earthern Ring, Cenerian Circle, Ebon Blade, Darkmoon Faire, Steamwheedle Cartel (Mostly any Goblin cartel (just not Bilgewater), The Kirin Tor, Ravenholt, etc, etc, etc.

Which is not what i'm suggesting. I'm saying player characters should exist outside Alliance and Horde, not that those two should be unified.

[Rhlor]

I don't see a point in additional factions when the new guilds essentially serve the purpose of additional factions.

I guess only at the narrative level to create unique questlines for example.

I think that in game mechanics such as trading the factions have to disappear but I am in favor of creating new factions in the narrative.

I can understand that the night elves and worgen leave the alliance and to continue their war against the horde or the blood elves and nightborne create their elven empire separated from the horde

[Lochton]

Which is not what i'm suggesting. I'm saying player characters should exist outside Alliance and Horde, not that those two should be unified.

Which they shouldn't. They should hail from somewhere, and from there, take their adventure forward. You will always be an Alliance or Horde member, but soon you will be able to (if people care about it, commonly only roleplayers do) fight for the faction you wish to.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't see a point in additional factions when the new guilds essentially serve the purpose of additional factions.

Always thought of how cool it could be if guilds could be flagged as factions, so that the guild structure it 100% outside of the Horde or Alliance.

[Ginnung]

I understand the practical reasons for what they're doing but ngl it's a bit sad to me.
Horde vs Alliance I kinda just view as part of WARcraft.

Imo I wish they just were less uninspired about the writing, less '' Horde and Alliance coming together to fight bigger threat, then go back to hating each other ''.
And instead write different scenarios.
I don't think that WoW is a game that needs 100% continuity between the factions, it doesn't have the writing of a game like FFXIV it never has it's weird to start pretending like it has now ( PlAnNeD sInCe WaRcArFt 3 ).
And I am sure there's even interesting ways you could write the Horde vs Alliance thing into raids.

Activision Blizzard is one of the biggest gaming publishers there is in the industry too lol, it's not like they don't have resources to do it either.
And it has the potential to be a more unique selling point.