World of Warcraft®

I have traveled the paths of Azeroth alone with my bear and given that a hunter is allowed time with his thoughts, I have one that I had been pondering and decided to share it. Please give me your opinions, and keep in mind that it is a thought.

Everyone knows that in WOW you have the Alliance and the Horde, you also have a number of faction which don't fit in 100% with either and seemingly do their own thing. My thought is this, WHAT IF toons were allowed to choose? This could lead to waves of Orcs joining the Alliance or droves of Dwarves screaming "For the Horde!!!!!" But it could also cause players to present more of a reason for someone to take a side in the epic battle that is WOW.
Not only that, I personally think that there is a certain cool factor about being able to traverse the world without belonging to either the Horde or Alliance. I understand that 'the pandas' are going to have the ability to choose at a certain point in their progression but still the thought is a valid one in my opinion.

What do you think?

The ability to choose 'anything' always has a strong appeal.

If we were allowed to choose any sides other than the ones started with, I can imagine an imbalance would occur on certain realms.
I have always wanted to fight along side the dwarves, and have often thought of elves period.. as the same though on different continents.

As for who has the better catch-phrase, we all have our preferences. Cities however, are different enough to have their own individual perks leading for those who have been to both sides to pick more for familiarity than for which faction. It is nice to know where everything is..

I know that this probably isn't the constructive answer you wanted. But it is none the less a response.


Edit: One more thing to consider would be a third faction. Much like the cenarion circle expedition, who seems to accept both openly.

I suppose there could be an imbalance if people were allowed to choose sides, still it'd make for interesting playing. Even if it was tested in just a realm or two.
The thought of a third major faction has a certain ring to it. An open faction accepting both Alliance and Horde... But then does it fight the alliance and/or horde? Does it fight againt them both because the two other factions choose to remain seperate OR does it favor one over the other? That would kind of be like a civil war within a war.
Perhaps the guilds could form into a sub-faction or something... Anyway you spin the idea interesting things could come of it.

The problem with a third faction is imbalance. Starting one up now would mean they'd be greatly outnumbered in PvP battles. They'd also have to revamp all the old battlegrounds to have a starting base/objective for a third faction. And then there's the problem of two groups teaming up against the other. Sounds cool in theory, but I bet there'd be tons of QQ in practice.

Unless...there could be people from both factions who chose to join the neutral one. You'd have the option of PvP taken away from you entirely, but in return for being able to visit/interact with the cities of both factions and talk to player characters from either side. It'd be some sort of questline your character could do (and then they'd go through another questline to rejoin their parent faction if they wanted to undo it later).

If there was a third faction, I would think that that faction would be against the horde and the alliance. And that the horde and alliance would be against that third faction to even out a balance.

Still... it would make for an interesting time wouldn't it?


Edit: I'm also liking the questline idea Dustwing. That would be an awesome tie-in on choosing.

*clears throat politely*

Some of us ARE a third faction, as best we can be. Neutral since 2005!

Yes, Aeldgyth, but if you - not your organization, I mean you, personally - were to walk into Orgrimmar, the guards would turn you into minced gnome in about fifteen seconds. (Longer if you're Blood.)

The possibility of joining a third faction and then doing certain quests to get back into your parent faction sounds interesting. I tend to think that this would lead to some people joining the third faction, getting loads of gear from each city and then essentially stabbing the third faction in the back. It would almost add a cia/spy element to WOW.
As for the elimination of PvP due to being outnumbered, I could actually see something like that happen. My view differs slightly though, I believe that the potential new faction SHOULD be allowed to PvP. If you get schooled and ground to bits by the other factions, so be it, welcome to the World of Warcraft. Perhaps the creation of a third faction would allow for some new or specific armor sets and/or some hella spells focusing on defense/healing.
To introduce it to the world there could be a story of how faction members got miffed at their parent factions and joined together or maybe Booty Bay and Ratchet grew and became the foundation of a third faction because both Alliance and Horde members work together there... Lots of ways to go with this. You wouldn't have to go back and tweak any of the older story lines, this one could just spring up.

Some people might sometimes think about this sort of thing from time to time, start to realize that maybe the other side would be a better home for them, but I'm not one of those people. I may not always act like it, but I will remain opposed to the Horde until the day I die.

When I was ten, I watched my friends and family die, and my home burn down around me as the Orcs marauded through Stormwind in the First War. I then watched my Great Grandfather go off to fight in the Second War when they tried to do the same to the rest of the Eastern Kingdoms, and they damn near succeeded. Even when Thrall lead the Orcs to Kalimdor to try and find them a peaceful home, they still managed to find a way to cause war wherever they went, even going so far as to kill the demigod Cenarius.

Yes, they've helped us before, as well, but those were situations where it was that or die. But even THEN they still find ways to get good men and woman of the Alliance killed en masse; most recently by failing to keep sufficient control over their own minions. The witch Sylvanas, in all her brilliance apparently lacked the foresight to consider what her Demon Lieutenant might be plotting, that he might be planning to betray her at the worst possible time, and it was that oversight and lack of common sense that led to the death of hundreds, if not thousands.

Before, Thrall at least attempted to hold the Horde back from war. He made attempts at peace. He failed, but he tried to make it work. But now, with Hellscream at the helm, his blood alive with the fury and warmongering ways of his father even without that demonic curse, I welcome the war he brings. Perhaps one day soon, we'll be able to correct a mistake 30 years in the making and erase the Horde from Azeroth once and for all.

And who knows... perhaps some of the warriors from that day, when I was ten years old... perhaps some of them are still alive and fighting with the Horde today. I hope some of them are, so that I can have the chance to take my own revenge for that day.

I haven't forgotten, and I certainly won't overlook the other horrors you shelter.

I suppose ideally, the neutral faction would have a whole other game mechanic you could advance by. PvP is a big part of the game, and while it'd be neat to be friends with the other faction, in the long run, there's not much point to it.

So maybe being part of the third faction would allow you to do diplomatic things and get peace points to buy gear that makes you do diplomatic things BETTER? And diplomatic things could be something like the conversations in NWN where you have to convince NPCs of something through dialogue...and...uh...okay, I'm not sure why people would want to give up PvP for something like that, either.

Interesting to think about.