With the recent news about player choices affecting the quests we get i thought it was a nice time to bring this issue back. It seems like a good time to let us players make choices about our factions. And Neutrality should be a choice i think. After all our characters have played as Neutral before, Legion is a prime example of that.
I understand that certain people will gravitate towards a faction and some out there have great love for theirs. But to some of us the faction war theme is either over played or simply not as important. In BFA for example we have one such faction war. However its not the only issue in the lore. The wounds in Azeroth for example are a pretty big issue. So what i’m looking to encourage with this post is basically choices that deal with that. I play a druid and i’m pretty deep into the fantasy of the class. I’m pretty sure that very few druids in their right mind would take part in the faction war when they can feel the world beneath their feet dying.
I won’t pretend i’m a developer but i will assume that implementing a fully fledged third faction with the existing races will be a big headache. That is why i believe a choice system that gives players the choice to opt out of the war and go adventuring to save Azeroth will work the best.
With a system like this, maybe cross faction play could become a thing as well. Since people that are Alliance-Neutral could play with both Alliance and Horde-neutral players. It would make the player pools slightly bigger. To me this is needed because there are players that are very invested in the race they play but not their Faction. For example, a player who has horde friends but loves night elves should at least have the option to play with them if they make the choice in game.
Having been a fan of the lore for a while i can tell you more than one examples of neutral factions playing a decisive role in the outcome of many conflicts e.g Argent Crusade in WoTLK , Cenarion circle, Earthern ring in Cataclysm, Shado pan in Pandaria and most recently the Class orders and their factions in Legion. With these considered i’m sure that adding questlines for those who opt neutral wouldn’t be an issue.
Since the choice system Blizzard is implementing was inspired by the #NotMyWarchief movement. I feel like its only appropriate to follow that example to signal boost this idea. Something along the lines of using the hashtag #NotMyWar and putting on a Champion of Azeroth tabard should be enough. I know its what i’m doing.
I’d be all for some kind of mix-up of factions somehow to breathe some fresh life into the game…but how it would/could work is quite complex I guess.
I think removing faction restrictions once the forced BFA war ends would be good, maybe even split up the races a bit so we get different storylines similar to how the class campaign were in legion.
Warmode could easily be made FFA with some sort of currency reward for ganking people and another currency for killing bounty hunted gankers.
And rename the game to World of Globalists. Why even fight a war in a game called Warcraft when we can be friends and do stuff like… I dunno, play with toys in Stormwind.
How exactly does any of this get rid of the war in Warcraft? O.o? Last I checked the scourge the legion, old gods, light, void, death to name can present pretty sizeable threats and opportunities for fights and war to happen. All I advocate for is for choices to be added to the game. Not get rid of the factions. I just want more complicated choices. So that blizzard can make races like the nightborne in the future but not force you to be enemies with them even though you quested in Suramaar for half an expansion. I think it’s silly to get rid of the factions and faction war completely since it’s always been a theme for the game. But it’s just as silly to to force players into a predetermined path that contradicts quests and things they’ve done in the past.
Don’t think that this is related. Well, it would be if we spoke about a third new faction that would be completely neutral and would indeed refrain from fighting either side. But neutrality through choices in the quests isn’t the same thing. I mean blizzard would still be able to do faction conflict. And even if i was a neutral player in quests i would still be able to take part in stuff like pvp.
Tldr: I’m saying that we need choices for the questing, not the overall gameplay.
This pathetic genocidal war between leaders who just want to thrust their crotches at each other is growing ever more tedious every expansion.
Or at least let me rejoin the Scourge with my main. (Still can’t bloody post on it!!).
At least we counted EVERYONE as equally dead and then undead, not just people who looked a bit different.
It would also be good to see Anduin run around with a bucket and mop to give my poor old janitor in Acherus a 5 minute tea break.
And Sylvanas can go back to screeching as a banshee. Actually I would just have her frozen in ice, her voice as it is irritates me enough as it is. Couldn’t stand her standing at the bottom of a pile yelling like Sybil Fawlty.
This. And i think with either a neutral faction or choices the player experience would be a bit more consistent. You can’t have someone become the hero of the world in Legion and then force them to participate in a faction war. I mean the rogues knew that the broken shore situation was a set up to have the Alliance and Horde fight each other. You mean to tell me that the rogue with that knowledge wouldn’t suspect foul play in the current war?
In a world were the choice system had more widespead use for important decisions in the game such massive contradictions wouldn’t happen.
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