Faction Loyalty

I wanted to make this topic for a while, so I might as well do it now while not being banned.

Factions and why people choose them, has always been a very interesting topic to me. Did people choose their faction because of their favorite race? Aesthetics? Story? Friends being in that faction? Even if you play both factions, you most likely favor one over the other.

Because of that, I wanted to ask you guys some questions:

  1. What Faction do you play/favor?
  2. Why do you play/favor that faction?
  3. Do you dislike/hate the opposite faction?
  4. If yes: Why?

I’ll go first:
What Faction do you play/favor?
Alliance

Why do you play/favor that faction?
I guess I liked their aesthetics more and that was the reason why my first char wasn’t Horde. Other than that, I really started to immerse myself into the whole faction thing back in MoP, when I transitioned to a pvp Server. However I’ve to admit that I kinda started to dislike the Alliance over the years. It seems to be the complete and utter opposite of what I would want it to be.

Do you dislike/hate the opposite faction?
Yeah I pretty much dislike the Horde.

If yes: Why?
Certainly not because of MUH THERAMORE or MUH TELDRASSIL or any other “”“story”"" attack against the Alliance. I dislike them because in my opinion they are disgusting looking mongrels that live in ugly buildings and shout out cringe lines about “MUH HUNUR”.

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Not that there’s anything wrong with disliking the Horde for those reasons. Theramore was a quiet and nice place to afk in and Teldrassil was… uhm… was… Well, if they hadn’t destroyed it, Stormwind wouldn’t be littered with bothersome elven refugees right now.

I mean, it’s certainly better than disliking the Alliance for that tauren camp and that emissary who didn’t make it past the gates of Stormwind 10 years ago.

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Horde for life.

I tried Alliance in the past, but something just felt wrong about killing and scheming against the Horde. Not sure what it is, but the Horde always felt like home to me.

On and off. They have surprised me in some instances, like Jaina saving my boy Baine. She risked a lot to get him out of Sylvanas’ clutches, and she won a lot of my respect. Made me think, “Well, maybe they aren’t all bad”.

The Horde accepts everyone, no matter their background or race. They’re almost like one giant family. Alliance on the other hand will use “lesser” races when it benefits them most. Worgen for example, the Horde would welcome with open arms as equals, but the Alliance sees these mangy dogs as tools to put down the scourge.
There is no respect and honor among the Alliance, and their personalities are lifeless.

I feel like the horde would always have my back no matter what, because you’re not just another pawn in their ranks - we’re their brothers and sisters.
Though I am secretly hoping that Sylvanas becomes the “bad guy” of the story, because I want her replaced as Warchief. I’d much prefer to see Baine or Thrall on top, because I think they could really make a huge difference.

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X to doubt.

Reminder that the New Horde welcomes all reasonable people who do not wish to do warcrimes.

Horde, 95% of the time.

I always liked the idea of an underdog faction, but also a faction of outcasts that come together and bring various skills and talents to the table.
Orcs - Shamanistic beliefs
Undead - Shadow Magics
Tauren - Nature beliefs as well as giving Horde insight into An’she
Trolls - Loa
Blood Elves - Light, Arcane and Archery prowess
Goblins - Finances
Pandaren - …something something Monk related…
Nightborne - strong Arcane prowess as well as Horde insight in the ancient Highborne magics.

I love when diversity like this is done right. It promotes a good identity for the faction.

No. I do have a Night Elf Mage at 120. I just dislike the Alliance’s story mainly. It is so bland and uninteresting.
The races could be interesting. Void Elves, Dark Iron and Worgen could be made into something that is unique, but Blizzard nerfs them to Human standards and below.

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Does anyone want to tell him?

Fancy making a new thread and it’s already on its way to out-of-context blamefest and war.

Classic ‘discussion’ happening, I see.

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Horde, by far. I do have an Alliance character as well, though.

I’ve been playing Horde since I started, and never thought about switching. I like it here. But these days, I mostly play Horde because of the Tauren. They are my favourite race, and I’ll always stick with them.

No, honestly I don’t really care about the Alliance. I don’t dislike it, I certainly don’t hate it, but I just don’t feel at home in it and won’t switch to it.

I feel more at home in the Horde for some reason. Absolutely unrelated to current lore.

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I mean, yeah, it’s not that just because a thread has good intentions you can just slap obvious misinformation into it, and if I see someone telling me that the Alliance is basically the evil Sith Empire and the Horde are the abused Rebels, I will put that in question at the very least.

I find it especially baffling that someone would claim that there is no “respect and honor” amongst the Alliance. In front of such a claim, I wonder if we are playing the same game.

Horde.

It has been the faction I have been playing most consistently throughout since I started playing mid Wrath of the Lich King (Wrathbaby). And it has been story wise proved more interesting to me despite how difficult that seems to be nowadays.

I still enjoy it for the same elements - what scraps there are left to play.

Not really, no. They have their own things I dislike for sure, but not outright hatred.

It’s the ‘samey’ and cold feel that disappoints me most. My personal take on it.

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  1. What Faction do you play/favor?
    I play both but don’t favor either. Most of my characters are Horde though. Probably around 70 - 30 ratio

  2. Why do you play/favor that faction?
    I play each one for different reasons. But I don’t like the story of the Horde atm. They don’t really know what they are right now.

  3. Do you dislike/hate the opposite faction?
    No I don’t. But I sympathise with Alliance more atm.

  4. If yes: Why?
    Can’t answer this one sorry!

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  1. Play both. Favour Horde.
  2. Because the theme about developing in depth a series of “monster races” beyond the fantasy trope of chaotic evilness, seemed rather appealing to me. That seemed much more appealing than the standard “Good guy” theme that the Alliance races follow.
    Perhaps that’s the reason why I play a Worgen when experiencing Alliance, or played Night elves in Warcraft 3: because they are as far as you can get from said trope with an Alliance race.
    These days, with Anduin and Jaina it’s become harder to enjoy said sort of experience.
    And with the villain batting of Horde races, that’s become harder too.
  3. From a meta level, no. Meta speaking I dislike certain attitudes, but that’s more related to player/human behaviour.
    From an ingame perspective, I’d understand if certain Horde factions would want to stamp their foot down and retaliate hard against the Alliance.
  4. Kind of answered above.
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From Zakkaru:

1.What Faction do you play/favor?
Mostly Horde
2.Why do you play/favor that faction?
There is much bigger diversity of unique races even if I don’t like all of them. Bar blood elves core races are quite evenly picked and it’s really nice. I also really enjoy plaing trolls as no other game offers me to play such a weird but very fun creature. Alliance is just ok, but there is nothing holding me there. (But I love the Dark Irons, yass!)

But nowadays I don’t really feel like Horde player. Since both factions are big disappointment I am now imperialist.

  1. Do you dislike/hate the opposite faction?
    No, I don’t hate Alliance, I really dislike some bits of them, like particular characters. But so I find dislikeable stuff in Horde nowadays. If the story is underwhelming for both of them I stick up to playing the races I like the most.

  2. Characters like Jaina, Anduin. The overall stagnant setup, I think Horde and Alliance should’ve swap because villan batting Horde AGAIN was extremely demoralizing to a lof of horde players, while Alliance is upset that their perspective doesn’t matter and their main representatives are super forgiving to Horde. There is no inside dynamic in that faction.

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Horde.

I liked their aggressive, expansionist vibe in Cata (When I joined). Also Blood Elves and Orcs are my two favorite races.
I’ve been falling out of love with the faction since Lol’jin took over at the end of MoP. BfA has hit me particularly hard.

Yes. But I’m starting to hate the Horde more. Especially when the rebels end up taking over. I despise all the Horde leaders, I only side with Sylvanas because she’s the most tolerable.

They’re utterly boring, self righteous pricks. I feel like most races have no real identity due to the massive human focus. Anduin is the Alliance’s Baine (Although I don’t think he’s quite as bad, at least Anduin attacks the Horde and is actually willing to go to war in BfA). Jaina is inconsistent, Bipolar and insane (Also hate her as a blood elf fan for obvious reasons)

The rest of the leaders don’t really do much but pay lipservice to Anduin or whoever else is ‘High King’ of the ‘Alliance’.

They were much better in Classic, if they’d stayed like they were then I’d probably be playing them in BfA. Especially with the Horde in it’s current state.

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I play both Alliance and Horde, but favor the Horde.

I favor the Horde because I like their simplistic aesthetics compared to the Alliance stupid Castles (I love Ironforge and Shadowforge City on Alliance).

I dislike certain aspects of each faction.

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I play Alliance, only have one Horde alt to see the story.

Gilneas is in there, and the faction has great story-telling potential which is barely used, unfortunately. Reducing the Alliance to a passive Captain America faction is detrimental for both us, and the Horde.

I also enjoy the faction esthetics. Unrelated observation, a lot of Alliance players are more fond of their chosen races then the Alliance in its entirety, and for that, I blame Blizzard for consistently portraying the faction as idiotic.

Not really, we are pretty much in this crap together. BFA has drained me of most of the mostly jovial animosity towards the other faction.

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Thank you guys for all the genuine replies! :heart:

Here’s unsubbed Khaedar’s take:

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You should remove the “IC” introduction, those seem like valid concerns even from a meta perspective.

1. What Faction do you play/favor?

Horde

2. Why do you play/favor that faction?

  • Orcpower
  • my guild of RL friends older then WoW
  • My second RTS after Dune 2 was Warcraft 1. And I liked those green peons so much :smiley:

3. Do you dislike/hate the opposite faction?

Yes, I dislike the faction. (not the players)

4. If yes: Why?

  • High moral
  • White Knights
  • Goody Ol’ Shoes
  • Gnome Voices and Eyes. I do not know why, I can not stand them. The only cool thing on gnomes was the comedy in The Black Morass (they were the only chars that were to small to run through water on some places, and had to swim)
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