I haven’t written here in a while, but since this topic dredged some nice memories, I will pull a mini Kalibas and blabber a bit.
What Faction do you play/favor?
Ι have been Team Blue since '95, back when the faction was known simply as “Humans” and was comprised by the Kingdom of Stormwind only and I will be a Team Blue main until I quit the franchise for good sometime soon. Nevertheless, I always keep level-capped and moderately geared Horde alts, either to see their side of the story or to keep contact with folks I have met over there.
Why do you play/favor that faction?
A lot of reasons.
Back when I first came in contact with the franchise, I chose “Alliance” simply due to aesthetics; I will (and would) take knights, wizards and castles over orcs, warlocks and huts any day of the week.
I remained “Alliance” because I fell in love with the Team Blue Warcraft 2 cast, when I got to play the sequel some years later. Lothar and the Alliance Kings of days olden and forgotten, Turalyon and the rest of the Sons of Lothar, everyone was (or still is if they are still alive and active) awesome. The moment when Turalyon picked up Lothar’s broken sword and proceeded to defeat Doomhammer is one of the most epic, cathartic moments I have felt in gaming. It still sends chills down my spine even all these years later, and I will never forgive Blizzard for softening it by retconning the Lothar - Doomhammer encounter.
Warcraft 3 almost made me quit the franchise. If it wasn’t as decently written as it was, I would have done so. Also the Scourge, the Lich King and the Night Elves were awesome.
When I started playing WoW back in early 2005, it was only natural that I would choose Alliance. I remember not even considering for a moment going Horde. Not only did I finally had a chance to explore firsthand all these locations I had visited as a child and/or teenager through the limited medium of strategy games but I would get to do so as part of the faction that included all my old favorites and my until then non-Alliance favorite, the Night Elves. Buckle up, buddy. From the red slopes of Redridge to the mists of Ashenvale and from whatever is left of the Kingdom of Lordaeron to whatever the hell Silithus is, you got one of the fantasy worlds of your childhood ready for the taking and only 24 hours each day to do so.
I have remained Alliance ever since, with the exception of Legion, during which I mained a Blood Elf Paladin.
I am way less fond of what the Alliance has become in recent years, but its races are still my favorite in the game:
-Night Elves are my favorite version of the Wood Elf trope among all fantasy media.
-Despite being in arms over the Eredar retcon back in BC, Draenei have grown to be my favorite Warcraft-specific fantasy race.
-Dwarves have slowly grown on me over the years to the point of being my favorite WoW race overall. Dark Irons are my favorite version of the “Dark/Fallen Dwarf” trope/archetype, period. Wildhammers are awesomeness incarnate. Bronzebeards have Ironforge, Dun Morogh and the Wetlands, some of my favorite places in the game.
-Gnomes are okay.
-Worgens are still led by Greymane. All Hail Greymane, the Appropriately Named!
-I love Humans, I have mained one almost non-stop from 2005 until Dark Irons finally became playable. They have my favorite story among all the races (as in in-game represented story).
Do you dislike/hate the opposite faction?
By Ragnaros the Light, of course not. I find the word “hate” too strong for anything hobby related. If I disliked anything about the Warcraft franchise so intensely as to “hate” it, I would have had quit years ago. Even so, I don’t even dislike the Horde in general, more like I am indifferent towards it.
I don’t play Horde because its races never appealed to me, either in appearance or lore wise with most Team Red races usually checking one of these boxes, but not both. For example, I love Tauren and their lore, but I cannot stand their models.
The other issue I have with the Horde is the fact that currently and for many years, I feel that, as a faction, it stands for… nothing:
-They are not (or do not feel like) a bunch of rag-tag survivors banding together in order to survive in a world that hates them, unironically I think the Alliance fits that description far better nowadays, what’s with most of its races being homeless and/or persecuted. The Horde moreso than the Alliance becomes whatever the devs want it to be. One minute it is a band of ragtag survivors trying to repel the evil Alliance, the next is a bunch of manabomb-dropping, plague-spreading, tree-burning, manically laughing sociopaths. The Horde writing gives Jaina’s flip-flopping a run for its money.
-The fact that “anything goes” when it comes to who joins makes the faction feel to me “superficial”, inorganic, forced. Like, I look at the Alliance and I get why they are allies. I look at the Horde and all I see is a faction cobbled together with whatever the devs thought would be cool/necessary/planned. I see a lot of Horde mains claiming this as a pro of the faction and I get why they do so, but in the context of the franchise I personally consider this a “con”.
So in conclusion, the reasons I don’t care about the Horde are “meta” in nature (writing and/or planning). Team Red feels too disjoined for my tastes, both in writing and “roster” to the point of sometimes having a hard time suspending my disbelief.