Faction Loyalty

The first one seems fitting the most. The third one looks like a dirty slumb and the second one is too egyptian themed. That is straight up Uldum style.

The pictures were only examples for the term ‘fantastic’, what I think a fantasy city in a high-fantasy setting should look like. WoW is a high-fantasy setting we have gods stabbing planets with giant swords, powerful mages destroying entire armies etc. Yet ingame everything is so…basic.

Somewhat, yes. But, the overall scale of the world has changed. And Stormwind can no longer hold a candle to cities like Boralus.

Of course. But back in Classic Stormwind was like Boralus, that metropolis that everyone loves.

Obviously it hasn’t aged well, hence why so many people want it revamped. Myself included.

I mean, the other candidate for the Classic Alliance capital is Ironforge, and between Stormwind and Ironforge, Stormwind looks much more like an Alliance capital city than Ironforge. Ironforge is just dwarf-themed, Stormwind was always themed around the entire Alliance – Obviously Humans were the dominant race, as it should be, but dwarves and night elves had their little “worlds” within Stormwind as well, making it a true melting pot between different cultures of the Alliance.

And it hasn’t aged well, as I was saying.

One of my best “big” alliance memories. Running first time (in vanilla), as a level 5 human warrior over this huge bridge with all those guards… the epic sound kicks in and I enter the overcrowded city… epic. puts his rose-tinted glasses of. A single tear drops

Notice how there aren’t only Human statues greeting you. There was also the statue of an elf and a dwarf. Again, conveying the idea that Stormwind is the capital and cultural heart of the multi-racial Grand Alliance. They need to update that place.

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The Ancient graphic engine and comic style of the game are mostly to blame for this. And how downscaled the world is compared to how it is described in written sources. We need an engine overhaul.

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In other words, we need WoW 2 basically. The engine is just too old for an overhaul imho, it needs a proper replacement. We’re getting buried alive under the bugs and exploits that they don’t find in the PTR/alpha/beta cycles. I still remember Sindragosa’s Breath not doing any damage for a month. And that was in Legion!

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  1. Horde.

  2. Started as that because I wanted to play a shaman and because Trolls have always been my favourite race. I love everything about them, culture, style, attitude. Dark and savage but at the same time chill, fun people to hang out with.

Also: underdog faction.

3/ 4: I don’t really"hate" anyone, but I strongly dislike the idea of an “Alliance” of morally superior humans and their good little underlings as presented in the game. It’s one-sided and boring.

Granted, it doesn’t always feel good to be Horde either, but it’s home. When someone screams “For the Horde!” I still feel it.
I have a 120 Alliance char too because I wanted to see the other side of the war campaign ( and a dark Iron dwarf ) but every minute of it felt wrong. I’m Horde.

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So to make my take on the matter here we go:

Horde all the way, but I have my Alliance alt to enjoy both sides of the story.

Blood Elfs mostly. Loved them ever since they left the Alliance back in Warcraft 3 TfT. And making friends out of former enemies did have their profits. Only bummer was the villainfication of Kael’thas, rest still good. Also, we never had such an exotic combination of races in any other fantasy setting, It is rather unique.

The players? No, they are chill to be with most of the time. The meta faction? Totally. Never saw such comprimised righteoussness for the sake of it before. Even Tolkien humans have more darkness inside of them compared to what Blizzard gives us. Are Warcraft humans even humans, or are they aliens? Nobody knows.

I love red. Alliance is blue.

Also, any human lead faction claiming world rulership triggers all my buttons. That’s nothing exclusive to Warcraft, I tried sabotage fantasy humans in any rpg setting I played so far. And that won’t stop. Draenei and Dwarfs are cool, rest are leeching on humans too much. I feel bad for them being this chained down by the plot. Those alliance races deserve better.

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Not necessarily, but we could use another world revamp or at least a revamp of the hubs like Stormwind and Elwynn Forest in general, since that’s where the majority of the Alliance players spend their time. I mean, they did it for Arathi and Darkshore, might as well do it for the most important player hub in the game (Stormwind is more important than Orgrimmar, sorry).

Really, that was Ironforge to me. I always found Stormwind boring. To be fair, I got to know it from the deeprun back end, not from the valley of heroes.

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I mean, duh, of course you’d find it boring if you took the tram entrance.

Hail to the Alliance!

Even though I havent played WC1 and 2 I always liked Alliance’s lore Humans, Dwarves with gnomes and even those pesky traitorous Elves.

Their politics between each other and times of 1st and 2nd I favor Alliance over Horde.

Also for the reason, on which I will never know certain answer “Why?”, Night Elves are in Alliance. WC3 felt pretty epic fighting with these wild and disciplined elves. Druids are epic class fantasy and them being the original Druids I kinda root for them. Also Wardens and their order is great design, but with horrible fate for all of em xD

In general? No. I dont hate Hordies. I categorise in those players who plays both factions! Horde, Thralls Horde, was great and races of Kalimdor had a great theme going on - Family, brotherhood, friendship and loyalty.

Now? Yes I do. I hate everything they stand for or trying to achieve. From the point of SoO patch Horde has lost its value. I liked Garrosh with his brutal ways, but SoO just crossed even that line. Now Sylvanas… I mean I think its enough said. One of the most insidious characters in entirety of WoW. I knew from get go in Legion she would do some bullsh!t and here we are.

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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.

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Horde.

Initialy it had nothing to do with lore, it was because my real life friend played it and I only played WoW to be with him.

In present day:
I like the concept of band of ragtags united to survive in a world that came to hate them.

  • Honorable Orcs;
  • Darkspear Trolls;
  • Tauren;

Also I loved Thrall story when he was raised by Taretha’s family

I miss this sound when Amazoner entered, for the first time in Ogrimmar, I believe she was level 7:
(jump to 1:50)

And this is why I believe there are more Horde vibes in the Zandalari, than the Horde itself in BfA:
(Listen to the first 8 seconds)


Fighting for your people for a better tomorrow, away from the shadows (Zul and the Old Gods) or demonic influence (Horde)

No.
this is the reason why:


For me:
Varian and Anduin killed any reason for me,to hate the Alliance during this scenario.

In our days I hate everything that Activision Blizzard did to Thrall Horde.
My judgement comes from 14 years of development, in which BfA is the most recent stage.

From the monstrous, but honorable monsters, faction we had in vanilla to the Abomination we have in BfA.

I refuse to take part in any action deemed faction war: as war campaign, Warmode or PvP, as a protest.

Maybe someday, they will learn that a proper war in game, doesn’t need silly dramas, it’s just a conflict and none should feel bad for fighting for his faction or hate their fellow Horde members, because that’s the only thing BfA is for me.

Remember this TV commercial ?


What a rip off …

Cheers.

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“We’ve been tricked, we’ve been backstabbed and we have quite possibly been utterly bamboozled!”

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In the words of a great man: WE WAS TRICK’D!

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Alliance

Started playing with W2, human kingdoms was always what I was most interested in WoW. I’m in for the humans, not really for the Alliance, though I like dwarves and gnomes too.

Of course I do.

Why would I like them? Storywise, they did worse stuff to me than the Legion, only rivaled by the Scourge (whose former members are in their ranks). And as you said, they are ugly mongrels dwelling in mudhuts who should be deported back to Hellfire Peninsula.

Though of course, I don’t hate horde players. I’ll make them suffer, kill them when they are levelling their alts, gang them on a rare that has 20% hp left, use net-o-matic when they are flying around and laugh as they splatter on the ground but I don’t feel real hatred towards them.

Horde has it’s own problems, and it would be dumb to blame the players for sh!tty writing choices we all get to… enjoy.

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I might as well answer the OP.

  1. What Faction do you play/favor?
  2. Why do you play/favor that faction?

I play the Alliance because I really like Human lore, my favourite kingdoms being Stormwind and Kul Tiras. I hate current Stormwind because there are more elves/worgen/allied races in it than actual Humans, completely breaking my immersion. I mean, space goats, emo elves, and humanoid dogs walking across the streets of a medieval metropolis? That’s just silly, and sadly it’s reality. That’s why I currently prefer Kul Tiras over Stormwind, because it feels like an actual Human medieval society. So yeah, right now I’d say that my favourite Kingdom is Kul Tiras. It is so fleshed-out and well-written, Blizzard did an amazing job in bringing Kul Tiran society to life! My only gripe is that the thin Kul Tirans aren’t playable, they’d make for great spellcasters.

But even in Warcraft III I was more drawn towards the Humans, with their disciplined and civilized army who distinguished them from the savage Horde, the savage Night Elves, and the savage undead.

I don’t care about the other races of the Alliance. I play the Alliance because I am a Human fan and, surprisingly, I hate the homogenization of other Alliance races. I mean, wolves and pandaren clad in Human armor? Yikes.

  1. Do you dislike/hate the opposite faction?
  2. If yes: Why?

I don’t quite hate the Horde as much as I hate those diehard Horde stans who never shut up about Taurajo, the Purge of Dalaran, and those emissaries who didn’t make it past the gates of Stormwind.

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Oh, how delightful. You even provided a template for us.

1: What faction do I play/favor?

Horde

2: Why do I play/favor that faction?

Started out as Alliance and went Horde on the 16’th of January 2007. Never looked back even once for reasons that are surely too complex to grasp. I’d probably still be playing on the blue team if a certain race had gone another way in the story.

Truthfully, I don’t care much for the classic Horde outside of the Forsaken and generally prefer the thematics and aesthetics of the Alliance to the zug zug honor above all mindset of my faction. However given that the Humans and their characters constantly overshadow every other race on the Alliance I’m grateful that this particular race I favor didn’t end up on their faction.

3: Do I dislike/hate the opposite faction?

Nah, only certain characters. Mainly sorceresses with long white hair and hypocritical elves with long ears and cold blue eyes. Rest are pretty cool.

4: If yes: Why?

They hurt my favorite race and thus must be blighted, maimed and thrown to the wolves. Lok’tar.

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