How could Blizzard mend the rift between Loyalist and Honourbound players?

Basically, what title says.
Manage to unify the faction once more in a way that doesn’t come in detriment for the other chunk of players.

Is it possible? If so, how?

EDIT: Given i don’t want it to focus exclusively in the Horde, i’ll add another question for the Alliance:

I’m not sure if the schism is that big yet, or how do their players feel about it, but do you think its possible for Blizzard to reconcile Night Elf players with the Alliance? (If you think the distancing has reached a severe point).

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You’re asking if it’s possible to unite Sylvanas fanboys and Sylvanas haters. The answer should be obvious.

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Well, that’s indeed an issue. But i don’t think the Loyalist side is made up exclusively by people that fanboy over Sylvanas. I know a few that don’t care much about the character itself, and still supported the ideals of the war she started, and that lives on in the loyalist side.

Just as i’m not sure everyone in the Honourbound side is there because they dislike her character.

In all, i doubt the camps are set as easily as hating or loving Sylvanas.

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I don’t even know why they made an option to be a Sylvanas loyalist. WoW was never supposed to have a playable villain faction, but now there are going to be a lot of complaints when we finally get to kill Sylvanas as the villain she is.

Well, Blizz is already going the way of making Shandris and the majority of the night elves fall on their knees in front of Anduin’s wisdom, it’s basically only Tyrande that disagrees (sadly.)

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I know. Much as Horde side they are forcing at almost gunpoint for people to fall in line behind Baine, and the honour guys (throwing in hard balls such as Calia and Gazlowe to further distance the faction from the loyalist/warlike side).

But i was talking about players. Meta.

How would Blizzard reconcile YOU with the faction.
Either as a Night elf player (i’ll repeat, i don’t know if those have already lost faith in the faction or not), as a Loyalist/warlike that liked the shady stuff, or as a Honourbound/Peaceful Alliance player.

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Well on the PTR Tyrande,Genn, and Valeera think the war will erupt soon once again, while Shandris is not bowing to Anduin at all she is more concerned with restoration without forgetting the past.

As for thread I think Sylvanas loyalist should remain that way if they wish, they should be given the option to remain loyal,receive secret missions,mail from Sylvanas/Nathanos…It would be silly if they are just ‘‘sorry’’.
The Alliance should also get a choice between Anduin and Tyrande already…Alliance players paid for the game the same amount of money as Horde players have.

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Mandatory hugging sessions under Baine’s watchful eyes.

Tis amazing how well this clip meshes with Blizzard’s writing.

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You really feel like there is a detachment between what Blizzard is pushing for the Alliance and the Night elf players interest, to the point is faction breaking? Genuine question.
Wasn’t sure.

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Good topic Zarao.
That’s been going on my mind as well.

TL;DR:
I see this for both the Horde and the Alliance situation, as a convenience marriage, till death brakes them apart.

Which means the Night Elves will have to accept Anduin as their High King as Sylvanas loyalists have to accept that Sylvanas is out of the Horde and things will have to change, due to what she did.

In the end our player character is not allowed to make bad choices.
That’s the key point in my opinion to understand this narrative.

Let’s imagine that in MoP you are a Garrosh loyalist and the game allows you to be on SoO fighting along side him, what would had happened ?

  1. Your character would be dead by now, killed along side his guards and Nazgrim.
  2. Your character would either be on Ogrimar prison or the Stockades, for War crimes.
    Any doubts about it, we can see how Garrosh character was dealt with in “War crimes” by Golden.

That’s my opinion.
Cheers.

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Kind of an odd thread.

Player reconciliation depends entirely on the players, not Blizzard. Yes, I do blame them partially for dividing the playerbase, but it’s the responsibility of the players to reconcile with each other. If we are letting ourselves be divided by anything related to IC reasons, like whether we prefer Team Honour or Team Loyalists, then we should learn to set those differences aside.

I don’t get why some right/left-wing people don’t want to interact with people from the other wing, I absolutely don’t get why we hold grudges over whether we prefer loyalist/honour or vengeance/peace.

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pretty sure this whole “”"“division”""" will get cleaned up and/or forgotten about as soon as the next hot take to yell about comes along.

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You may have misinterpreted what i meant. I wasn’t really going THAT meta about players “hating” each other. I mean, are there really any of those? Is there anyone that genuinely enjoys/wishes on someone else’s discomfort because of their story choice/preferences?

It was more in the line of how could Blizzard appease players from both sides in a way that reconciled them with the other side of the story and work towards a more unified faction. To once again bring together the forked story route.
Make the faction whole again instead of having to create two different questlines to avoid alienating either side.
Mind you, not talking about forceful plot devices that satisfy noone, but of genuine developments that could once again satisfy players on both sides.

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Well, in that case, you want to align the players with the lore again, not with the other players. I might be pedantic here but this is actually quite an important detail.

But the faction is whole again? I mean, yeah, we have some hidden Sylvanas loyalists still, as is clear from NPC texts in Orgrimmar, but there is no more space for the Sylvanas loyalists anymore. That’s terrible writing, because I think the actions of the Loyalists shouldn’t have gone unnoticed, but I don’t see how Blizz can fix it now. The die is cast, everyone is being united against N’zoth, no reason to look back.

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I think to an extent, this is where they want the Horde. I’ll try to explain what I mean, but bear in mind I am talking from a roleplayer’s perspective.

Going from the start, it was always described as pretty much an alliance of convenience, Orcs, Trolls and Tauren pretty much had to cooperate or die, until they grew strong enough. Later the Forsaken joined, for the same reason, they were not accepted by the rest of the world, even their own former people. Then the Blood Elves, again, a weakened, battered people who needed the strength of a coalition to help them rebuild, the Bilgewater were in the same boat (or would have been if the Alliance hadn’t attacked and sunk it :stuck_out_tongue: ) only the Huojin really had a choice in the matter, and lets face it, whilst Ji Firepaw seems like a fun guy to hang out with, I wouldn’t trust his ability to make thought out, well informed decisions, but hey, I mean that is part of the Huojin philosophy I guess.

The one thing, ironically, out of a coalition of Species who banded together for Strength, is that it can never stay stable when -one- Species becomes ‘too strong’. The Orcs became too strong under Garrosh, and the Horde started to break. The Blood Elves started to become strong enough in their own right, and promptly considered seceding from the Horde, the Forsaken became too dominant under Sylvanas, and so her policies became much more prevalent, policies that the rest of the Horde had trouble reconciling, so again, it started to break, and ultimately, has.

That’s the irony. For an organisation that prides itself in -Strength-, it also seems very distrustful of someone gaining too much -Strength-.

Perhaps it is a deep seated inferiority complex, they remember being oppressed/misled/dominated/weak, and so they have an inherent mistrust of someone who gains too much power over them. They prefer leaders like Thrall, or Vol’jin, who did not show such supremacy as to set alarm bells ringing, but took a much more collaborative approach, I mean lets face it, Vol’jin said it best. “The Horde is Family”. In a family, once the kids are grown up, everyone is pretty equal (except in a few societies)

Perhaps it -is- that simple, all the races have grown up(regained their strength), and -could- fly the family nest when they wanted, so someone trying to tell them what to do will never go well for long.

I think that’s what Blizzard want, for the Horde always to maintain that feel of an Alliance of Convenience.

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Not in a way that brings together players from either side. You said it yourself, even as “Honour” side, it seems that the punishment on the loyalist one was insufficient.
And for the loyalist side, ts quite obvious that the situation is about as uncomfortable, with NPCs parading fellow supporters, and an outright police state that prosecutes the philosophy you support.

This is a forced ending. One that satisfies very few.
And certainly one that isn’t conciliatory for players on either side. It’s either “them” or “us”.

I wondered if given the current situation, and by working with the loose ends currently at play, Blizzard could create an ending that truly and genuinely brought both sides together again, and in a way that genuinely brought players back on board. Not in a inorganic or forceful way as we have now.

That’s what I think as well, but I don’t think that it is possible to suddenly start trials to determine what to do with the hidden loyalists. It would make zero sense, as we already have N’zoth to deal with now.

Wait, huh, what?

I agree.

I guess that the most simple solution will be “We may have our differences, but there is a greater threat now. Who will stand with us???”. Sylvanas’ “YOU ARE ALL NOTHING” also contributed to the reconciliation I guess.

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I guess that’s one way to go. I do wonder if there is any way to achieve the same goal without relying on third parties.
I think those sort of solutions are just procrastinating the need to fix the problem.
But i guess that if the alternative is to have what Blizzard currently thinks is the way to go about (the “solution” currently at play), that’s one of the most realistic ways to go.

Isn’t Liadrin patrolling the streets of Orgrimmar in search of anybody that still supports Sylvanas and the war?

It seems fairly clear that actual loyalists who support Sylvanas can’t stay in the Horde, but there might be room for some loyalists who believe that the current situation is unstable and that war might be necessary.

(Spoilers) We are probably getting a council, so Blizz is able to introduce some form of discussion within the Horde, but I don’t think they will.

I am reading on Wowpedia: "As they march into Orgrimmar, she explains that they are to root out any signs of N’Zoth’s corruption, spare those who turned away from Sylvanas, and to keep unity and order in the city. "

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Lady_Liadrin#Battle_for_Azeroth

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Sylvanites a year ago:

Sylvanas is your warchief, you have sworn the blood oath, your life is hers, she is the appointed leader of the Horde, she can do whatever she wants. Baine is a betrayer for losing the war asset known as Derek Proudmoore, the Blighting at Lordaeron was fine, she can do whatever she wants, she is punishing treachery.

Sylvanites now:

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Not really.

In all, they can keep the current status quo and alienate chunks of the player-base against the Horde, to the point they need to keep on creating divergent stories, or forceful endings that make either side want nothing other than tear down the entire faction. And keep the spiteful wheel turning.

Wouldn’t be my preferred route of action, thus i wondered what Blizzard could do to fix it.

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