The population in Thunderstrike seems to always been on Alliance favor, much more players when compared to Horde if we take the data provided by Ironforge.pro .
I was wondering if, with Burning Crusade, there’s going to be a population shift and people will actually reroll or change faction to Horde just to play a blood elf paladin?
If so that’s a crazy commitment, in my opinion, to leave their alliance characters behind with all those hours and effort put into them.
Or when all is said and done, the PvE server will always have a bigger Alliance population?
Partly because of old PvP racials - initially the orc stun protection, later though alliance got their CC breaks. Partly, I guess the mindset of settled alliance vs on-toes horde correlates with the PvE-PvP rulesets respectively.
It would be an interesting experiment to add every current race and home city to Classic, to see whether it makes a difference. Maybe for a Season.
People generally identify with Alliance easier, especially with old races only. Paladins being alliance may be a factor. Pre-Garrosh Horde was a great place as well, putting value in helping protecting your family and community, but you need to see through the deforestation, aggression and pumped bodies first. Blood elves are funny because sure they are pretty (for those into thin, less obvious in armor) but they are actually addicts with withdrawal symptoms.
On the upside, Horde being smaller can mean a more tight knit, friendly community where you actually know people. More collaboration due to necessity. Terenas in 2009 was rather small, but a nice place.
Just for fun, the extreme case was Magtheridon-Alliance where I just came across a very old screenshot with 4 characters online. At prime time.
Seal of Martyr and Seal of Corruption were available in last TBC Classic to prevent massive population shift due to better paladins. I am pretty sure this will be the case in TBC Classic Anniversary as well.