I haven’t been playing since Wrath, and I recently transferred to this server: I’m really put off by the sheer amount of nationalist/“faction loyalty” that seems to be on display. If you look at these forums, a good portion of guilds are all about Alliance/Horde, there’s rallies, people calling each other traitors, inciting for war, etc.
Is this just my confirmation bias, or has everyone else been feeling this way too? Or is this just brought on by BFA?
Are there people around here who aren’t frothing at the mouth at the thought of killing some orcs? I’d really love to meet them…
There’s always been an aspect of it. And people keep trotting out the “Its Warcraft not Peacecraft, dur hurr!!” line.
It certainly seems more obnoxious with BFA. The whole “This isnt Horde Civil War 2.0, honest guv! Here, let us make yet another mention of honour btw” writing really isnt helping either, and I cannot wait for that to go get in the damn sea.
Will have to see if Blizz have the spine to shake up the factions as PTR has been hinting at, I guess.
Why wouldn’t we be opposed to the opposing faction? THe Horde is evil and the Alliance are slavers according to eachother, ofcourse our characters, who are from either faction, will see it that way too, IC.
Horde faction divides, adding new UI elements such as faction crest on char select screen (why would you need that when a race = a certain faction?) Etc.
It is 100% speculation at the moment, and salt is indeed required. But if they build up all this story stuff and then go “Oh yeah, factions stay the same btw” then… well, they really have no clue, honestly.
This is why I wouldn’t go around claiming that ptr has been hinting at factional shakeup. As much as I’d love breaking the status quo, the ptr change is more likely to be just a design change.
Since this is an Roleplaying Server it’s only normal that characters are hardline Horde or Alliance (or simply hardline anti-horde/alliance), like it is portrayed in the lore. If you mean OOC, it’s probably because most people invest in one or two characters to rp, and most of the time in the same faction. Although I’ve not encountered someone being called a traitor OOC because they play both sides.
Ultimately it’s a trend that was meme’d to the point of popularity on AD.
If you ask me, it’s the symptom of a divided fanbase. The whole faction pride started as a reaction to neutrality (and more common sense claims such: there are bigger threats out there) during Legion and WoD. In BFA this trend skyrocketed. Blizzard themselves seem to preach the stupidity of faction conflict while at the same time pushing for faction pride, further dividing the fanbase.
The whole “I belong to the Hooorde!” “Well, you’re the bad guys!” “Oh, it’s actually morally gray!” isn’t meant to be serious and should be kept in the meme-land and the internet jargon debate. Its a bit like two groups cheering for their respective teams in sports. However sometimes it might go out of hand, with players trying to justify genocides and other questionable deeds on an OOC level.
This is what is known as roleplay, which is the core tenet of such a server. Since the faction war is the most interesting and most prominent part of the current expansion, it’s only logical that people would want to play out the theme. If you’re wondering why certain characters are so vitriolic, I can imagine that losing a capital city on either side and, what was for all intents and purposes, a genocidal campaign against the Night Elves tend to create some deep seated hatred for the other faction.
The tree was also Gilneas’ second home after they’d lost the first one. I find nobody ever bringing that up, just the night elves. It’s like Gilneans are all headcanon or something. :c
I think the same. The faction conflict is extremely tiresome and old, and that’s why BfA has been such a heap of junk. Everything about the main plot feels so forced. It’s the reason I don’t much like to participate in it.
If we could see some changes in or the complete dissolution of factions, I would be very pleased.
The game has always had an underlying theme of faction conflict. Neutral factions have risen and fallen and changed beyond belief (not even the Kirin Tor have been constant). A lot of people have always had faction pride, and people know that Blizzard logic usually dictates that an expansion like this where the faction conflict isn’t just part of the plot and is instead brought to the forefront is probably meant to be the last hurrah of the faction war before the game becomes a carbon copy of Guild Wars 2 where there are no faction lines and young heroes are now fighting for the world that everyone wants.
Ironically I feel the opposite way towards the faction war even though I once did solely neutral RP myself. Legion showed promise with the Night Elves quarrelling with the Blood Elves even though they had a common goal, and the fight in Stormheim was a good demonstration of how faction war arcs should play out with the battle between Forsaken and Gilneans but BfA could never have felt more natural than it did at the start with the good old, ‘Alliance and Horde commit war crimes, neutral factions go and try to save the world as the Alliance and Horde pursue their own goals’.
What DOES feel awfully forced IS this current return to neutrality we have going on in the plot right now. The story started off with an angry Jaina who was enraged by all that’s happened to her people and the Alliance, and by now the Horde is literally threatening to raze her home and kill her family that she only just got back and she’s standing by Thunder Bluff telling Thrall everything will be ok and rubbing his arm.
I actually hope for a point of no return which causes there to never be a point of total neutrality ever again.
