So that is what I keep reading that title everywhere here or on Alliance chat. First thing would be
No Horde isn’t a dead faction are we less players than over at the Alliance? Yes
Why do people think the Horde is dead? I think it is because there isn’t enough drama going on like on the Alliance side and if there is drama over on the Horde side It is loud as hell which is why it feels like the faction is dead once there is no drama going on anymore.
Trade chat isn’t dead, if you ask a question expect someone will always reply unless it’s bait questions like over at the Alliance Trade chat.
If you feel you’re lonely find a guild, and if you’re a casual Roleplayer like me find a Guild that has an active chat there are plenty of them.
There are always people in Orgrimmar but is it flooded with people like in Stormwind? No. But there is always people who stand and talk in /S if you most of the time talk to them first since it’s many who wanna feel immerse like in Stormwind.
Personally I disagree. For me the reason I feel like Horde is ““dead”” (It’s not dead but people keep using that language) is that casual roleplay where you can walk up and get involved with something is significantly less likely on Horde than it is Alliance. Some people can make a character and immediately find a guild that works for them and start telling stories from there, but in my case I like to have had some experience on a character before placing them in a guild so that I feel like I know what I’m doing. In that regard, Horde RP lags quite far behind ally side RP where it often feels like you can find folks out in the open substantially more.
I was pretty disheartened when I first unlocked vulpera midway through BFA to realise that the way I break into new characters just wouldn’t be feasible on Horde and it kinda made me feel like I’d wasted my time doing the rep to unlock them. Granted, I did eventually find a home for my fox goblin, but until then it just felt like Horde characters weren’t on the cards for me.
People say its dead because it is. As someone who migrated to Alliance myself. It is true that Horde was always less populated. This has grown worse and worse in Shadowlands til it reached the tipping point.
Now people call it what it is. Dead. Just because some people are still around doing stuff doesnt mean it is not a walking husk of what once was.
Is it forever gone? I don’t have the answer to that. But a return to the past seems unlikely unless people suddenly have the urge to forget about all the horrid stuff of BFA that Horde rp was doused in.
People think Horde roleplay is dead because there’s not really a hub that’s central and active for casual RP, unlike the Alliance. It used to have Orgrimmar, but Orgrimmar died down immensely (though I think it’s become more active again, recently?)
That, combined with Horde’s RP always having been more guild-oriented than Alliance’s, makes people think it’s “dead”.
Despite that, it’s not really — you just have to know where to look. Silverpine Forest is pretty active in regards to undead RP, for example.
Nothing quite like levelling in Tirisfal to see;
[Tirisfal General Chat joined]
[Tirisfal General Chat joined]
[Tirisfal General Chat joined]
[Tirisfal General Chat joined]
[Tirisfal General Chat joined]
But more to the eternal question being posed.
Why?
Horde RP has always been guild centric from at least MoP onwards, I’m not entirely sure what the catalyst was - maybe it was Garrosh’s regime half-way through the expansion that made non-Orc or Goblin RP inside the city logically “weird” but there was a really big exodus of players out of Orgrimmar, where you used to have a lot of guilds buckle down there during “off time” like you see in Stormwind still today.
Even during WoD and Legion there was never as much “draw” back there. Sure you had your regulars turn up in the Valley of Honor under the Happy Tree and the like but compared to the heyday of Cata there really wasn’t anything to go back to, and BFA only put more stakes in people’s desire to engage in Orgrimmar as a hub I think, considering how divisive things became both on a lore perspective and with players who did not want to join in the chest-thumping war crime bonanza being pushed hard by some guilds - they kind of felt out of place and jumped ship.
Shadowlands just didn’t give anyone a reason to return there, most are off in their own guild centric hubs or migrate periodically. You get non-Horde centric hubs like Dalaran and the like but it’s not specifically “Horde” RP you get there, which is why most tend to realise “well can’t we just do this while as Alliance? Alliance have Blood Elves now.”
A hot take and probably unpopular opinion but the FurAffinity fanclub caravan in the bigger picture did absolutely nothing to alter the trends in Orgrimmar. It’s not really a viable scapegoat like some like to think it is for why things are bad. Sure it’s gross and weird but Stormwind has had and continues to have worse daily in the Harbour area and the hub hasn’t shut down because of it.
So really to reiterate what I said in the other daily “Why is Horde RP dead” threads once again:
Horde RP is dead and we killed it.
These threads don’t forebode anything good for the role-playing community of the Horde. Without casuals keeping it alive, all you will have is a group of diehard faction aficionados playing in somewhat insular communities, and little else.
The lack of a casual RP hub will be felt always more in the long run, or so I think.
Reversing the process is not impossible, perhaps it can be done, but people burying their head in the sand will not help anybody. Promoting campaigns is great to cement the playerbase’s desire for connections. But perhaps that alone won’t bring alliance players to create long-lasting horde characters.
Here’s a problem: some people don’t want a guild, they’d prefer casual role-play because it makes the world feel less staged and more alive. And then they will then join a guild when their character has found an organic development - ie. they need money, are bored of the city, therefore join a mercenary group.
Yeah guilds really are hit n miss with some chars, some chars are just better off not guilded, its very easy to create a cool char concept that you cant wait to rp/explore and then the moment you join a guild feeling like you have to strip away alot from that char/journey in order to “fit in” better and be a good lil basic recruit/fodder/background char, Ive done it in the past n very quickly lost interest in a character due to having to compromise to much with them when joining a guild, ended up infact making a char that “fit” a specific guild instead of just making the char I truly wanted, after leaving guilds I found I enjoy my char a tad more, for that reason I find “communities” make sense more for some characters
This is what the problem breaks down to at the end of the day. Players on Horde got too used to easily digestible “routine” RP, fast food rp if you will, and can no longer function or “cook” their own RP that satisfies them.
When said providers of fast food go bust due to an overall lack of demand those who remained essentially have started to jump ship to the next brand (i.e. Alliance).
You’ve described Horde RP for the last three years now practically. You have the illusion of things going on, sure. You have people turning up for RP when its scheduled, sure (albeit in far diminished numbers these days).
But measure Orgrimmar, Silvermoon or any other Horde hub to Alliance ones. Even smaller ones like Boralus these days have more people. Why? It’s as you said - casuals ultimately are what keep things alive in any community and the quicker this is understood then the better it is for everyone.
We can be discerning without being picky who we choose to RP with. Sometimes I think the case is being we’re confusing what is little more than burger king rp for a michelin star dining experience.
It is absolutely reversable, though it requires people leave a comfort zone few are willing to try, deal with problems that come parcelled with that and many flightees from the Horde to Alliance have, from my own anecdotal probing into motivations, felt like they’ve been “burned” too many times by other Horde players to want to go back.
Personally i tried returning to Horde RP at least twice in the “recent” (within slands time frame) and i won’t sugar coat it - it’s not an easy fix, you really do need a mindset of player who is willing to go out there and be a “if you build it they will come” type of deal.
Conversely, the pull factors of the alliance scene make it far more attractive to simply remain there. As mentioned a few posts up, horde has even more hurdles than usual as undercity is effectively an obstacle course of phasing and awkward design philosophies.
Ultimately this is an entirely community based problem and needs a community based solution, one that is inclusive over exclusive as the latter runs the inevitable conclusion of being a walled off “gated community” that ends with boredom and apathy over a lack of fresh ideas and perspectives, take the numerous “township” guilds we’ve seen over the years which place obstinate and bizarre restrictions on how they manage their “membership.”
