Fact or Fiction: The Horde attracts the more mature player
by David Nelson 
Nov 6th 2006 at 10:00AM
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I saw this thread in the WoW.com forums and the original poster is making a point that I have heard, consistently, since I started playing World of Warcraft. The point being that the Horde attracts the mature players and the Alliance is full of teenagers, griefers and whiny babies. In fact, the fellow is so annoyed he is leaving the Alliance and heading back to the Horde to avoid the alleged Alliance childish behavior. I personally have not noticed this so much, or at least to the degree that a lot folks have. I played Horde for over a year, and the past 10 months have played Alliance, and I have seen immature behavior on both sides. While my time with the Alliance has seen a slightly higher population of jerks and immature babies, the biggest moron I have encountered was on the Horde side. And isn't it a bit strange that the most well-known example of stupidity in all of WoW, Barrens chat, is on the Horde side?
What do you guys think? Is the Alliance a haven for the immature and annoying? Or is the Horde just as bad, if not worse?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
xfr3386 Nov 6th 2006 10:08AM
From my experience (2 horde 60s, t1 and t2 equipped, multiple guilds i barely made it 2 weeks with before leaving, and so far a 33 alliance member) the horde is full of elitest jerks who think they are the king of the world.
The majority of these jerks might be mature jerks, and older jerks, so they act more like a jerk than a kid with an attitude, but they're still jerks. I found so few genuinely nice and helpful people on the horde that didn't completely suck at playing the game.
In the mere 33 levels i have played on the alliance side it seems that the fact that i'm not level 60 and in full t1+ gear doesn't take away from my value as a person in the game. Sure, i see some childish behaviour, but i also saw it on the horde side. So far alliance side i haven't seen a horde-quality jerk yet, and I have held chat sessions with quite a few 60s about random stuff.
That's right, before I hit level 60 a level 60 actually talked with me like I was a person! Amazing!
I think the horde may attract OLDER players, but it's the older players that take the game way too seriously and treat everyone like they are dirt.
Dave Nov 6th 2006 10:11AM
I believe that the immaturity is probably close to balanced between both factions. It's only inevitable that the wow servers will fill up with little kids sooner or later. That's just what happens with good online games.
I have been playing for the alliance for nearly a year, and really don't encounter too much stupidity. It does happen from time to time.
Numbajuan Nov 6th 2006 10:17AM
From my own experience on both the Alliance and Horde, I agree in some way. The Horde may not attract the more MATURE player, but definetly attracts the more serious players for some reason. Horde usually take the game a little more serious, which is probably the reason they have more t1 and t2 characters running around.
The setback for the Alliance is the many young, immature players that start playing and even people who aren't young, but may need to grow up. I have seen people on the Alliance side who have ruined BG's because they whined the whole time that they weren't on the top, and they were supposed to be because they are twinks, and only twinks should be on top. Now that is immature and ignorant. This is the attitude of a lot of people, not all, but alot, on the alliance side. That is the reason a topic like this is even started.
but.. Alliance FTW
Dur13l Nov 6th 2006 10:17AM
each person is different...i play both and trust me there are R-tards and A$$Clowns on Both sides.
I still think they need an Age limit for this game.
In my experience people who play horde a a touch more Sinister but not enough to do a study on.
Jim Nov 6th 2006 10:35AM
Its just a matter of statistics.
With alliance outnumbering the horde on most servers, anywheres from 1.5:1 to 3:1, the majority is going to seem to have more jerks/kids/losers just because they have MORE people.
Lets look at this analytically. For fun lets say the number of players that are jerks/losers/etc on both sides is an even 5%. 5% of 5000 alliance players is 250 and 5% of 3000 horde is 150. Ergo it will appear there are more childish losers on the alliance. This is because 250 people on the server are worthless! It's all about the numbers people. Its like Los Angeles having the most hobos in the nation. Well thats because the city is frickin' huge and statistically it's the same, yet has more people on the street due to its size.
There is no way of telling because life is not easy. I have yet to find a way of polling the entire server honestly and anonymously to find out who is a jerk/immature player and who is not. Ergo its all up to "in my humble opinion." posts.
Well in my opinion i've played horde forever and have not met too many jerks at all. I've also dabbled in alliance and havn't had problems either. So to me, my reply should be, "WHAT JERKS?! LOL" :)
GamerJunkie Nov 6th 2006 10:36AM
This is pretty easy. When a noobie plays wow, the last thing they can think of is rolling Horde. Everyone wants to play the hero or the good guys right? Which is why this thread is stupid. The horde is ugly, disgusting looking, and downright stupid looking why would kids and women roll horde to begin with?
People who roll horde are those hardcore and demented folks who wants to separate themselves from the common players and get a kick out of beating up noobies and showing off their skills.
The alliance is the larger community and much more diverse types of gamers, its obviously easy to have different stereotypes about alliance players.
Jennifer Nov 6th 2006 10:39AM
I started out horde when I bought WoW and switched to alliance 8 months in... There are elitist pricks on both sides... but I agree that the horde take the game almost too seriously... especially in pvp. Not just because they tend to win a lot... but because they get so pissed when they lose.
Flit Nov 6th 2006 10:42AM
This is what i think happened. The horde attracted older players because of their style in the early game, and the older players are more condescending to those who don't know what they are doing, so most of the younger players went to the alliance. So younger players were pushed to alliance that weren't already there. The more mature players went to the horde because the younger kids were less versed in video game ettiquite.
Playing on alliance side, I get more ninjas, more [loot] posting, more spamming, more "help help help me". I played with a horde that was this way, he got to 30 and thought better and went to alliance.
The horde is more critical if you don't know what you are doing and will be more condescending if you ask for help on "easy" quests or simple questions.
I play mostly on Icecrown PvE, and in every battleground (other than the heavily twinked 10-19 wsg), Horde win 8/10 times. This is just my experience.
The real question I want to know is, "Are alliance more likely to be Christian?" Just curious :).
Durid Nov 6th 2006 10:44AM
whats also true is that alliance attract more Girls player....and imo most of the girls i encounter on alliance side suck at wow especially at PVP. maybe they dont have fast reflex. im not saying all but most, they are attracted to alliance probaly b/c alliance is the good side plus they look cute? while the girls that join HORDe r mostly Hardcore. just my point of view.
Mordiceius Nov 6th 2006 10:45AM
I don't think the question should be about the maturity of the players but rather why there is such an imbalance? Why is it that most servers have an alliance population doubling or tripling the horde population?
1 - My first thought would be because the Horde might just attract and older crowd whereas Alliance may attract a younger crowd. (Kids that never played an MMO before pick humans or god forbid.... female night elves). This also leads into...
2 - People who play the Horde seem to have more of a past with the Warcraft series. Anyone who has played the Warcraft games pre-WoW will see that the current incarnation of the Horde is not evil and if anything the Alliance is more evil. The Alliance are racists xenophobes that cannot get past their hate whereas the Horde just wants to survive. *shrug* I know many many Horde that have never picked up a Warcraft game before WoW but it seems more prevalent on the Alliance side.
rogue Nov 6th 2006 10:50AM
Having a level 60 on both sides, I can state pretty confidently that there isn't much of a difference in today's WoW. I am in an Alliance guild full of (mostly) mature people, and I have run into my fair share of morons and general asshats Horde side, trying to run instances.
Maybe there was a difference, 18 months ago, but 2 years out from the game's release players have had time to play both sides and figure the game out, so it's difficult to tell if your Horde buddies secretly have a level 60 night elf or not. The thing that makes me curious is, who is perpetuating this myth? If it's Horde players, then they are the ones proving themselves immature by trying to make a big deal out of such a small issue. If it's mostly Alliance, they only prove the point that way.
Arturis (Elune) Nov 6th 2006 10:57AM
I wish people would stop labeling each faction as more this or less that. Neither side is more evil, childish, elitist, sportsmanlike or hygenic. I play on both sides, and Ive seen the best and the worst examples of behavior on each. I agree that there is a rampent number of immature players out there, but to try to come up with an association to thier chosen faction based on trends is just silly, seeing as a player can have 10 characters per server on every server, the jerk thats griefing you on Alliance PvP is just as likely to be doing the same on Horde on a different server.
There is no way to successfully filter these players out of the game, so become good friends with your /Ignore.
-Arturis
Eaxa Nov 6th 2006 10:58AM
I see people are citing the theory that Alliance is more popular/full of noobs/full of asshats because the kidz want to play the good guy.
Interesting that in EQ on the team pvp servers the fact that the evil team outnumbered the other three teams put together was explained because the kidz want to be on the evil team cause evil is kewl.
#5 has it right. It's the same people, there are more asshats on the alliance side because there are more people on the alliance side.
ephor Nov 6th 2006 11:03AM
"I think the horde may attract OLDER players, but it's the older players that take the game way too seriously and treat everyone like they are dirt."
/signed
I have a Hot Topic/Jinx Alliance shirt, although I wish the back of it said:
"EZ MODE FTW!"
Ghostle Nov 6th 2006 11:10AM
I've seen jerks and immaturity on both ends. The problem is that the alliance population can sometimes be double or tripple of the horde therefor you will get double or tripple the ammount of immature players.
Shalkis Nov 6th 2006 11:22AM
I think the relative amount of immature and annoying players is the same on both sides. That said, the faction balance can skew your view of the factions. If your server has 90% Alliance, the overwhelming amount of twats you meet will be Alliance.
As far as RP servers go, Alliance roleplaying can be easier to those who are just starting to roleplay on WoW, though. Just about every fantasy setting out there has humans, elves and dwarves. Roleplaying an orc, troll or a tauren might be harder at first.
Deusirae Nov 6th 2006 1:44PM
Played both sides. Both have their mature people and the immature people. A friend did note that a lot more people play Aliiance and that would attribute the idea of Alliance being more childish...there are in fact "more" children. Either way, there are some good people on both sides.
mindtrigger Nov 6th 2006 12:08PM
I'm not really a fan of flaming people on this board, but GamerJunkie, you are a friggin' idiot. To say people join Horde to separate themselves from the "common players" is ignorant and immature. You sound like some clicky emo 14 year old who sees the world in childish black and white terms.
I'm a "noobie" level 48 rolling my first ever toon in WoW. I joined Horde because it was different and offered some new twists for me on old classes. Perhaps when you grow up a bit you will learn to understand that people who choose alternative paths in life (real or virtual) are not weird, demented or trying to isolate themselves from society. Some people just don't feel like following the masses. Not everyone feels the need to conform or play the "good guys" to fulfill some hero fantasy from childhood.
Before WoW I played Star Wars Galaxies as an Imperial, and found it very refreshing to be on the dark side for once. It's interesting to note, that this same conversation use to come up in Star Wars Galaxies as well. It was widely believed that the kids went straight for the Rebel Faction (good guys) while the more mature, open minded people went Imperial.
Sylythn Nov 6th 2006 12:01PM
Going slightly off topic to respond to Durid(9). Here's some insight into bad PVP - cause I suck at it. It's got nothing to do with reflexes, or gender, it's a matter of how you play the game. I PVE and Instance run - and I'm damned good at soloing, and really good at group support in dungeons.
But put me in PVP or a duel, and I'll be trounced in seconds - literally! It's simply because I haven't had experience with PVP, it's not a part of the game I play. As a result, I don't know the tactics or have the practice implementing them in PVP situations - I can guarantee you solo-play and group-support tactics do NOT work in PVP or duels.
Back on topic - I bet if you took some statistics, you'd find that over the whole WoW population it's pretty level, but per server it may be a different story. It's all a matter of sample vs. population statistics.
DÖT Nov 6th 2006 12:06PM
I have played a number of characters on boths sides so here's my experience:
Like #1 said the Horde tend to be "elitest jerks"...this goes mainly for people in guilds but I have met some very nice people on the Horde...they are few and far between though.
As for the Alliance, I have encountered more players who are helpful and curtious...more players who I run into in starting areas and end up creating guilds and grouping with them over and over.
Don't get me wrong there are "elitest jerks" on the Alliance as well but they are random players no one bothers with...
There might be older people on the horde side but I tend to find more mature younger people on the Alliance side.
And the Alliance doesn't /yell FTW all the time.