A quest to switch sides
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 6th 2007 at 12:45PM
Even though almost all you hear from players is Horde pride or Alliance cheerleading, let's face it, there have to be a lot of people out there who believe they've made a mistake. Personally, I love the first character I made-- Hunter is still my favorite class, and I'd love to finally get my first Hunter all the way up to 70 and into some epic gear. Why haven't I? Because it's a Night Elf-- I was young then, and confused, and I accidentally rolled Alliance. I can't really play without my awesome Horde guild now, so that Hunter has been sitting there at 59 for a long time.So there are probably plenty of people that want to switch, but there's no way to do so without completely rerolling. Yet, anyway. Here's the best idea I've heard on the subject so far: create a quest that would let players change factions.
Yes, I know, there's lots of reasons for Blizzard not to do it (not least of which is the whole interfaction communication thing). But consider it seriously-- it would be a once-in-a-lifetime quest that would have serious costs (so no nightly switching back and forth), and take a long, long (maybe even a series of daily quests) time to get done. This isn't some frivolous thing-- it's a serious decision, a second chance to reconsider a faction choice you might have made 70 levels ago. Right now, you only get once chance to choose a faction, and it's before you even know your character. Surely you should get one chance to reconsider, right?
And originally I was thinking that a faction change would be a "Horde in Durnholde" kind of thing-- if you're an Orc, then you suddenly become Human forever. But Blizzard could even work it so that you could stay the same race, and just switch sides. Imagine it-- Gnome and Undead Rogues alongside each other, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria! Although it would get confusing in the battlegrounds, wouldn't it?
Filed under: Horde, Alliance, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Factions
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Lothy Jul 6th 2007 12:53PM
It wouldn't be totally confusing in Battlegrounds, at least from far away. Red, you're dead lol
Strongmark on Arthas Jul 6th 2007 12:57PM
Awesome idea, I love it!! Only problem I can foresee is on PVP servers where you cannot have characters on both sides. I numerous alts on my server, so what would happen to the alts if I was horde?
Scruffy Jul 6th 2007 1:05PM
I've always liked this idea. Maybe do it through various quests in neutral towns that lower your rep with [insert starting side here] before you can even start building rep with [insert opposite starting side]. Hell, even start building up you language skills with quests. The original horde or allied language can be electro-shocked out of your head by the goblins.
(I'd rather like the option to become neutral to both like the goblins and ply my trade to both sides. ;D)
PyroAmos Jul 6th 2007 1:10PM
I'd roll a drainai priest and switch it to horde as soon as it was possible, there ratials and priest ratials are by far the best in the game, and they arn't 'sexyually curious' like blood elves. Still don't know why they gave horde the gay char and alliance the big ugly blue char. Would almost be worth it if it wasn't for gnomes, I can't play with gnomes, they disgust me. A tank that is smaller than my taurens hoof doesn't make sense in any sense of the word.
superbeef Jul 6th 2007 1:12PM
Nice Ghostbusters reference.
While its a cool idea, I just can't see it happening. It moves the game too much towards "well why can't I do this then?" in terms of customization.
Let me put it this way: We can't change the color of armor, or our hair? Change our alliegance? No wai.
What needs to be done is more quests in the mid game. Yes, it's a beaten to death request but it makes sense. The Blood elf and Drainei lands get you to 20 faster, are more stremlined, and give you better quest rewards along the way. By continuing to trim down the middle of the game, not to mention having new content that is the same old same old, leveling characters to OL would be fun enough that you might no have an issue rolling an alliegence parallel to an alt or main.
Innovation > customization.
BevvyB Jul 6th 2007 1:16PM
Super duper brilliant idea
Would add a whole new sense of intrugue to the whole thing, the cut and dry way it is now doesn't allow for espionage!
In fact, espionage could be exactly what the game needs to spice it up
Just imagine, you decide to go to horde from alliance
You get given a series of tasks, some which are in fact risky and may give your secret away
Your guildies will be asking you 'where have you been' and you'll have to reply 'nowhere'
..even though you've been off and stolen a few plans from your own side, made some strange alliances with some neutral factions, and murdered a few alliance kind to 'prove' your worth, even having to turn on some of your own friends to prove your allegiance!
Love it. This is possibly the one dynamic missing from the whole thing.
FireStar Jul 6th 2007 1:24PM
love the idea. they'll never do it. repeat, never.
ringu0 Jul 6th 2007 1:24PM
Finally, Fear Ward horde side.
Never gonna happen, though.
Quoi Jul 6th 2007 1:26PM
Reroll, IMO.
Josh Jul 6th 2007 1:26PM
I'd just like to be able to change from a Nelf to a Human. Rep griding would be so much easier.
amasen Jul 6th 2007 1:41PM
I think you need to be able to switch sides. This game is about the people... So what happens when you meet/find out that someone you must play with is on the opposing faction as you?
I have 3 characters over level 60 and I WILL NOT level another that high every again. I have several friends that I'd love to play with that are on other servers (some pvp), and who are alliance. Without this supposed idea, it just means I will never play with them short of re-rolling and tooling around in a lowbie zone.
Too bad it'll never happen.
PyroAmos Jul 6th 2007 1:43PM
oh, and if they made it just transfer you to a like-race (IE your NE druid becomes a Tauren Druid), it'd be pretty pointless, it'd be quicker to just lvl a new char. Only reason someone would do this is ratials (mainly dwarf/drainai priests fear ward), or just because they like a race and hate the faction, either way if you just got trans to a race of the oposing faction it'd defeate the purpose.
bennet Jul 6th 2007 1:45PM
When I played EQ2 there was a quest line to switch allegiances. You had to start it before you were level 20, and it was a grueling process - both factions hated you in the interim, so there was no repairing your gear, buying ammo, etc. - you used what you had until it was destroyed, and hoped something decent dropped to replace it. Once you finished the quest and were 'accepted,' the merchants in your new home still recognized you as an outsider and would make snide comments when you walked in to trade with them.
Lots of things I like better about WoW than EQ2 (obviously, since I'm playing it), but that quest chain was pretty cool.
Eztonic Jul 6th 2007 1:55PM
To change sides is a nice idea, but you change race as well. So Night Elf becomes Bloodelf, Gnome a Troll, Humans become Undead etc etc. So your appearance and your racials change to your new side. I don't want humans and, god help me, gnomes fighting alongside me.
Orin Jul 6th 2007 1:58PM
I've always wanted to convert my original Tauren Shaman to Alliance so I could play him with my guild that I've been with for two years now.
shmooo Jul 6th 2007 2:14PM
Would you get extra honor on a pvp server for killing turncoats?
Shinagani Jul 6th 2007 2:21PM
@ 14
I think the idea of changing races is the only way this would be viable. Since there would be a period where both factions would hate you it could be a goblin quest. Your character could be transformed by some crazy goblin engineered device.
Mystrana Jul 6th 2007 2:25PM
The whole concept of people rolling characters strictly for the purpose of betraying the horde or the alliance is laughable. As if it's not hard enough already to find groups of people willing to work together, now we want to have people who are leveling in the BE area because they like it better then the alliance areas (or maybe some alliance secretly pine to level in the awe-inspiring Barrens for example), and then switching over. And helping other people during their initial leveling? "I'm gonna be going alliance soon, I don't care what such and so thinks of me..." could easily be a common mindset.
When we go into playing a game like World of Warcraft, in fact, chances are we did not just buy this game as an impulse, with no clue what the difference between a human and an orc is. Chances are, we have friends who played, or we played the original Warcraft games and have some idea about what's going on. There are countless sites of lore and forums (I suggest the european) for us to read through before picking a character, and if it doesn't matter enough to you to know about it beforehand, it shouldn't be such a big deal later, especially since when it boils down, both alliance and horde have the same ratio of nice people to annoying beggers to competent players to 'just bought this account' newbs.
Leveling has the potential to be one of the easiest parts of this game, and if you just want to go alliance or horde to be with friends (I mean, why else would you decide to switch halfway through leveling?), wouldn't they help you enough to make it worth a new roll?
And finally, Mike, you talk about it in terms of a level 70 deciding they made a mistake on their faction? Getting through the entire leveling game in spite of this means that it's probably not that big of a deal to them, since once you hit endgame, you're going to the same instances and raids. ;)
PyroAmos Jul 6th 2007 2:30PM
wtb horde drainai priest.
innajunglestylee Jul 6th 2007 2:35PM
If it happened, I can imagine it looking like this:
Your reputation with The Horde has increased by 1.
Your Reputation with The Alliance has decreased by 1000.
For every single quest -- basically grinding your way from hated to neutral at 1 rep point per quest while losing a ton of your old rep with each quest completed. Then make it based on one daily.
And for a finale, you have to kill all racial faction leaders.