Breakfast Topic: Defecting from the Horde
by David Bowers 
Jan 18th 2008 at 8:01AM
I've often heard of Alliance players who get fed up with their fellow teammates for whatever reason, and decide to defect to the Horde. Perhaps they say the Alliance complains too much or seems too crowded, or even seems "less mature" somehow. But we've talked about that quite a lot already, and Horde players often say they have just as many maturity problems as Alliance has.Yet I was still surprised to discover that one of my relatively new friends had actually defected from the Horde to the Alliance. As a roleplayer, apparently he felt that the Horde roleplayers kept on rehashing the same roleplay material, about death, trollish accents, and "strength and honor." I admit that my experience with my Horde hasn't been so in-depth, but so far I'm thoroughly enjoying my Horde characters, and I haven't had the same problem at all. In fact, it's my (limited) experience that Horde tend to complain least about their faction, in the same way that warlocks complain least about their class, though not at all with the same consistency.
Have you or someone you've known ever left the Horde and made new Alliance main characters? If so, why?
Filed under: Horde, Alliance, Breakfast Topics, RP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
opposites Feb 14th 2008 5:25PM
In my country people aren’t very fond of working – we are a bit lazy, so our usual sayings and proverbs are about praising work – simply to remind us what we lack. In Japan, people work a lot, even too much, so their proverbs are about relaxing, since that’s what they lack.
Same is in WoW. While A LOT of people choose side because of their RL friends, generalizing easily leads to fallacy. Also, many people played dedicated both sides. But those who insist on faction do have a good motive for it. So, people go for the alliance thinking they are good and helpful, when actually are a bit selfish and all want to be “shiny hero” on their own, not cooperating (i.e. healing) in BGs. People on horde are there for “strength and honor” since they feel weak and therefore they do hate gnomes/elves enormously (hated = fear = weakness). So, tbh, any kind of insisting is bad and very ignorant.
Played 2 toons on horde until 30+, and 4 ally (2 60+, 50+ and 40+). Sticked to the alliance mostly because of RL friends and also some aesthetics.
Both have noobs, crying/yelling kids, and also mature and quality players.
FOR THE GAME!
PallyON Jan 18th 2008 8:32AM
From my personal expierence i don't think i've ever disliked the horde or felt that they ever were acting out in any way. I wont say that i've been playing forever but i have made a few alli alts here and i feel like i got more of a welcoming in org. then i did in stormwind.
FOR THE HORDE!
Unundead Jan 18th 2008 8:32AM
I created a horde char to start with along with all my friends who bought the game. Then most of them quit and so me and a bunch of other friends restarted alliance.
Worst, idea, ever.
Algorithm Jan 18th 2008 11:04AM
I think that most of the people who go from Horde to Alliance do so because of friends. Unless you're genuinely interested in how the Horde lives, there certainly isn't a lot of buzz about the Alliance being the greener pasture. I have played end game as Horde, and switched to Alliance to play with friends, myself.
I think it's probably a little foolish to generalize players along a fictional faction line... but I'm still going to do it.
I think a huge factor is the server (PvP, PvE, etc) you pick. From my limited experience of PvE servers, I found the Alliance pretty selfish and annoying. On PvP servers, I find the horde to be arrogant and griefers.
People I've met from the Horde have a obsessive disgust for the Alliance-vehemently hating every gnome and elf they see, whereas the Alliance's hate for the horde is much more low key (it's still there, though!).
Either way, I'm Alliance now. I have as much faction pride as they come. For Lothar/Grab Your Sword and Fight the Horde! and all that. And the experience has really made it so now I'm annoyed most by the Horde/Alliance that constantly claim that the Alliance are all idiotic little kids.
Well, you know what? I'm not. My friends aren't. And there are plenty of idiotic little kids in the Horde: from Silvermoon City to The Barrens.
Theodore Jan 18th 2008 8:33AM
A Mage and Priest recently joined our guild after giving up on the horde, they say alliance lvl 70 on our server is actualy doing something rather than just PVP (Its a PVE server), which is reflected in the fact that i have NEVER won a AV in my life lol...
I suppose its server dependant as to the reasons, depends on the fractions strengths/weaknesses
Kaylek Jan 18th 2008 8:32AM
Too bad the Alliance rehashes the same idea of, "I'm not really a good guy/gal, I have such a dark past."
Drak Jan 18th 2008 8:39AM
Roleplayers don't count/matter. Horde's better and everyone who would disagree with that statement is locked up in a school until about 2:30. I suppose thats a bit harsh. I suppose there's also 30 year old men living in thier mom's basements playing female characters. I hear thats prevalent on the Alliance side too.
Matthew Rossi Jan 18th 2008 10:20AM
You don't sound defensive at all.
Paw Jan 18th 2008 10:27AM
You play a troll, don't you?
Good_Idea Jan 18th 2008 12:20PM
What's with Alliance voting down inflamatory comments they don't like and voting up equally inflamatory Alliance comments on their side? lol
The "mature" thing would be to vote down all inflamatory commentary, not just based on faction.
doyesac Jan 18th 2008 12:24PM
I'd vote down Drak's comment 'cos it's idiotic, even though I'm Horde through-and-through.
souvlaki Jan 18th 2008 8:42AM
Having 5 alliance toons, i created a Belf Paladin just to try out my first paladin and check thow the Horde was doing... i'm currently lvl 16 and until now:
- no one has tried adding me to a guild without previously asking politely
- no one has tried adding me to a group without asking before
- chatter in capital cities is way below alliance cities
So i would say that at least in my server (EU/Tyrande) being a Horde you deal with far less annoyances...
Hank Jan 18th 2008 10:28AM
That may be more Blizzard's doing than the players. When I switched to horde, after more than a year on alliance, I had all the same problems at low-level that I had before. For that matter, last night some idiot was following me while I did a quest in shadowmoon valley, stealing the souls of the mobs I needed to kill to collect their souls. Yes, Horde.
Taxis Jan 20th 2008 12:15AM
On my server, alliance trade is an absolute gongshow, and people regularly threaten to report me for stupid things like breaking up stacks to make them sell easier. I never experience those kinds of things horde side. Well, at least the reporting thing, trade chat can get pretty inane at times, usually weekends when the kids are out of school.
That said, the alliance auction house seems to bring in more money.
Cynra Jan 18th 2008 8:45AM
I'm exceedingly fond of the Horde, having rolled a troll shaman as my first toon. I was coerced to join the Alliance some years ago by family members and friends who wanted to play together. The choice then was the opportunity to spend time with people I was close to, even though my preference was to continue with the Horde and my beloved shaman.
Now, I play on a different server and, yes, it's a roleplaying server. On Feathermoon US, I've seen two major reasons that people go from Horde to Alliance: to take advantage of the Alliance's larger population (whether it's the larger economy or larger pool of players for grouping together or doing raids) or because the opportunity for random roleplay is smaller Horde-side due to the smaller player base. Though I manage a small guild on the Alliance-side, I still sneak over to the Horde frequently to make sure that my "forgotten" girls get frequent leveling lovin', too!
doyesac Jan 18th 2008 12:31PM
I think this is right -- I started an alliance character simply to have the joy of shouting "Ha! Pwnd, suckers!" when a Horde downed the Alliance leaders...
...only to find the mature economy made the AH less annoying, and the large population meant more success in finding groups, even for odd and unpopular instances like Sunken Temple and Uldaman. Those are reasons enough to hold my nose and level up my little (gasp! egads! apostate!) gnome rogue.
Dipstick Jan 18th 2008 8:46AM
I tried levelling a horde mage after I hit 60 on a couple of alliances characters, and decided to go to the barrens to do some levelling.
Needless to say, I never played on that character again.
Ganesh Jan 18th 2008 11:17AM
Without a doubt, the absolute worst thing about playing Horde is Barrens chat. Seriously, just how many conversations about Chuck Norris, sex with fat women, and which class is better can one take? A lot of those people will probably never get out of the Barrens, which is a great thing.
When I create alts, I just turn General Chat off in the Barrens. Then, when the alt is around level 25 and I hit Ashenvale/Stonetalon, I become a member of society again.
Derryl Jan 18th 2008 8:52AM
My mains have always been on the Horde side and I've never had any major complaints. Sure, you get the occasional jerk, but such is the nature of the game.
However, when a few friends and I rolled Dwarf Shadow Priests to play in the L29 battlegrounds (big mistake), it was a completely different experience. Tons of spammy chat in cities, random invites to groups/guilds, lots of high level jerks killing low level mobs en masse for no reason, immature jerks challenging people to duels and saying "lol newb" when they won... I'll never do it again.
For the horde.
Safety Dancer Jan 18th 2008 8:58AM
First a message to all you RP's out there....GO OUTSIDE.
Now to the topic at hand...I have gone from Alliance to Horde to Horde/Alliance. I think the reason for the "immaturity" that the Alliance has is because when kids are young they want to be the "good guys" ie super heroes and firemen and policemen. I have never met a kid that wanted to grow up and be Lex Luthor. Once you get older the line between "good" and "evil" becomes very gray. Or you realize that there are no "heroes" out there, and become scorn. But thats just my theory.