Breakfast Topic: Do we need a third faction?
by Matthew Rossi 
Apr 24th 2008 at 8:00AM
Personally, I go out and kill Alliance and/or Horde all the time, depending on my mood, so I'm not seeing a lack of war, but some people seem to dislike the 'status quo' fragile truce between the Horde and the Alliance. Would you guys be interested in rolling Burning Legion? Would it mess the game up too much to have three factions that constantly did war with each other? Would Alterac Valley, WSG, Arathi Basin and EoTS be unplayable if you had to deal with a third team out to kill the other two teams, and killable by both of them as well? Would anyone want a 2x2x2 arena bracket? One thing's for sure: if the Legion became playable, you'd know you were playing the bad guys.
I doubt this would every happen... way too much work to fit it into the established framework. But you may feel differently. So I ask again: would a third playable faction be win or fail? Do you want to see unabashed, unrestrained evil as a playable choice?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, The Burning Crusade
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Memzer Apr 24th 2008 8:07AM
Could definitely be interesting; mind you it would be more interesting for them to design lore founded content where it is advantageous for all parties involved to destroy {Popular Lore Figure Here} without falling on the usual 'boss wants to destroy the multiverse' style plots.
Shilling Apr 24th 2008 9:22AM
Prior to Burning Crusade details being published, I was hoping that Illidan's forces would be a third faction. Seriously, at the end of Frozen Throne that's how it stood: Blood Elves, Dranei and Naga banding together under Illidan. It was the splitting up of Blood Elves and Dranei and shoehorning them into Alliance and Horde that resulted in all the silly lorelol.
jrb Apr 24th 2008 10:22AM
i think it's more likely that we'll see races swap factions between horde/ alliance, than seeing a third faction, if only because of the time needed to create balance, and the extra content for new races and new factions.
Zastrozzi Apr 24th 2008 8:09AM
wouldn't a third faction like the burning legion just serve to unify the Horde and Alliance?
Shadowwolfer Apr 24th 2008 8:13AM
of course it would be intresting and a new thing to try out, but really i think it would completely mess up the game. Heck you might aswell put in a neutral faction made up of goblins. 2vs2vs2 wouldnt work ethier, basicaly who ever attacks first will become the target for who has not attacked. A good side to this is though that it would be nice to feel that your out to kill everyone, i mean the way the horde and alliance basicaly cuddle each other as the walk past, a new faction out to kill both would be nice. But alas it cannot work.
John Apr 24th 2008 11:37AM
It works petty good for StarCraft. Why not WOW?
darian Apr 24th 2008 12:43PM
Because WoW has been built on the premise of two sides from the beginning. Trying to shoehorn a third faction in would be difficult to say the least.
Firstly, the Burning Legion would be notably bereft of starting areas and major cities on Azeroth. Adding them in as a faction would require either a major overhaul of Azeroth, the addition of lowbie Outlands zones, or a cop out and instant 60+ level.
Secondly, they'd need to be shoehorned into battlegrounds. The Burning Legion doesn't have any reason to be in WSG, AB or AV. Adding them in would not only completely change the nature of the games (3 way battles are completely different than two way), but would require (again) overhauls to facilitate the three sides. The cop out would be to have Burning Legion members randomly fill spots on both sides, or randomly take on side or the other, which is a Lorelol in and off itself.
Lastly, we have the problem of races. The ranks of the Burning Legion are highly specialized. If you wanted to be a Warrior, for example, you might have one, maybe two options. The only Burning Legion race that has any multiclass potential are the Satyrs, and they don't even have females.
As an addendum to that, what exactly would the Burning Legion fight in Outland? Almost half of everything to kill is friendly with them. Without some serious lore/precedent breaking you couldn't even raid half the instances, or even down Kael.
In short, the amount of work that would have to go into making the Burning Legion a viable faction is even more monstrous than reworking Azeroth to be a viable place for flying mounts. This is true for any potential third faction.
Naix Apr 24th 2008 1:48PM
So your saying Blizzard developers are not smart enough to make a 3rd faction work...I don't think so.
Money + Times = Results
Blizzard has the money and time.
J0ust Apr 24th 2008 8:19AM
Warcraft is about Alliance versus Horde, at least as far as playable goes. Always has been, always will be. Two sides of the conflict, the coin, the story.
"Perhaps one with absolutely no common ground, dedicated wholly to the destruction of both the Horde and the Alliance..."
Pre TBC this was the Scourge. Post TBC this is the Burning Legion. Both rightly NPC factions. A part of the WC mythos is that the Horde and Alliance always put differences aside when faced with a greater threat. It's good that we can hate on a common enemy. It means everyonme gets to be heroes, and the only true "Evil" in the game is outside the scope of playability.
A third faction won't ever happen, if for no other reason than game balance. Blizzard can't balance Arenas with the races/classes that already exist without it impacting on PvE, how do you think they'd fare with an entire new playable faction? You'd need new races, starter areas...it's not going to happen for the same reason flight in Azeroth hasn't happened; you'd be re-inventing the wheel, and for no good reason.
So; Warcraft is about Alliance versus Horde, at least as far as playable goes. Always has been, always will be. Two sides of the conflict, the coin, the story.
Clichéd, maybe. But cliché is a huge part of WoW's success, and Blizzard won't mess with that.
Zandrov Apr 24th 2008 1:49PM
Why would the 3rd faction have to be eligable for arenas? I think blizzard is working on that kind of thing with the Death Knight Hero class...so the 3rd faction WILL EXIST!
stylewalker Apr 24th 2008 8:19AM
What i would like to see is a bit of mixup. Lets say in Wrath, it's no longer about Horde/Alliance, but about Aldor and Scryers. Or make it only in some certain zones.
Would be nice with raids, gnomes and taurens fighting side by side.
Matt Apr 24th 2008 3:15PM
thats the dumbest thing ive EVER heard...especially with the aldor and scryer joining together to fight the burning legon @ the sunwell...goodness!
if there was to be a 3rd faction it would be a neutral faction probably goblins, ogres, the broken, and maybe furblogs? there would be no way to make the burning legion a playable race, and if they did, they might as well kiss 5-6mil subscriptions goodbye, because alot of those people would laugh at the stupidity of the decision and play something else.
Soldat Apr 24th 2008 8:21AM
I had originally hoped that TBC would be released with a third faction. After the initial announcement I had thoughts about "Oh clearly they'll make a new faction under Illidan where you could be Naga, Blood Elves, and Broken (Still Draenei at the time)."
Obviously this didn't happen. =( They went Lolore instead.
kiaus Apr 24th 2008 8:55AM
That was exactly how I thought it would be as well. In fact, with the races under Ilidan, (Naga, Dranei, belfs and ?) it seems like that might have been their original intention. Instead, they decided to move 2 races to the other factions and move the game + 10 levels.
Sirg Apr 24th 2008 9:04AM
This isn't Starcraft, it's Warcraft - and why do you need a 3rd faction? What for? And why playing demons at all?
Demons are the essence of evil, you can't have "good" quests while playing a demon. The wonderful thing about WoW is that when people thought the Horde as the bad guys, and played a horde char, found out that there were lots of "good" quests which made the story in WoW more complex, deep and interesting.
A 3rd faction would ruin the game. The author could come up with more useful topics for the community, instead of reviving silly topics from the wow forums.. Do we need an other gender change post as well?...
Badger Apr 24th 2008 9:30AM
Sirg,
What the hell does "Starcraft" have to do with anything? And why do you absolutely need to have "good quests?" That's the entire point of the post: AN EVIL FACTION.
Also: This didn't originate on the Forums. Matthew was inspired by someone who posted a Comment right here on WOW Insider.
Did you actually bother to read the article?
John Apr 24th 2008 8:22AM
If I could transfer my human lock to the legion I'd be all for it. :)
Grinmar Apr 24th 2008 8:24AM
I like the idea. Some problems might arise, but nothing that couldn't be worked out. The new faction having to re-gear and level would definantly put them at a disadvantage. BG's could still be 1v1 just make it random who you fight. Also most people that would play the burning legion would probobly be ex-horde, as allis play their faction partly because they are "pretty".I think a 3rd faction would be great though.
Zo Apr 24th 2008 11:08AM
Grinmar i dont play alliance for they're looks. I play them because i like the lore involved with them and if i did play for looks, what would that matter, If i liked the way a race looked and they're racials suited my class then hell yeah id roll one but seriously the whole horde ''omfg alliance kids'' is getting old so why don't you just grow up
grab Apr 24th 2008 8:35AM
So would end game content for the 3rd faction include raiding Orgrimmar/Stormwind? Maybe the 3rd faction would have more of a pvp base than the others... I don't think it would work... Maybe in WoW 2, when they'd have to reinvent the wheel anyway......