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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Would you change your faction?
by Lesley Smith 
Jul 1st 2009 at 8:00AM
So, constant readers, in the wake of this bombshell I'm very eager to know what you think. Does the very idea of changing faction seem contrary to how the game works? Would you consider jumping factions? Would you rather see characters choose whether to become Horde or Alliance? Could you change your very species to join the opposing faction? From a lore perspective, how do you think would this work and, indeed, does it need to have a basis in lore? After all no one questioned the gender change. What do you think?
Filed under: Blizzard, News items, Breakfast Topics, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 12)
SJ Jul 1st 2009 8:22AM
no as a dreanai hunter i would miss my self-heal too-much
ziggler Jul 1st 2009 8:22AM
Im already an undead mage, no reason to change when you made the right choice in the first day :P
(btw, not happy about the flood of undead mages and rogue we're gonna see...)
Budukahn Jul 1st 2009 8:23AM
I can't say I approve of this in any shape or form. It smells far too much like a money grab or indeed, power leveling by any other name. Like many folks, I've done the leveling thing too many times to find any pleasure in it and only really enjoy end game content.
As a relatively young convert to the Horde, I have a sizable stable of highish alliance characters who I would, if this went ahead, be able to remake on Horde side, saving me the grief of leveling up once again. However, how far removed is this really from paying some chap in Asia to level me a new 80? Not much to my view.
Besides this, given several of Blizzards various "enticements" such as Refer a Friend (which I find feels like subsidized power-leveling) and out right about turns ("Transferring PVE-PVP server transfers will never happen" Remember that little gem?), I find myself genuinely beginning to wonder how long we have until Blizzard opens the in game item mall and just lets us buy Tier 9 or class changes on demand.
Ofcourse there's the whole "Blizzard is a Business" and "Needs to make money" and so on. I'm becoming worried though that Warcraft is slowly but surely heading down the road that keeps me out of many of the free to play games, that being that the biggest wallet wins. It's not wrong and it's not immoral but it does get me thinking "what's next?".
At this rate, I expect Icecrown Citadel will come with an attunement quest. "Visit the Blizzard Store and spend 20 Dollars". I can't say I'll feel like accepting that one.
Seraph Jul 1st 2009 8:34AM
I don't really see at all how this is remotely similar to "paying some chap in Asia to level [you] a new 80." Did you spend the time /played leveling the character? Yes. Did you spend the time gearing him? Yes. Did you spend the money to transfer him? Yes. Granted you may have done it on a different server and a different race but it was still YOU who invested the time into the character.
I understand the "slippery slope" argument, but I don't think Blizzard is quite dumb enough to fall into the trap that is allowing players to pay for a real advantage ingame. You may cite Refer-a-Friend as an advantage but I was always of the opinion that anything that getting to level 60 faster doesn't break my game at level 80.
This is being implemented so that some folks who for one reason or another rerolled the opposite faction don't have to let their characters rot. I, for one, am all for it, and not only because I am amongst those who have a fairly beloved main sitting idle due to the desire to be with RL friends.
Frogh Jul 1st 2009 8:24AM
I would not change my horde characters. I MIGHT change my alliance though.
JustinScott Jul 1st 2009 8:25AM
Plain and simple, you pick the faction and race you want when you roll a new character. If your able to transfer factions and races, that makes choosing which side and which race/class combo obsolete.
Mardoc Jul 1st 2009 8:36AM
This.
If you wanted a Horde character, you should have rolled a Horde character. Same vice-versa. The ability to switch after leveling seems to be nothing more than a blatant attempt at money-grabbing. Probably an Activision suggestion.
I understand that there's a lot of people with alts or whatever, but if you can't take the responsibility, and the consequences, of even CREATING your character, then what hope is there for the rest of the content?
Stick with the decisions you make.
Immortalized Jul 1st 2009 8:27AM
Great, now us Horde are going to have to put up with all the 12yr olds switching from Alliance. Just Great.
The Claw Jul 1st 2009 8:46AM
Yep, when you add that to all the 12 year olds that chose Horde initially, it's going to be horrible.
Xylin Jul 1st 2009 11:58AM
Thank god for that. Then i'll finaly enjoy playing my ally char once again.
Anonyman Jul 1st 2009 3:38PM
I would not change factions, however if this came with a race changing service I would consider it.
Troll Druid would be awesome.
Frogh Jul 1st 2009 8:27AM
I failed to mention that Blizz will likely have to test this on a server or a PTR to see what the general preference is going to be. Imagine the shifting of faction on any given server. It will take a year to shift all the factions, for balance, with free server transfers.
Ommadon Jul 1st 2009 8:27AM
This might work, but I don't know how they would equivocate the races. I can understand Human -> Undead and maybe Tauren -> Draenei but something like Gnome -> Orc? That midget has to go somewhere...
Alexander Graf Jul 1st 2009 8:28AM
I would.
Always wanted to play Horde (did, for a long time, in fact) but got suckered into the whole Alliance thing by RL mates. Was a stupid thing to do and I would definitely switch back to horde.
Dane Jul 1st 2009 8:31AM
considering that in WotLK both factions are working toward the same goal, I would think that it would only be available to high level characters (+60) and you wouldn't change races. ya know... we are all working towards the same thing, why would we have to change race?
Flavio Jul 1st 2009 8:29AM
Yes, if I could keep my race, I'm a Paladin and dont want be nor a Human, nor a Dwarf, nor a Draenei.
omg.. if I went Female Draenei I could have a sexy booty.. hmmmmmmmmm *_*
gay4pay2u Jul 1st 2009 8:31AM
I like how you wrote species instead of race in the post.
It gave me the idea that they could work some lore into the faction change option. Like the Royal Apothecary Society. They could give you some weird potion to drink, and POP! You'd magically turn into a big fat tauren instead of a gnome!
Wither Jul 1st 2009 8:40AM
I would love if the change were made in game.
The alchemy should be performed in a home city, ideally the Undercity Apothecarium and Tinker Town in Ironforge. To reinforce the change, you should immediately get ganked by all the local guards and have to do a corpse run. There should be a citywide yell of the change, such as "XYZ has defected from the ranks of the Alliance!" and "XYZ has taken asylum in the Horde!".
Sadly, I think due to technicalities the change will be made offline.
Sleutel Jul 1st 2009 8:31AM
IF my current raiding guild fell apart, I might consider a switch to Horde so that I can join one of my other friends' raiding guilds. But all of my char's little racial quirks are such a big part of her that it would be really off-putting, like magically getting a new, different 80 by destroying my old one.
Not to mention, I'm sure I'd lose all of the faction-specific pets, mounts, rep, achievements, and quests I've built up over the past two years.
TheUrbanWalker Jul 1st 2009 8:35AM
I'd change faction in a heartbeat. But only with a level 80 character. I wouldn't switch my 77 Priest for instance, because I want to see Northrend from the Alliance point of view first.
To that end I rerolled Alliance yesterday, turning my back on all the Horde chars I've created simply because I'm bored of the game from that side of things. I want to see it from a new angle, have some different storylines to read etc. I'd imagine that once I've been through the first 60 levels, I'd be tempted to just switch everything over, but I still wouldn't. I've only hit 8 on my new Draeni Warrior, but already I can feel the enthusiasm for levelling coming back.
I'd say that unless you have a real attachment to your characters, you should try and stay with the heart of the RPG element and start from scratch. We already have a massive defecit of population in the lower level areas. Faction changes will only make it worse.
TUW - @theurbanwalker