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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Is your race or faction choice based on sticking with friends?
by Fay Dearing 
Dec 17th 2010 at 8:00AM
I'll admit it: I'm a gnome-aholic. If I had my way, every single one of my characters would be a gnome. My warlock? Originally a gnome. My rogue? Also used to be a gnome. My hunter? Sometimes I dream at night of a gnome, pink pigtails bouncing, as she charges into battle riding her devilsaur pet. They're just so cute!
That said, since moving in with my current roommates, I've found that there is no way I can express my gnome love. Both of my roomies are die-hard Hordies, and in order to play together with them, I've had to transfer all of my beloved gnomes into not-so-beloved Horde equivalents. Not that there's nothing to love in the Horde (I would marry a troll and adore goblins!), but sometimes when I'm in a battleground and I see a gnome charging, I ... I just can't find it in my heart to melt his/her adorable face off.
Sometimes I fantasize about transferring all of my characters back to the Alliance and making them all gnomes again or making myself a secret gnome toon. However, I've realized that I would miss playing with my friends too much. Sure, if I rolled a gnome, I would still be able to talk to them, but I wouldn't be able to run a few random heroics with them, pop into Silvermoon for some RP or ask them to run my level 23 alt through a dungeon so I can get all the loots for myself.
So what about you? Have you ever rolled a certain race or class in order to fit in with your friends?
| Yes, and I'm having a good time with it. | |
|---|---|
| Yes, and I sometimes miss what my characters could have been. | |
| No, I do my own thing. |
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 5)
quasarsglow Dec 17th 2010 9:49AM
I recently rolled an ally toon to join in a guild with some local friends.. Then I listened to the way they act on vent and changed my mind. They exemplify the G.I.F.T.
Fossless Dec 17th 2010 9:58AM
Thankfully im horde with my guild, cause Taruen or go home
Scalez Dec 17th 2010 10:13AM
I'm part of the Horde for RLFs, but how I do pine for a Gnome. /sigh
Chetti Dec 17th 2010 10:18AM
My faction is sometimes decided by friends. My real life best friend got me into the game, she had a human mage, so i went with alliance on the server she played on. But I chose a night elf druid as my first toon. By the time I got into rolling alts, the majority of them are alliance, on draka. I did want to try a horde, so I went with a blood elf mage. Then another real life friend got back into the game, she's a die-hard horde player, so we rolled taurens on a different server side by side (I'm a druid, she's a shaman). We've got plans to make goblins and/or trolls. I definitely want a troll druid.
As soon as the shattering patch hit, I started a night elf mage. I really like night elves, and I was glad to see a new option for an alliance mage. I also truly wanted to see the changes to teldrassil/darnassus. Darkshore was amazing. I'm taking my worgen through there now and loving it just as much.
I generally quest by myself on the alliance side, though I chat with my friend all the time, we've got different "agendas" so to speak. Sometimes we meet up and help each other with quests, but we don't have any side by sides (which is odd that we haven't done that). My horde toons get sort of.. left to wait for my horde pal to be online because we do level together questing or random dungeons.
RealID makes it possible for me to do my own thing even while my horde friend is online working on her main doing her own thing.
RetPallyJil Dec 17th 2010 10:22AM
Weakling Horde traitor! Who needs ya :P
Terrant Dec 17th 2010 10:29AM
My friends and I all discovered WoW independently, so we each developed our own class, faction, and playing style preferences - RPers vs. casual raiders vs. hardcore raiders vs. Horde vs. Alliance vs. bifactionals. So we don't try to play together, and that's for the best, but it gives us more stories to tell when we do get together!
Braundo Dec 17th 2010 10:32AM
Yes. I've played equal time on both factions, but I've come to the conclusion in the end that I much prefer Alliance, in terms of aesthetics, cities, zones, lore, etc. I'm still playing Horde because I don't want to leave my friends, though.
Tyrrax Dec 17th 2010 10:36AM
I tried. My friend have been jumping around servers a lot. I have a TON of friends that play buy none of them are on the same server. I'm pretty much the only one left that's Horde. Either that or play on a server where just being Horde sucks.
islandstyle Dec 17th 2010 10:38AM
I rolled Alliance just to see how different the content/storyline was. Got into an awesome Guild and pretty much stayed Alliance. I do miss my Horde, and have made a Horde toon, but my Alliance Guildies are hard to stay away from.
Erogroth Dec 17th 2010 10:40AM
First off no Horde member should ever admit to loving gnomes. We have a don't as don't tell policy here. So now we are going to have to discharge you from the service of the horde. We may let you stay on as a grunt who can only say "Zug Zug" and "Work Complete" but you will get hit with a stick every time you fall asleep.
Second. Not so much my faction or server as much as my guild. I have been playing with these people since launch. We are not a hard core guild and as much as I would like to do hard modes and such I would never leave them. Plus being a tank and getting into a top level guild is really hard.
Rob Dec 17th 2010 10:48AM
I love alliance races, i think they all have great lore. But my RLF wanted to do a horde guild, so i started playing horde. I still have 3 alliance 80s and my best memories were alliance. Often when the guild gets to be a chore then i go play alliance for a while.
Cyrus Dec 17th 2010 10:52AM
"So what about you? Have you ever rolled a certain race or class in order to fit in with your friends?"
Sort of. None of my RL friends play and my current main, a NE druid, was rolled before I joined my current guild. If I wanted to make a character on the opposite faction and/or server my main, or if my guild voted to switch factions for some weird reason, I'd shed a tear for my current guildies and keep in touch with them through vent and facebook and alts. So, no, my main's identity came first and there hasn't been any conflicts between him and friends but if there was I don't think I'd change him.
However, I said "sort of" because I have done that kind of thing with alts. Left to my own devices, my Blood Elf paladin would probably be my most-played alt. A paladin is fun for several reasons, she's a blacksmith and the self-sufficiency is nice, it's the best glimpse I get of the whole Horde storyline, and so on. But she's on the wrong faction and server to support my guild when they need a tank or a dps of a different class than I usually play, so my dwarf DK and gnome rogue got leveled and geared up more quickly than her in WotLK and probably will in Cataclysm. Oh well, it's a small price to pay.
Gendou Dec 17th 2010 10:52AM
I chose Horde because I wanted to play an Undead Priest.
I made friends there, am in a close-knit casual raiding guild, and now would not switch for any reason.
That having been said, I do have some Alliance characters on another server, and I enjoy playing them as well, albeit for different (RP) reasons.
Xot Dec 17th 2010 10:53AM
Actually, my two oldest kids (25yrs old and 20 yrs old) got me hooked on WoW via a way to keep in close contact with one another and they both had Alliance Characters.
So all of my level 80+ toons are Alliance. I decided for something different I would try a Horde character and since I dont have a Hunter yet decided on a Belf hunter.
I was a little apprehensive since I started on a PvP server to even consider Horde but what I have found so far is that there is absolutely no difference! There are people who play Alliance characters that are just as unscrupulous and mean as there are who play Horde.
I have always been a fantasy fiction fan and been fond of Elfs so they are my favorite race.
However I have two human level 80+ characters, a Draeni and one Night Elf and of course my Horde Belf Hunter who will be stuck at level 70 until I reach 85 with my mage, shaman and priest.
EaterOfBirds Dec 17th 2010 11:07AM
wheres the 'for the horde' option :p as much as i hate the alliance id have started there if my friends had started on that. ive got too many characters on horde now so i cant afford all the race changes to switch faction even if i wanted to.
Nathanael Dec 17th 2010 11:12AM
9 classes at 80+ on Earthen Ring, 8 of which are Horde. I have a Human Paladin so that I can experience the Alliance side of things, and it also just seems right to have the paladin be a human.
I keep most Horde-side because being in AIE (guild) enhances the game experience to a huge degree, and because it is far easier to be loyal to Thrall than it is to Varian "Lo'Gosh" Wrynn. Also, playing a conflicted hero is more appealing than playing a self-righteous goodie (read: Alliance).
Besides, let's be honest folks: Blizzard loves the Horde. If that's not clear from this expansion, I don't know what game you've been playing. The quests, the city remodels, the novel. FAR more interesting is the Horde politics of Garrosh, Thrall and Baine, than the ridiculous Dark Iron development. IMO, that is, of course.
The Horde have done some despicable things lately, it's true, but I could never leave. It's much too easy to RP yourself being loyal to the "Old-New Horde", and not to Garrosh.
Draknareth Dec 17th 2010 11:23AM
I've always loved Orcs and always will. Lok'Tar Ogar!
Jason Ralph Dec 17th 2010 11:41AM
A thousand times no. I'm a major Warcraft 3 junkie. I will never play WoW any where near close to as much as I play that, and Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne, is IMO, the best expansion Blizzard has ever come out with. Due to that, I waited for the Blood Elves to be added to WoW. Their story, their struggle, I have always found intriguing and so it's all I have played. My Holy Blood Elf paladin is all I have had in WoW until Cata, where I made a Unholy Worgen Death Knight (another cursed race who lore fascinates me, and another off shoot from the Night Elves oddly enough). By having an Alliance character, it has extended WoW for me by at least 2 years (enough to quest in Old World/Outlands/Northrend from their point of view), which, has been cool (quest lines in Westfall and Redridge are still my favorite).
Kroof Dec 19th 2010 1:51AM
Warcraft the rts came out. I played the Horde.
I clicked and dragged my little pixelated orcs through great victories.
Warcraft 2 came out. I played the Horde.
I rescued Zul'jin and I now added fearsome axe throwers to my legion. Also death knights, dragons and many other fun things.
Warcraft 3 came out. I played the Horde.
Cairne and I lead our Tauren legions on a wonderful stampede through filthy night elf towns. Love blossomed that day.
World of Warcraft came out. I waited long months until I finally had a computer that could play it. My dreams were filled with thoughts of Warrior Taurens.
My real life friends played the filthy stinking alliance.
I chose Horde.
I did try to roll an alliance character or two over the years. I think the highest I have ever gotten is level 32. Although I DID get a DK to 78 once. I pride myself that dungeon groups would compliment me on my particularly creepy looking gnome.
Fizzlle Dec 17th 2010 11:53AM
I started the game as Horde. I loved every minute of it. I enjoyed the quests more, the races more, and the community more. around level 40 (back in Vanella WoW) my friends decided to re-roll Alliance. I did it to stay playing with my friends. A year later they began quitting the game one by one. I stayed for the ones who remained and for the new friends I made in guild. I have since leveled some toons on a Horde server but it just isn't the same. I play mostly solo on the Horde server (so I mostly never play) for fear that I would make friendships there and then be torn about where to spend my in-game time. I play, level, raid, and faceroll on my Alliance toons but I very often wish I could just transfer my toons to the Horde side or a Horde server.