Same-faction battlegrounds to be available for testing on the PTR
by Fox Van Allen 
Mar 31st 2011 at 11:00PM
Well, it's time to box up that purely hypothetical feud and take it to the PTR -- Blizzard is going to be testing same-faction rated battlegrounds.
From Community Manager Nethaera today:
As a part of our ongoing development and testing for World of Warcraft, we are introducing same faction Rated Battlegrounds on the PTR. Teams will be able to queue up and face opponents of either faction in head-to-head competition to truly gauge who deserves to be top of the heap.
This new functionality of the Rated Battleground matchmaking system is still a work in progress, so we'll need your help. If you're interested in helping test same faction Rated Battleground queuing and play with (or go head-to-head with) Blizzard employees, just keep an eye on the PTR forum for times and details:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/1181024/
This new functionality of the Rated Battleground matchmaking system is still a work in progress, so we'll need your help. If you're interested in helping test same faction Rated Battleground queuing and play with (or go head-to-head with) Blizzard employees, just keep an eye on the PTR forum for times and details:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/1181024/
There are a lot of questions about the new feature, of course: How will it work? Will this dilute the meaning behind the game's Horde vs. Alliance plot? And how badly can I graveyard camp Dawn before she just gives up and quits out of frustration? All eyes are on the PTR for answers.
Want to ascend the arena ladders faster than a fireman playing Donkey Kong? We'll steer you to victory with the best arena addons and let you in on some rank 1 gladiator PvP secrets. If you're looking for the inside line on battlegrounds and world PvP, read The Art of War(craft).
Filed under: News items, PvP, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Anonymo Mar 31st 2011 11:05PM
Why not implement something USEFUL?
Discolando Mar 31st 2011 11:14PM
... because you get to define USEFUL, right?
Ant Mar 31st 2011 11:18PM
Obviously the whole dev. team is focused solely on this and nothing else.
Karcharos Mar 31st 2011 11:29PM
April fish, yo.
Karcharos Mar 31st 2011 11:31PM
Although I was really (and still am) hoping for a: "Just kidding about the whole 'Transfer BoA's between WoW accounts on the same Battle.net account guys! You can transfer them between realms starting in 4.1."
Because that would be April Awesome.
Boz Apr 1st 2011 7:23AM
Not useful? This is long, long overdue! Faction imbalance is the primary cause of long queue times for PvP. Allowing same-faction players to PvP against one another should help resolve this issue and lower queue times. Hopefully this will be extended to regular battlegrounds if it works out.
DarkWalker Apr 1st 2011 1:28PM
Yep, it should mostly solve Horde BG queue times. It might even be the only feasible way to do so.
But without measures to promote faction balance, it might be the single feature that kills Alliance in PvP servers. The sole advantage for the smaller faction was lower queue times; if even that is taken away, prepare to see de facto one-faction realms.
Goodk4t Apr 2nd 2011 4:33PM
"Will this dilute the meaning behind the game's Horde vs. Alliance plot?"
Because we never fight the same faction in Arenas, right? Even for Alliance, our rated BG queue times are over 25 minutes. This could possibly make the queue times lower.
Cynwise Mar 31st 2011 11:05PM
Oh yeah. I'm going to run to the wrong flag room for SURE now.
Redbeard Apr 1st 2011 10:16AM
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who does this.
mibu.work1 Mar 31st 2011 11:08PM
my guess is that the team opposite the one you play will get orb of deceptione'd from your perspective, so it's easy to tell who's who.
Ice Apr 1st 2011 5:56AM
Currently on War games option the "alliance" side only gets mere buff ( http://www.wowhead.com/spell=81748 ) if you are horde vs horde to prevent certain abilities from working to advantage or disadvantage...
It would be cool feature to turn into human for time of that RBG when orc, or maybe not for some? I could imagine the uproar from goblins turning into worgen (or undead to nelf) for some reason.
So I sadly doubt it will happen and people have to just rely on red text and name plates and buff telling "alliance/horde" =/
Tri Apr 1st 2011 11:56AM
The big red names over their heads won't give it away?
Avan Mar 31st 2011 11:11PM
Fox, play as any one of the superior Horde races and you would be able to show your Alliance-playing "friend" what's what!
Squirr3llywrath9 Mar 31st 2011 11:12PM
Bah. Just rated BGs? I'm hoping they implement this for regular BGs as well. Shorter BG queues would definitely work for me.
Eberron Apr 1st 2011 2:24AM
Agreed!
I hope this isn't April Fools.
I shouldn't have to consider a faction change to a race I don't want to play on a faction I don't want to be a part of just to solve some of my battleground timer woes.
It had better not be April Fools and it had better go to regular BGs!
archbaotho Mar 31st 2011 11:14PM
Whats really interesting is how they change the map to suit this.
No orc in his/her right mind would get resources for the Silverwing Sentinels, and vice versa.
So will they mirror the BG maps? New maps entirely? Neither of those solutions seem particularly simple to do.
Interesting...
Colin Apr 1st 2011 1:40AM
I think you're overly hopeful about this. I'm pretty sure this'll just be another case of game mechanics and player demand trumping lore.
Jaust Mar 31st 2011 11:14PM
cloudhopper013 Apr 1st 2011 12:07AM
Well said. Well said.