/wince at inevitable flaming

I might catch some flak for this; but one of the previous posters mentioning something about the Horde being "the underdogs" got me thinking about this... I liked being Horde when we were a band of disparate, outcast races come together because we were shunned (and vastly misunderstood) by everyone else. We supported one another to survive the next wave of turmoil and danger besetting Azeroth-- the Burning Legion, the Lich King, and now Deathwing. On occasion, we had to fight the vagrant Alliance person who was a little too hung up on the "Alliance vs. Horde" idea. Now it feels more like, "Who hates the Alliance more?! RAAAWWRRR! Let's be conquerors!!" I hate to break it to Hellscream, but unless he actually has a good idea on making the world a better place through this conquest, he's actually no better than any of the other bad guys we've faced. "Conquest for glory" sounds oddly familiar and it just doesn't sit well with me. In fact, why doesn't Hellscream just tell the Alliance they're free to be the archetypical heroes since he wants the Horde to just be a savage, military juggernaut?

Maybe it's because I take the whole "hero" thing rather seriously in respect to the game. I'm not a conqueror. I don't desire vast tracts of land or underlings to bow to my every whim. I want to achieve my glory some other way, by making the world a better place with every arrow I fire. Besides, what use is all of this land I've ripped from the grasp of my so-called enemies when it's threatened by something greater who will crush me, regardless if I'm Horde or Alliance?

I guess it's why I'm glad the majority of the quests in the 80-85 zones are neutral faction-based. But in a way, it's really sad. What happened to the Horde who wanted to make Azeroth better, the Horde who did not want to repeat its mistakes of the past, saw atrocities committed by their own and others, and vowed not to do the same?

To answer the question directly, I have changed the way I play. I feel like I'm no longer a member of the Horde. My character is more or less a mercenary for hire, signing herself up to fight wherever the *real* enemy is lurking. I used to proudly represent the Horde in such times (e.g. Wrath, esp. post-ToC... Thanks a lot for that, Tirion) but now... I guess I'm fighting harder than ever to prove that I'm still capable of being a hero despite what the rest of my faction is doing. And Heaven forbid! What if Hellscream finds out that I've been working with Draenei and Dwarves in Deepholm (among other things)?!

Hellscream can take his axe and bugger himself with it for all I care. I'm doing this for the safety of my friends and the world I live in. To hell with his so-called "glory." He is no Warchief of mine.

I'm actually very interested to see if there are other viewpoints on this, maybe to make me hate Hellscream and the direction he's taking the Horde less. I dunno. It's just difficult to look at some of this stuff and go, "Yeah, I'm still a hero."

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