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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Do you have qualms about playing the other faction?
by Nik Mitchell 
Sep 21st 2011 at 8:00AM
Talk to any self-proclaimed altoholic: They'll tell you stories of rolling characters on both sides of the two factions that split the World of Warcraft. For many, their attachment to one side or the other is merely dependent on "What do I want to play today?" However, for me, playing the other faction has some serious consequences: pangs of agony, nervous twitches, tummy trouble, you name it.
I started WoW on one side but quickly found myself tempted to try the other (I heard they had cookies) and never looked back for years. I filled out all 10 slots with the faction I loved. Seven 85s later, I get the whisper from my officers that they are swapping sides as a pet project. The worst of all isn't really that I'd consider playing the dark side again; it's that my closest of guildies are happily getting entrenched. Lured by the real-life friend of another, lo and behold, they found a level 25 guild that would gladly receive some potential recruits... and now my guildies want me to join them, too.
Now don't get me wrong -- I don't deny the opposite faction their right to exist (well, except every time I get killed in Tol Barad), but it feels so completely wrong to be rolling this character (not to mention having to delete my mid-30s mage). What about you? Have you ever had a question of conscience to even begin to create a character of the opposite faction?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 7 of 8)
Eirik Sep 21st 2011 1:40PM
Come to Chromaggus! We've more than enough vacant housing in Stormwind to find you a home. If you prefer sunny Darnassus, there is even more free space there. And the Exodar is at least as empty here as it is on more populated servers. Although that's going from, like two people on the populated servers to zero for us, right?
Strawder Sep 21st 2011 11:29AM
I was Horde for a long time after RL friends in the Alliance took a crap on me. Played a tank for years. Then, when WotLK came out, we were introduced to 7 hour log-in queues (I kid you not) and we free x-ferred to a new server. The Horde pop there was absolutely horrible, the worst of the worst from the bad servers.
So after almost 4 years, I went back to Alliance on a new toon, my Mage. It's had it's ups and downs, but I love my Dwarf women, and Night Elf girls too. Human girls would be hotter if they didn't give them so many Valley Girl animations (they look like they haven't much clue what to do with a 2H sword). Gnome girls are cute too. All of my current toons on that server are now Alliance, the rest were either rebooted as Ally, or Faction Changed.
I did go back to my old server, now no longer suffering from 7 hour queues, and make a couple of Horde alts, but my Alliance toons are the ones I play the most. The Horde ones just kind of sit there at Level 4. Eventually though I'll work on my Goblin Femme Fatale, and my Orcish Battle Princess, and possibly a male Goblin and Belf Lock.
But for now I'm content on Alliance. I know these kinds of questions/threads are usually answered with a resounding "For The Horde!" and I feel you... I feel you.... back from the old days. But this player is happy to be Alliance. We just need a damn proper Battle Cry!
Kuro Sep 21st 2011 11:57AM
I have the bad luck of always playing horde on a high-pop alliance server, so.. I dabble in the opposite faction to be envious over the color of their grass and to smuggle stuff over on the Neutral AH.
In Wrath I moved my Shaman to alliance and turned him into a Space Goat. He was fun, but I missed him being the skinny lil Troll that went all over Azeroth to find 4 totems. The Space Goat dude was big and clunky and like playing a Tauren in Under City. I missed his lil Troll grunts and the lil squeeky "ugh-unh" he made when he took damage. "I don't RP" but I kinda had the story in my mind that he was disguiseing himself as a Space Goat to get secrets from the Alliance or something. He went back to being Horde when my guild was in need of a healer in the Twilight of ICC.
In Cata my Belf Pally had one of those Engineering transporter malfunctions and he was a night elf. I loved how he looked in the mish-mash t10 plate tanking gear and the spinny jumps. So... I rolled a Nelf DK on Alliance, got it into one of the mega guilds and slowly leveled him. He's got the sugardaddy Paladin on the horde side to send him stuff through the neutral AH, so he's doing pretty good for being alone on that faction.
Though, if they ever made it so that Belfs could join the Alliance as High Elves I might be very tempted move my stable of pretty-boys over because the raiding environment... but I just can't play Ally because most of the races are ugly and the the animations look funny.
dkhar Sep 21st 2011 12:22PM
To me, the biggest mistake blizzard ever made was to give ally's shaman and horde paly's. Before that, there was real hatred for the other side, and people wouldn't play the other for(or because) of that hatred. Before TBC if you did a poll, I'll bet about 85% of the player base stuck to their own faction(maybe more, maybe less, but it was the majority at the time). Horde would complain about the paladin's double bubble of immortality especially in pvp, the ally's would complain about all the buff's the shaman class brought to raids and the singular reason why the horde were ahead of PvE progression. If any of you were around back in vanilla you should remember at least a couple of those things, it...was...AWESOME!!! But just before TBC was released(pretty late if I remember correctly in development) blizz came out and conceded shaman's for ally, paly for horde claiming it was because of the raid mechanics and it favored one or the other. I died a little inside that day as a die hard horde, now nothing is unique!
FOR THE HORDE!! ;)
Berna Sep 21st 2011 12:33PM
The only reason I don't play Horde is because my husband and all my friends are on the Alliance side. I wish tauren were in the Alliance...
arcady Sep 21st 2011 12:46PM
Ever since they let santa's pixies into the horde, I've not felt any sense of a need to be loyal to either faction. I can't go to one side anymore to avoid the pixies...
And with draenei and worgen on alliance, I can at least play something not evil over there. ;)
Plus these leveling 'buffs' are just making it too easy to push up more alts. With 9 85s now, and 2 more that up to northrend content... you can only make so many alts on one faction.
Finally, I'm paying to see this game's content - so why purposefully cut off my access to half of what I pay money to see?
penguinairsauce Sep 21st 2011 12:36PM
I have toons on both, I play Alliance significantly more of the time, but my heart will always lie with the Horde.
Dude Sep 21st 2011 12:56PM
I more or less only play Blood Elf so it's almost Alliance and we are barely tolerated by the Horde, lol. Even though BElfs make up a good amount of the Horde these days. But when push comes to shove those Gnomes are deadmeat on the BG's. I do dance with Alliance if they are bold enough to visit outside Orgrimmar but that's about it. I tolerate Alliance as a Horde but will defend the capitals and fight for Honor points when I have to. My Orc, Tauren and Forsaken colleagues take Alliance hate to a whole other level of course, but that is unsurprising given the history of the Horde.
Eirik Sep 21st 2011 1:31PM
Hearing this... should we meet on the field of battle, it will be my pleasure to hand you your liver-and-lights with a side of kneecap and a nice glass of Face Punch, to honor your prejudices.
Eirik, gnome warrior.
Kz Sep 21st 2011 12:56PM
I play both sides, therefore I have no complaints.
StClair Sep 21st 2011 1:14PM
PvE-focused player who plays both sides. I want to do and see it all.
Bynde Sep 21st 2011 1:18PM
Alliance only and always.
Yawning Sep 21st 2011 1:28PM
Not so much in a faction bias way since that is quite silly if you aren't a strict RP-PVPer or something. :p
However, I can stand the fact that when I play Horde, the majority of the males seem like they are carrying a boulder on their backs or that they should be hunchbacks or something. You can cover up 'harelips' and overly muscularness with gear but the curved spines will always be there...
jumpkick90 Sep 21st 2011 1:29PM
*can't stand, rather.
bethontheharbor Sep 21st 2011 1:56PM
I have played both sides, having just returned to the alliance after a year as horde. Both sides are fun, but I really missed Stormwind.
Sorcha Sep 21st 2011 2:58PM
Horde, only and always. It's each to their own. I find it fascinating that people are drawn to different factions for different reasons.
Bynde Sep 21st 2011 3:05PM
As far as Alliance races, my favorites are Nelfs by a mile. Next is Dwarves or Worgens (in worgen form only).
I cannot stand to look at male gnomes or male humans until blizzard gives them major reconstructive surgery on their faces and male Squidfaces look deformed and just plain unpleasant.
So it's nothing but Nelfs, Worgans and Dwarves for me. (Ok, I have one male human that I don't play much anymore.)
Kia Sep 21st 2011 3:10PM
I have qualms about playing the other faction just because I hate the horde. I hate questing through tribal and ruined and uncivilized areas, I hate the whole warlike theme, I hate everything about the "real" horde.
It sucks, then, that I can't ever roll my favorite race because I hate 95% of the environments and I hate everything else about the horde besides the elves. They were a stupid addition to the faction, should have been alliance.
Romolus Sep 21st 2011 5:37PM
Well, my only beef with allies (at least on my server) is their guilds need to wussify their hunters taming skills with those challenge tames. You do not need you entire guild in order to tame Deth or Skarr.... I solo'd skarr, and barly made it out alive as the ally guild was late to the party.... but I have yet to see anyone solo deth, and I know I can solo him (I once got him to 50% hp before and ally sent his spider pet to cc me, and kill me. so yeah... I'm bitter).
That's about the only reason I wont join an Ally guild on my worgen.
neminem Sep 21st 2011 3:38PM
Conscience? No. That's just dumb. Even if I cared about the fake morality of an MMO, which I wouldn't - I have no issue with fake-torturing NPCs to complete a quest, any more than I have an issue with picking up fake wolf crap to complete a quest... even if I did, I don't think the horde is all evil, any more than the alliance is all good. Really, I wish the two sides could just get along, learn each others' languages, and go beat down the various *real* evils of the verse (this even occasionally actually happens, we're just not allowed to share in it fully as players. Makes me sad.)
I haven't, however, actually made any horde alts anywhere, just because every time I think about it, I think about the annoyance of not being able to share stuff between it and my other alts... having to find a new guild... relearning where everything is... I want my alliance-side goblins. (Goblins are awesome. Just not awesome enough to make me play horde.)