Breakfast Topic: "Blizzard's Horde bias" -- fact or delusion?
by Jeff Fincher 
Oct 26th 2011 at 8:00AM
It seems every week on the official forums, other game sites, and in daily conversation in Azeroth or Earth, the topic comes up that Blizzard favors the Horde. When the claim is directed toward lore development, even Horde players sometimes agree. But is there merit to the accusation?
Chris Metzen admits he loves Thrall and gets excited talking about the Orc's story, but he's also named Malfurion Stormrage as his favorite character in the past. Developers incite cheers of Lok'tar Ogar and For the Horde! at BlizzCon while suggesting Not the face! for the Alliance's new battlecry.
Most of this, however, is not where players look for their sole source of faction pride. It's in the game. The Horde's story has gotten very interesting with Sylvanas' darker path, Garrosh's controversial leadership, and Thrall's place on center stage in Cataclysm. The Alliance, however, has seen very little involvement from its leaders, and some players feel what they have seen has been out of character for their leaders. Malfurion neutral as Ashenvale burns -- or worse, as Tyrande is attacked?
Perhaps the strongest supporting evidence for or against bias (depending how you interpret it) are Metzen's recent comments that the Alliance will get some needed attention to strengthen that faction pride in two novels focusing on the Alliance, first with Wolfheart by Richard Knaack, followed by a still-untitled novel about Jaina Proudmoore by Christie Golden. But is that enough?
Do you think novels will stir the passion in the Alliance players' hearts, or is Blizzard going down the wrong path for the right desire? Do you think there's any merit to the claim of bias to begin with, or is it just more faction feuding amongst players?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 19)
Aenorn Oct 26th 2011 8:04AM
As an Alliance player: Delusion.
coville Oct 26th 2011 8:48AM
I play 95% Alliance and I would say that there is no bias toward Horde as far as game development.
Most of the Horde bias we see is in marketing, they try to sell to the adolescent boys who are the top game playing demographic and most of them are childish enough to believe being the "bad boy" is cool.
If Blizzard had a true bias toward Horde, why would Stormwind be so over crowed with toons and Orgrimmar being a virtual ghost town? They try to make Horde look cool to get people to play it because so few do.
Schadenfreude Oct 26th 2011 8:59AM
I remember in vanilla the cry was always "Blizzard favors Alliance!". I think it's just sibling rivalry.
SR Oct 26th 2011 9:12AM
Except the cries before was probably aimed at game balance, since there really wasn't much... story to begin with.
suh8lim3 Oct 26th 2011 9:35AM
@coville: When you look at the facts, the vast majority of Alliance players are under 18. I've been playing both sides for about 6 years, on 4 different servers. I can safely tell you that from my experience, and from what others agree with, is that Alliance tend to have more of the immature kids.
nicole.talucci Oct 26th 2011 9:37AM
Facts or anecdotal evidence?
Phredreeke Oct 26th 2011 9:38AM
It's not as much faction differences as realm differences. Some realms are balanced, some are skewed towards alliance while other are skewed towards horde.
Muse Oct 26th 2011 9:43AM
@suh8lim3 And the majority of the horde are in the "male 18-25" demographic bracket, which isn't any better.
(yes, total asspull, only Blizzard knows their demographic distribution, and they're not talking)
MattKrotzer Oct 26th 2011 9:44AM
"Alliance has more kids"
"Horde has more kids"
There's no factual evidence supporting either argument. It's entirely anecdotal and varies from server to server.
That said, I've had more experiences with mature kids under 18 than I have mature 18+ players. Anecdotal, but very true.
Aenorn Oct 26th 2011 9:45AM
@suh8lim3 Sorry to say, but that just sounds like you're pulling facts out of your rear end.
SR Oct 26th 2011 9:49AM
@su8lim3:
I'd like you to prove it. I've been in many guilds, and I'm usually the youngest member.
I first started playing at 16, and it seems the more guilds I see, the older my fellow members are.
That "stereotype" is also now void, because if a faction has LESS 12-year-olds, a lot of the 12-year-olds that thinks they're better than the other 12-year-olds would MOST LIKELY flock to the "cooler faction with less kids".
May have been true in the early days, but sounds like people who claim that needs to check their thinking and facts.
Noyou Oct 26th 2011 9:52AM
@suh
The vast majority of people in my guild are 30-40 years of age. We have no minimum age requirement. I can't speak for all of WoW or even a big chunk of the server I play on. But I would say the vast majority of your facts are wrong. Sorry bub.
viperdt51 Oct 26th 2011 9:53AM
@coville you do realize that the amout of people who play one faction or the other varies by server. On my server org is over populated and stormwind is a gohst town. The population balance is different everywhere you go. I think I actually remember reading somewhere that the actually balance of total horde to alliance was fairly close to even.
Sal Oct 26th 2011 9:54AM
Arthas, Illidan, and Onyxia. None of these major bosses used to be part of races (or pretended to be part of them) on the Horde side. I would say the storyline simply shifts and flows from one side to the other over time.
Geox82 Oct 26th 2011 10:09AM
I have played both Ally and horde (more ally) - and I will say that in terms of this point of the story - there is a horde bias... but I feel there needs to be, because we all know deep down that if push comes to shove - the alliance wins in the end. Warcrafts core has always been that humanity will find a way, so really the horde needs to shine now as eventually the pendulum will swing back the other way and swing back hard.
As for the age "thing" using my own anecdotal experience - in vanilla, I felt there was a larger alliance presence, you had the 25+ crowd who were coming in from other MMO's and went with the familiar class archetypes. You also had the younger crowds who defaulted to the "good guys." On the horde side, I want to say that you had this big influx of Warcraft fans - the guys who came to revere Thrall from warcraft 3. And that consisted of a majority of the 16-25 crowd.
Early on, the experience gamers from the 25+ crowd seemed to excel. but those college aged kids quickly caught up and passed them - and what I have seen develop is that as the younger player cuts their teeth on the alliance, as they hit that late teen phase they go to the horde.
Just my own experience.
ugoticedbro Oct 26th 2011 10:21AM
@matt
I'm horde and I just turned 26 in april, thank you very much!
I'll take no part in your stereotyping, good sir!
ugoticedbro Oct 26th 2011 10:24AM
Sorry, that was meant to be @Muse.
Maybe I just like yelling at Matt.
Muse Oct 26th 2011 10:31AM
@ugoticedbro: Yelling at Matt is a much venerated hobby. Carry on.
DeathPaladin Oct 26th 2011 10:47AM
As an Alliance player: Regardless of whether it is fact or delusion, the fact that it is even a serious topic of discussion is troubling.
And that most rebuttals to these accusations is not denial, but claiming that the current bias is balancing out previous bias in favor of the Alliance.
Murdertime Oct 26th 2011 10:50AM
I'm gonna say that, yeah, the Alliance had way more kids in Vanilla. Way, way more. The cumulative effect of having the generic fantasy guys, having Elves and the Horde being made of Ugly guys and said kids attracting all their kid friend lead to huge amounts of adolescent dumbassery on the Ally end of things.
I'm also going to say it hasn't been true for a very, very long time and we should stop pretending that it still is.
On the other hand, I'm pretty sure the Horde had like...3 female players until BC.