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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast 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 5 of 19)
loop_not_defined Oct 26th 2011 11:04AM
Regarding sitting idly in ones throne room:
See Sylvanas. She got involved, she died.
See Garrosh. He's getting involved because his army is F*&#ING UP. CONSTANTLY. And he's even screwed up his OWN efforts (Twilight Highlands) by getting involved.
Everybody else is smart enough to use the chain of command.
esposib Oct 26th 2011 3:48PM
@loop_not_defined
I don't care if Varian wants to swim to Durotar and knock on the gates of Org, or tell his subordinates to do it. The sad fact is that he isn't doing much of either in the game.
@Angus
Great story. Too bad we haven't seen ANY of it in the game, which brings me back to the original point:
There have been bunches of opportunities (conflicts) to develop the Alliance story in Cataclysm, but far too many of them are wasted.
Andrew Oct 26th 2011 8:20AM
I don't believe that's true, I mean while their leaders may not be as active look at people like bronzebeard( in several instances) and Tirion Fordring has, imo, one of the most fascinating backstories I have read in WoW.
But on another note, the horde is just different, a bunch of savage creatures with the power on knowledge and honor, it makes for an interesting story.
Xantenise Oct 26th 2011 8:19AM
Also, I feel that the "bias" is mainly because they failed to develop the Alliance cultures.
Let's look at the Horde. Every race is distinct and cultural.
Orcs? They like killing stuff, they're predisposed towards rage, and they put a lot of stock in honour.
Trolls? Tribal, history of cannibalism, quirky.
Forsaken? Angsty, dark, vengeful.
Tauren? Peaceful, tribal, nomadic, but can be vengeful as well.
Blood elves? Prissy, vain, self-centered.
Goblins? Driven by love of money, quirky, innovative.
Now, the Alliance? Three races (gnomes, dwarves, humans) barely have any culture to speak of. Point out an issue and you'll immediately know how a member of the Horde may respond to it based on their race -- an orc will be angry and demand strength, a belf will sneer, a Forsaken may deride what they see. Their views of the world is tinted by culture, culture that the races above barely have. Gnomes build stuff and are short. Dwarves like beer. Humans... they're just humans.
Night elves and draenei are barely better. "We like trees" and "peace is good OH GOD IT'S CHASING US RUN AWAY" doesn't count for much. The worgen are the only ones that have much more culture, and even then it doesn't count for much -- yeah, they're Victorian werewolves. ... And? Fancy clothes does not a culture make.
The Horde is full of rituals, full of cultural influence. Everything they do is dictated by culture. Gallywix grew up in a culture where selfishness was idealised. Garrosh was raised feeling weak and being shamed for not being strong, and orcs are all about honour. We hear of nomadic tribes of tauren trying to do what's best for the earth mother. And when you have culture, you have conflict, and when you have conflict, you have story.
What has the Alliance got compared to THAT?!
Xantenise Oct 26th 2011 8:20AM
Also I say culture a lot. Excuse me, I'm so tired right now.
MattKrotzer Oct 26th 2011 8:28AM
Great points, Xan.
SR Oct 26th 2011 8:35AM
The sad thing is, this just proved that the Alliance could go MILES if given enough attention, due to the "lack" of "culture", as it merely suggests that the Alliance races aren't predictable. It's a white sheet of paper versus trading card games, where given enough imagination, the white sheet of paper could turn into something surpassing it, or something unexpected and extraordinary. Instead of being locked into an expected pattern, they can adapt and make the story even more interesting.
Unfortunately, they've chosen to go bland (Varian being the sole exception, except he's being suppressed as well), and there's plenty of curve-balls in the Horde (Thrall, a sensible Orc, and Saurfang, a wise veteran that controls his rage).
I mean... C'mon, guys.
Xantenise Oct 26th 2011 8:57AM
@SR It's not about being predictable, it's about having social influence and atmosphere.
Spellotape Oct 26th 2011 8:57AM
I don't know how you can say the Night Elves are barely better when most of the biggest events of the entire game history are based on things they have done or been involved with - the Blood Elves even share a joint ancestry with the Night Elves where the latter are the progenitors.
K.B. Oct 26th 2011 9:00AM
Gnomes are centered around their gadgets and technology
Dwarves are focused on the past and digging
Humans are dbags.
MattKrotzer Oct 26th 2011 9:00AM
Rather than "culture" you could use "identity" as well.
Muse Oct 26th 2011 9:09AM
What do the Gnomes think about the Draenei? What do the Dwarves think about the Night Elves? What do the Draenei think about the Worgen? Worgen and Dwarves? Night Elves and Draenei?
Terrant Oct 26th 2011 9:33AM
I think Blizzard had to build a lot of the Horde races from scratch, since orcs/trolls/undead/goblins are fairly generic villain races in most fantasy franchises. Tauren are mostly original, while fair elves are inherently popular.
The Alliance races mostly replicate races with the exact same attributes. As TV Tropes says, "Our Dwarves are the Same". Tinker gnomes have been found in various D&D settings. Humans are humans. Worgen are MORE humans, although slightly more interesting. Night elves are purple wood elves. Only the Draenei are original, and a race of Goody Two-Shoes unfortunately isn't that compelling.
As a result, Horde stories are Blizzard doing mostly new stuff, while Alliance stories is Blizzard mostly doing stuff others have done before. Hence the Horde stories seem more interesting, creating the appearance of a bias to me.
Murdertime Oct 26th 2011 9:46AM
It's a problem you're not really going to fix though. When your entire identity, indeed your very goddamn reason for existing is to be 'Team Generic Fantasy Guys' and the any drifting from the notion of 'Team Generic Fantasy guys' is going to be met with howls of protest, there's not really much you can do.
The Horde is always going to be more interesting in terms of faction identity because they have room to develop there.
loop_not_defined Oct 26th 2011 11:06AM
Xantenise, I found your summary of Alliance cultures incredibly simplistic in a rather shameful attempt to paint your biased opinion. Being completely dismissive towards the little you DID mention doesn't help.
Daedalus Oct 26th 2011 11:18AM
What has the Alliance got? How about history?
Humans, dwarves, night elves, high elves; they've got thousands of years of history, hundreds of characters, bloodlines, stories. There's a whole back-story of Tolkienesque proportions that mentions Alliance races almost exclusively. Orcs? Not a lot of records exist from before the corruption. Trolls? Not a lot of records exist from the Zandalari empire. Tauren? Not a lot of records exist from before settling Mulgore. Forsaken & Blood Elves? Just became factions in the last decade. (Sure, blood elves have history before that, but as part of the Alliance...) Goblins? Something about Kajamite.
As for culture, let's go back to the "roots" of what these races were meant to be; what the initial concept was: Orcs? Bloodthirsty savages. Trolls? Bloodthirsty savages. Tauren? Noble savages. Forsaken? Bloodthirsty zombies.
As for characterizations of Alliance races, I think they're there:
Dwarves: clannish, fiercely loyal to family, proud builders, stalwart explorers.
Gnomes: creative, whimsical, absent-minded, short-sighted, but fierce when cornered.
Humans: resilient, proud, political, diverse.
Night Elves: Insular, xenophobic, rigid, with strict adherence to tradition.
Draenei: Noble, good-hearted, constantly harried and persecuted but never despairing.
Worgen: Industrious, proud, independent.
The Alliance is full of races with a long and troubled history, and a golden age they aspire to get back to. They're the people that have seen their fortunes decline, been pushed back, beaten down, but never given up, always dreaming of a return to their former glory. The Horde is full of races that are essentially just starting out; they also have troubled histories, but in most of those, they're the villains. They've all got some past darkness they're just now coming out of, and trying to stake out their place in a world that doesn't have room for them. For most of them, they're still trying to determine who they really are as a people.
The alliance is a group of people who know who they were and are trying to get back to that. The horde is a group of people who know who they were and are trying to get away from that. The alliance aspires to past glory, the horde to a promising future. Neither aspiration is better; they're just different. And largely incompatible, which is why there will always be a war in warcraft.
Daedalus Oct 26th 2011 11:38AM
Oh, and "peace is good"?! From Night Elves?!?!
The same race who've never met a problem they couldn't fix with a gigantic, world-altering arcane explosion? The people whose civil war put a freaking whole in the side of the planet that's visible from space 10,000 years later? The people who, when encountering a new race, don't say "Hey, new people, let's talk to them and maybe try to reach some understanding," but "They don't share our values! Kill them! Kill them all!" The people who, after having one world tree tap into an old god and corrupt everything in sight and another attract one of the most powerful demons in existence to their world, AND after being specifically told not to by the guardians of the world who they've trusted since the dawn of time AND from whom they learned the druidism that is at the heart of the culture decided that they knew best and grew a third tree anyway?
Those peace-loving, harmony-embracing, easy-going night elves?
MattKrotzer Oct 26th 2011 2:02PM
@Daedalus: "Trolls? Not a lot of records exist from the Zandalari empire."
You're really going to use trolls?
Kinda shooting yourself in the foot there. Trolls have thousands of years of history, and most of it on display quite openly. There's entire ZONES of troll lore and history, coupled with numerous instances and raids. (The raids are now instances and updated, but the lore was still there.) I'm not sure any other race can claim as much total real estate as the various troll tribes.
Sure, orcs don't have as long of a history on Azeroth, but they're not really supposed to. If you moved to another continent, you couldn't be expected to have a deep lineage there, now could you? Burning Crusade did provide a fair bit of orc backstory in Nagrand, by my understanding, and the founding of Orgrimmar and Durotar is pretty well shown in WC3.
The Forsaken origins are also heavily detailed in WC3 as well, and they share the same history as humans, really.
And saying that 10000 years of history provides a good present-day story is silly. It doesn't. All it means is that the writers are squandering that much more of a rich backstory by not utilizing it now.
There's certainly characteristics in place for each of the races. We see them every time we make a new character. The problem is, they don't SHOW those characteristics in the game. Gnomes are creative and whimsical? They spent 6 years not being able to figure out how to do anything but sit in the "cellar" of Ironforge. (Really, the place is a big pipe, that's all.) They finally get motivated to do something, and then halt at the first setback and return to the status quo.
Humans have a great history of political intrigue, but the only quest evidence of that was removed from the game, as Lescovar is dead and no longer working with the Defias. There's a whole House of Nobles to be used and exploited for story purposes, but you can hardly find one in-game anymore.
Draenei are "nice guys," which makes them perpetually trod upon, but okay with it. That's patently uninteresting. They have some fantastic technology. Why are they not sharing it with the gnomes? We've got a highly advanced people here who sit in a big glowy rock and pray to a big glowy kanji symbol, and do little else.
Worgen have a lot of potential, but they're holed up in a tree in Darnassus.
Night elves are being overrun by the Horde, but their leaders are distracted by "world issues" rather than being the fierce defenders they were portrayed as in WC3. They've been more aloof than the draenei or the pandaren seem to be, considering all that's been going on that they HAVEN'T lifted a finger to address.
Dwarves have a great set up with the Council of Three Hammers, but outside of the novels... NOTHING. They almost did something great in Twilight Highlands, but as I noted elsewhere, there was no follow-through to the questline following the wedding.
StClair Oct 26th 2011 2:18PM
Matt:
In fairness, a hell of a lot of that is due to the limitations of a persistent (i.e. unchanging, unless you devote years and an entire expansion to doing so) world. To name one right off the top: yes, I absolutely agree that the gnomes should have their home back. But then no one can ever run Gnomeregan (the instance) ever again. Blizzard apparently considers this unacceptable.
loop_not_defined Oct 26th 2011 3:48PM
I'm honestly surprised how many people here call themselves "Alliance players" while throwing away all the lore, personality, and culture in short one-liners like it's left-overs that've been buried in the back of the fridge for months. It strikes me as pure ignorance, seriously. I'd love to go point-to-point here, but this game has been out for years and these races have a LOT going for them. I really shouldn't have to.
@MattKrotzer, the Draenei didn't invent any of that technology, the Naaru did. The Draenei barely know how to use it.