Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsBreakfast Topic: Could there be more than two factions?
by Matt Clerico 
Nov 6th 2011 at 8:00AM
As World of Warcraft grows older, perhaps it's time to shake up things a bit to keep things interesting. After seven years of a war between two groups being the focus of the storyline, could we return to a time of four factions? That's right, a return. After all, Warcraft 3 had four opposing armies: Humans, Undead, Night Elves and Orcs. Presently, we have 12 races among the two factions, and considering all the new class/race combinations implemented in Cataclysm, perhaps four separate groups are not as unthinkable as they once were.
With the political climate of the Horde being what it is and Sylvanas going farther off the grid all the time, it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine the Banshee Queen pulling the Foresaken and her Blood Elf relatives out of the Horde, establishing her own nation in Northern Lorderon. (For the sake of racial number balance, maybe she bribes the goblins of the Bilgewater Cartel into joining her with a new home city of ... Gilneas!) Or frustrated by the unwillingness of King Varian to stop the Orc's systematic destruction of Ashenvale , could Tyrande (finally doing something in-game for once) decide to defect from the Alliance, bringing her Worgen and Draenei allies with her?
Do you think additional factions would be interesting? How would they work in game? What do you think they would look like?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 7)
Nadia Nov 6th 2011 9:55AM
Third faction should be Cenarion Circle. Is it that much of a stretch to think that the races with Druids would decide to form a third faction as conflicts between the Horde and Alliance get worse?
All the Druids have common goals, and already meet and work together.
Even the Twilight's Hammer cult was ultimately unsuccessful in breaking that common bond.
Artificial Nov 6th 2011 2:51PM
Yes, it is a stretch. Making them a third faction requires more than them simply being neutral, which is what we have now. They have to cease to be unconcerned with the faction war, beyond simply finding it unfortunate, and more or less reverse that position into thinking a faction war is a good idea and join in the fighting against both the existing factions. Unless they choose to go to war with the Horde and Alliance, they don't make sense as a third game faction, since that's what it would mean in-game (you'd be fighting in the war against them in whatever battleground you're in, for example). I think that's a HUGE stretch, TBH. They make about the least possible sense as a new faction.
Crispn Nov 6th 2011 9:59AM
Maybe in WoW #2?
SamLowry Nov 6th 2011 11:16AM
More like Starcraft #1.
You'll be waiting a looong time for the game you're looking for. Go check the history of every other game that decided to create v2.0 and you'll see why Blizz isn't eager to go in that direction.
Maymer Nov 6th 2011 10:02AM
I wouldn't mind a playable bird race. Maybe like the Araakoar, but much more variety in appearance and ability.
I'm thinking they join the Azeroth scene, because many of their hatcheries were destroyed, and robbed of their precious unborn young. So, in a fit of fury, they launch themselves into war against both the Horde and the Alliance, looking for which one of these "pigs" stole their children.
Things would need to be balanced greatly though...maybe add extra dimensions to things, such as a racial that allows certain class combos of these birds to be able to port through, or shatter into enemy buildings. Granted, the mage combo could easily break this mechanic with mirror image, but if we program it to make them weak as crap, I think we'll be fine....possibly the rogue combo can break through at high velocities.
Man, what I would give for these new and angsty avian faction to emerge, filled with rage and fury, up to the brim with madness and blood boiling seething...seethingness.
You know. These damn birds be straight up angry!
ravyncat Nov 6th 2011 12:02PM
hahahaha XD
Greg Nov 6th 2011 10:06AM
Rememeber- the game already has many factions. Consider the Defias, for one. They can move through Stormwind with relative ease. Yet they are a distinct organization with its own goals and leadership, comprised of various races of Azeroth.
The real question is: why aren't these factions playable? Interestingly, the Alliance and the Horde are the 'strongest' factions in the game- except when another makes a gambit so sieze power (such as the Zandalari trolls). Then the threat to Azeroth increases, and various heroes are dispatched to quell the uprising. But each one of these threats generall represents a faction in and of itself. What about the Twighlight Cultists who follow Deathwing?
A third playable faction would likely be one that already exists. It would need to have sufficient lore to tell its story. And finally, the third faction would need to be able to endure through the various calamities that befall Azeroth and its inhabitants. The real question is, are there any in-game right this moment that meet those criteria?
SamLowry Nov 6th 2011 12:11PM
How about this for end-game content: Being able to go undercover within the opposite faction and do quests only they had been able to do before. You would keep the titles and rewards while doing some spy missions and sabotage.
Nimdriel Nov 6th 2011 10:19AM
I think they should reconfigure how they have factions work...I'd really like to see more factions but also more inter-faction interaction...I also think that certain lore points shoud be emphasized: like druids shouldn't be killing druids. I know it's a small thing but outside of battlegrounds, I think druids should be neutral with each other. They need to start viewing class, race, and faction interactions with more complexity.
Artificial Nov 6th 2011 2:57PM
Complexity and realism suggest doing the opposite of what you suggest. Not only should druids be killing other druids, but humans should be killing humans, orcs killing orcs, etc. A person's actions are never determined by their race or class. Influenced as best; never determined. Forcing people into stereotypes is simplification.
rockychristine Nov 6th 2011 10:36AM
From a lore perspective, I'm surprised that Sylvanas hasn't just taken the blood elves and Forsaken and left the Horde already. It would cause a lot of interesting opportunities for world PvP and after some of the beginning Forsaken quests, I'm surprised she hasn't left yet.
In Wrath, I was definitely hoping to get the choice to stay with the Scourge as a death knight. It would have been awesome.
Artificial Nov 6th 2011 3:00PM
Really? The beginning Forsaken quests seem to suggest the exact opposite. Why learn when you get benefits from it (she gets a whole lot of orc soldiers to help with her invasion) and no downside (Garrosh orders her to do things she doesn't want to, but she just ignores him). Why discard a useful tool when it's still useful? Sylvannas is a lot smarter than that.
Artificial Nov 6th 2011 3:01PM
Gah... "Why *leave*", that should say.
neocloud61 Nov 6th 2011 10:49AM
I think it would be interesting, but only if the races that split off were still available to the original faction they came from as well.
I don't see an entire race cutting ties with allies they once fought alongside. I do see a large portion of that race deciding it's time to leave and break off from the rest. Forsaken are a big example of this. While we've got the bloodthirsty Sylvanas supporters, there are still those who actually hope to make peace with their lot in unlife and move on to better things.
Adamanthis Nov 6th 2011 10:55AM
I don't see it ever happening in WoW; it's one of those changes that is just too large a change. But I think multiple factions would be a very good thing for an eventual WoW 2. I know that Blizzard is on record as liking the fundamental Human vs. Orc conflict, but I think it adds real dynamism into the world.
A perennial, fundamental complaint about WoW is that the factions make very little sense. ("Why are we working with THEM?") Blizzard tries to address this by adding intra-faction conflict, but what the game really needs is smaller, tighter factions that players can develop more of a sense of identity and pride in. These factions could then be part of a scheme of shifting alliances (e.g. perhaps the Horde genuinely does try to help the Forsaken, but after an incident like the Wrathgate, moves to open war.)
Perhaps two factions are at open war in one Battleground, but have come to a reluctant truce to cooperate against a greater threat in a place like Outland or Northrend. Some factions could tend towards neutrality, while others tend to be much more hostile.
With Pandaren choosing which faction to belong to, the ability to have one race belong to two different factions is very interesting.
It would be interesting to see the world undergo a large jump forward in time and momentous change on the order of what happened in the Third War. Then the slate would be wide open to tell stories of shifting alliances, new enmities, and other changes that would revitalize the game.
Just a few possibilities:
A traditional core Alliance, of Humans, Gnomes, and Dwarves, representing the typical nobility and arrogance of that group.
A warlike, honour-based, shamanistic Horde of Orcs, Tauren, Trolls.
A Holy Light-focused combination of the Argent Crusade and the Aldor.
A combination of the Cenarion Circle and the Earthen Ring with strong representation from Night Elves, Worgen, Tauren, Orcs, and Trolls.
A magic-focused nation of Dalaran, dominated by high/blood elves, humans, Shen'dralar, and Forsaken.
A dark empire composed of Forsaken and trolls, with slaves from other races.
Gaurisk Nov 6th 2011 11:34AM
The idea of a third faction sounds interesting on paper, but the sheer volume of tears we'd see from Alliance players if zones underwent another reallocation to even out the quest areas are reason enough to scrap the plan.
Artificial Nov 6th 2011 3:06PM
Yes, of course. When the Alliance loses anything, it's evidence for Horde-bias because the Alliance is losing things, and when the Horde loses anything, it's evidence for Horde-bias because the Horde is getting lore attention/story time. No matter who bad things happen to, it's obviously Horde-bias. Nifty how that works, no?
SamLowry Nov 6th 2011 11:20PM
Aside from turning one of the Horde leaders into someone more important to the game than Jesus and Superman combined while simultaneously treating all of the Alliance leaders like dipsticks or do-nothings, what gives you the impression that the devs might be biased?
Doesn't help that we had someone post here recently who said that when he interviewed to work at Blizzard he was told to keep the fact that he plays Alliance a secret because almost everyone else in the building plays Horde and they would harass him mercilessly if they found out.
Penguin Zero Nov 6th 2011 11:49AM
Prior to Blizzcon, my wildest hope for the expansion was that it would introduce a new faction -- the Pandaren Empire, opposing both the Alliance and the Horde. The Pandaren would be a central race, but it would also include other Asian-themed races -- perhaps ogres themed similarly to Ogri'la, or nomadic Mongolian centaurs. I'd even considered Ethereals as a meddling but possibly allied power, opening Pandaria up to outside influence like Perry's 'black ships' did for Japan.
Adding four to six new races and an entire faction's worth of quests at all levels, plus revamping battlegrounds significantly, would be a monumental task, and I admitted it wasn't likely... but darned if it wouldn't have been cool.
Blayze Nov 6th 2011 11:51AM
What point is there to anything showcasing the "internal bickering" of the Horde, when we know it will never actually risk falling apart purely for the sake of gameplay and balance? The most we'll ever get is a splinter group we get to kill for loot.