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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Is something wrong with the Alliance?
by Adam Holisky 
Jan 26th 2012 at 11:00AM
So on Tuesday, I was talking about fire safety and how important it is. I even gave everyone a rap to listen to about it. Then as I was writing this Queue in my candlelit office, my cat decided to come sit down next to me ... and stick his tail right into the candle.
He's fine -- but the smell ... my god.
Just had to share. Fire safety is important, kids.
Sarah asked:
Do you think there has been a problem with the Alliance in Cataclysm?
I'll answer this two ways. First, in terms of story development and faction favoritism, I don't think there's a problem. A good story ebbs and flows; it has high points and low points, amazing action and serene times. The Alliance is sort of in a lull at the moment, I think, and that's a-OK. In the future, it's going to pick up.
Why?
Because Blizzard writes some damn good stories, and the guys over there know what they're doing.
The second way to answer is concerning the Alliance's actual actions in game. In this regard, I think the Alliance has lost its spark a bit. It seems to be willing to roll along happy that it's defeated Arthas and Deathwing, but it has no real purpose, no drive for the future.
But you know what? I have a feeling something is going to happen that'll kick the Alliance in the pants.
Ferani asked:
Will Blizz make Reputations account wide or will they continue to make certain rewards, like the Arcanum, account bound?
That's an interesting idea, but it's highly unlikely all reputations will become account-bound. I could see some particular reputations going account-bound -- perhaps some new MoP one that's insanely hard to grind and just huge -- but I wouldn't expect it. More so, like you said, we can expect to see more account bound items, enchants, etc. ... those have worked very well for Blizzard. They walk a fine line between having an overpowered alt because of a powered main and not having to grind silly things over and over again.
Then again, even running a dungeon once or twice a week, reputations level up pretty fast, so it's not a big deal overall.
Armenius asked (with a little modification):
What is your favorite and least favorite boss mechanic of [Cataclysm]?
My favorite is heroic Morchok. The concept of the normal mode fight is so simple -- many guilds cleared it on their first try. But if you do something as simple as double everything, it becomes difficult. I love the simple-to-learn, difficult-to-master approach to the normal/heroic versions, and I think it perfectly encapsulates what WoW is all about.
My least favorite mechanic has to be the spawns in Ragnaros. They're so reliant on burst damage to get down that as a warlock, I've shed a lot of tears over it. At the time, I'd pull 25k DPS on the boss but couldn't take down a spawn easily. Kinda nuts.
Another least favorite mechanic is the healing that the first boss in Shadowfang Keep does. People don't know how to interrupt, and it's too much for a boss to be able to heal to full when interrupting still isn't something that's ingrained to the playstyle of the game. If at level 1 eight years ago, players had learned they had to interrupt heals, things would be different -- but they're not, and that mechanic is on my list of least favorites because of it.
Nina asked:
Will we ever get more vehicle boss fights?
Unlikely. Blizzard said a while ago at one of the BlizzCons (either '10 or '11, I don't remember which) that vehicle fights didn't turn out like it wanted. I wouldn't be surprised if there's limited use of the mechanic in the future, like we see in heroic Deadmines, but I wouldn't expect mass use of it again.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!
Filed under: The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 8 of 8)
Firestyle Jan 26th 2012 2:03PM
We put our warlock on the farthest adds, clustered typically for shadowfury.
Carpathia Jan 26th 2012 2:23PM
Lore/Tin-foil-hat kind of questions...
Do you think Deathwing waited to make his attack on Azeroth until after we dealt with Arthas? Perhaps he saw the Lich King as a significant threat to his plans, and instead of trying to handle both the Scourge and mortals/dragons, they waited until one of us destroyed the other?
Blayze Jan 26th 2012 2:41PM
The Alliance have been completely shafted throughout this entire franchise. First War? Azeroth (The nation) steamrolled. Second War? We only survived because Gul'dan and Ner'zhul caused more damage to the Horde than we ever did. Third War? The Horde wins every battle on two continents against all their enemies, then end up with a truce and a new home. Then Jaina has her father killed.
World of Warcraft? Neutral factions ruined playable faction lore, mostly Alliance. Burning Crusade? Horde. Orcs and Blood Elves. Hell, the Draenei did more for the Horde than they did for themselves. Wrath? Neutral factions again. Cataclysm? Horde.
We've been the underdogs this entire franchise. We've done nothing but lose. Our few "victories" have been desperately fighting our way to draws, while the Horde gets victories, pride *and* is still clutching desperately to their underdog self-image (Which they never actually were, not even in Warcraft 3).
Answer me this, guys: WHAT REASONS have you ever been given to play Alliance? Then ask yourself what reasons you've been given to play Horde.
Killik Jan 26th 2012 3:18PM
Probably partly a factor is that "good guys must face overwhelming odds and overcome them by the skin of their teeth (ie. with a lot of luck)". At least, that would seem to be the default setting for lazy writing.
It worked well enough in the RTS (although people are retroactively annoyed about it now). But players being able to choose *exclusively* Alliance really seem to have thrown Blizzard's storytellers for a loop. They don't seem to know how to give the Alliance aggression, while still keeping the aura of heroism that attracts people to choose the faction.
I do wonder how to solve that. Perhaps carefully-chosen strategic attacks against the Forsaken, led by a canny general worthy of respect? Tiny groups, always outnumbered but winning through superior organisation and tactical prowess. Although the only appropriate heavy-hitter the Alliance has for that would seem to be Tyrande 'Furion's girlfriend' Whisperwind...
Blayze Jan 26th 2012 3:35PM
The problem is, any comeback at this stage would just smack of "Why the hell didn't you do this sooner?" And the longer until it happens, the more pronounced the effect becomes.
Which is why we'll likely get a few good shots in on Pandaria, but because it's a new continent created expressly for the purpose, all the victories in the world wouldn't matter.
We're still coming home to Sentinel Hill in flames, Southshore plagued, Stonard not counting, Andorhal lost just because, Theramore in flames... and nothing will ever change. Every time I go to Westfall for Childrens' Week, I'll still be taking that orphan on a trip through a still-burning village.
And God help Blizzard if we only win because the Horde ends up tearing itself apart. Again.
We did that already back when it was Warcraft 2. Twice.
Oomu Jan 26th 2012 7:29PM
I totally agree
to summarize : blizzard authors love to write for big muscular green men. They think of alliance like vanilla fantasy, pink human without flavor, unable to use dwarf, gnome, nocturnal elve and space goats to go away from Dungeons&Dragon (or Tolkien) style.
in truth, Blizzard think it can create and be fun with Horde.
Cataclysm was only historical Alliance places lost and removed from game but Horde winning new architecture, new place, very good lore (forsaken for example) or a whole goblin region (where is the whole worgen zone ? not it's not Gilneas)
The point is : no one was caring for torajo, it was a little setting with just a few pnj and typical tauren house. but if Bllizard remove Theramore, it will remove a great place, big, important, with Jaina , it should have been used for more.
Auberdine was crushed, and the new village is not the same (heck, they even didn't reimplement a boat..)
Stormind was badly hurt, a whole place removed. yes Stormwind is a lot improved, technically, but Orgrimmar is just totally improved and better in lore and technically, not ONE thing destroyed by an angry dragon.
in dun morogh, of course the cool dwarf dam was destroyed..
It's not about whatever the story justifying it or not, it's just obvious Blizzard has more ease to write fun and creative events with the Horde. They wrote for the alliance only "dramatic" destruction.
oh, and in my opinion, the goblins are a lot more integrated in warcraft, better made graphically, animation and all than worgen. The same for the first start zone (Gilneas has gothic flair, but it's not well made and again innovative than kezan/lost isles) .
To do forsaken quests to see the end of some worgen characters are just final insults.
-
all of that added, it's annoying.
Horde is where Blizzard know what to write and create.
Hobstadt Jan 27th 2012 6:38AM
The Good Guy image of the Alliance is severely muddled now that their Paladins, their Druids and their enitre city of Mages love the Horde so much that they have abandoned the Alliance. And the same goes for the Night Elf demigods and the "good" Red and Green Dragonflights. Just sayin'. ;-)
Blayze Jan 27th 2012 9:11PM
I've said it before and I've said it again: the way to balance things isn't to take from one side and make it neutral (Argent Dawn, Cenarion Circle, Earthen Ring) as that just dilutes factional identity.
What we *need*--and what I don't think Blizzard will either ever understand or be capable of implementing--is counterparts.
Take the Cenarion Circle for example. Make them Alliance. Imbalanced? No, druids are a Kaldorei thing. But shamans are a Horde thing--make the Earthen Ring purely Horde, give both factions item rewards with the same statistical bonuses, but play up the differences between druidism and shamanism. They don't have to be beating each others' skulls in to deal with situations differently and in ways *slightly* more varied than having the alternate faction's questgivers handing out the exact same quests with only slightly altered dialogue.
Then there's the situations where the presence of a neutral faction just stifles *everyone*. The biggest offender? The Argent Dawn. They stifle the Forsaken--there's only so much the Forsaken can plague without consequence from the Dawn before the world's collective suspension of disbelief just shatters.
They stifle the Alliance--nobody can even try to reclaim Lordaeron now that Tirion's set up shop there. We try hitting the Forsaken and he'll do something pointlessly and senselessly neutral/pro-Horde again.
And most importantly, they stifle the Scarlet Crusade. Those guys would have been *fantastic* for helping ramp up faction conflict. The Alliance should have had the Scarlets, and they should have been up against a specialist group of Forsaken tasked with annihilating them.
It's the same all over this game. So many missed opportunities.
Lipstick Jan 26th 2012 2:57PM
I took the last six weeks off wow due to a skyrim over-dose, and several friends of mine took time off to play SWTOR ... we're just coming back to the game now, anything of major importance we missed we should be sure to get up to speed on?
Larka Jan 26th 2012 3:06PM
If the alliance is in a "lull" then why has it been in one since bc? That's about the time i've picked up the game and i've always been a lore nerd...the alliance side has ALWAYS been kinda sad compared to the hordes. I mean you have the whole nagrand stuff for them, most of the alliance stuff that i remeber from bc,wrach, etc was either 1. shared by the horde. or 2. bolvar... and he got killed over pretty dang fast.
In short i'm sick of world of thrallcraft, seriously. I've never been against thralls story development but can someone else get the spot light? maybe turalyon? I mean the horde have such strong story and characters that are interesting. Most of the alliance stores are either in books or face value.
Heck, i almost say kill varian JUST so there will be at least SOME development and his kid with better character depth could take over. Blizzard has not spent hardly any time for alliance story. Period. I won't quite wow over it but after years, and yes i do mean years, of waiting for the alliance to stop being the underdogs....its just kinda frustrating. The alliance story and female worgen models are the two most disappointing things about this game for me.
Blayze Jan 26th 2012 3:22PM
The thing is, it's not like they have the "boring standard fantasy race" excuse to fall back on. The Alliance only lacks personality, flavour and *teeth* because Blizzard refuse to do anything about it.
The kaldorei are fierce, uncompromising warriors with thousands of years of experience each. The Gilneans are hardy isolationists and the playable ones are kick-ass, dapper werewolves. The Draenei are probably the most zealous race in the known universe, with *tens* of thousands of years of experience.
The dwarves are the most versatile race on Azeroth--players can be everything but a Druid--and should be the industrial centre of the entire EK Alliance. The gnomes are the kind of people who could weaponise *anything*--that's an entire *race* of MacGyvers, and every last one of them is a *survivor.*
But it all gets ignored. The kaldorei don't get any characterisation unless they're Druids, in which case they're forced to be neutral because King Druid himself is so neutral he's become part of the fence itself. The worgen and Draenei don't get used at all. The gnomes are nothing but comic relief, and even the events of Tanaris play on the existence of their comic relief status.
GAH. I would love to have the kind of lore-loving fanbase Blizzard seems intent on ignoring.
Andy Jan 26th 2012 4:10PM
Maybe the Horde should just raze stormwind and get it over with.
Throm Jan 26th 2012 4:51PM
I personally find it very, very sad that one of the Horde's weaknesses is 'Don't worry, they're TOTES hating eachother, swearsies!'
The fact that the Horde needs to come to the brink of destroying itself in order for the Alliance to have a bloody SHOT at winning is really, really frustrating.
God help Blizzard if the conflict is resolved by Thrall coming back and doing something about Garrosh, not the Alliance.
SamLowry Jan 26th 2012 8:11PM
Well, Thrall is Superman + Jesus, so I'd say we're stuck with Thrall being called on to solve every problem in the game until a new Loremaster who isn't quite so hot and ready for Thrall takes over the job.
Blayze Jan 26th 2012 8:42PM
Replacing Metzen would only solve part of the problem. CDev's probably like a damn cult these days.
icepyro Jan 26th 2012 8:09PM
Probably won't be seen by most of the commenters here, but don't want to repeat myself.
You know how Metzen wanted to make Thrall the World Shaman, neutral to all despite being a dirty orc. I don't think it's the being a dirty orc that makes many associate him with the Horde so thoroughly. I think it's the fact he led the Horde for years now that makes him on the side of the Horde in everybody's mind.
If Tirion had been part of the Alliance, as he once was, until Wrath, players would have felt the same thing about him. And as a Wrath baby who hadn't been involved with Warcraft for years, I initially felt that way remembering faintly the previous Warcraft games.
So all the comments of "If the Alliance has been in a lull, it's been that way since TBC/Onyxia/WoW came out/ever"? Yeah, doesn't really hold water with me. The Alliance is awesome, but Cata was written poorly because devs don't know how to write loss, deal with deadlines, etc.
Keldion Jan 27th 2012 11:48AM
For those of you who feel Alliance is missing something, have a peek at this blog article.
http://childrenofwrath.blogspot.com/2011/12/when-your-reach-exceeds-your-grasp.html
Blayze Jan 27th 2012 8:51PM
Say hello to the new Blizzard, I guess.
It's a shame. I grew up with Warcraft. It's sad to see that it hasn't done the same.