Posts with tag Cross-Faction

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Most seasoned WoW players eventually figure out ways to confidently move money and items across faction lines. On top of that, the proliferation of voice communications like Ventrilo, realm-wide forums, and the ability to make characters on both factions of even a PvP realm (it hasn't always been possible!) all make it easy enough to chat up players on the other side of the divide. It's sort of the reverse of what happened to Darkshore in the Cataclysm -- whereas picking your way across that ravaged zone today is perilous to hoof and limb, it's relatively easy to treat with the enemy across faction lines.

All those developments go out the window, however, if you're a roleplayer whose need for immersion and in-character realism trumps game mechanics. But speaking of trumps, lucky players on Cenarion Circle (US) and Thorium Brotherhood (US) hold a trump card when it comes to inter-faction relations: the services of the Anywhere Anytime Messenger Service, a set of guilds that provides delivery, translation and mediation services to Horde and Alliance characters seeking to breach the great faction divide. Our chat with the players behind the organization's CEO and branch manager positions is one of those interviews that'll make you want to create another character to join in this fun, social way to play (and the simple but charming guild jingle from the group's gnomish leader will earworm its way to your heart!).

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.

Ever since I first looked at my character's skill list (almost six years ago now) and saw there was actually a skill bar for languages, I have had an idea planted in my head. If my character has the technical ability to learn languages in WoW, why couldn't I choose to learn Orcish? This notion led me further to ask, "Why can't I be in a cross-faction guild consisting of both Alliance and Horde races, working together to accomplish great deeds?" When I relayed this idea to my guildies at the time, one guy actually told me it was the stupidest idea he'd ever heard. Really?

There has always been precedent in the game for this kind of cross-faction cooperation. We can see it in groups like the Argent Dawn and the Cenarion Circle. Hell -- even the Twilight's Hammer is more racially progressive than the Horde or Alliance. And don't even get me started on that racist jerk Varian Wrynn. Oh, I know he was mistreated in captivity by orcs, but his mistreatment is nothing compared to what Thrall endured at the hands of humans, and Thrall's first instinct has always been of peaceful resolution rather than conflict (and for reference, I'm an Alliance player, folks).

This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.

World of Warcraft is a social game. Blizzard made this clear with the recent addition of the Real ID system. I myself have made use of this. Being an officer in several small roleplaying guilds on both Alliance and Horde sides of Cenarion Circle (US), I have found that there is a great bit of planning and organization required in running official guild wars. Currently, the Alliance guild I am an officer in is in a heated battle with a Horde-side guild. Both are roleplaying guilds. Both guilds (in the roleplaying sense) have similar ideas -- both are pro-Horde/pro-Alliance, respectively. One may hate the other side more than the other, but the hate is there.

These guild wars bring a certain fun dynamic to the game. Having a sworn nemesis, whether it is for a character of your creation or a friend from an opposing faction, is just a great way to enjoy the game. Plotting someone's demise, thinking of strategies to take him down? It adds another layer to an already multifaceted world. However, there are a few tips I have noticed that really help with these particular battles. Some things come in handy in a roleplaying context; others focus on fair play, so that people will want to continue to the "war" and not just want to ignore/report your taunts!

Do you want to talk to your friends even if they're on other servers, or the opposite faction on your server? Well, Blizzard aims to make that possible via Battle.net, and it's coming before Cataclysm.

Zarhym - Re: Cataclysm Friends List Idea

This is exactly what we are working on implementing with Battle.net and real-life friends. You'll be able to add friends at the Battle.net account level and talk to them while in-game whether they're on the opposing faction, a different realm, or another Blizzard game entirely. This is coming prior to Cataclysm.

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Q u o t e:
Please tell me that people will not be able to "friend" me without my consent. I don't care to be tracked across servers and factions except by a couple people I know IRL.

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This is correct. No one outside of your faction on your realm will be able to communicate with you unless you accept their friend request, or they accept yours. You will still have your normal World of Warcraft Friends list, but we'll be adding in the ability to have Battle.net players on your Friends list as well. The characters on your Friends list will allow the same communication functionality which exists today. It's only when you've confirmed someone as a Battle.net friend that you can take advantage of the additional communication features.

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The real surprise for me is that people playing, say, StarCraft II or Diablo III will be able to chat with people playing World of Warcraft via their Battle.net accounts. It's a definite extension of their Real ID program mentioned during the StarCraft II preview, and I'm even more surprised that it's going to be out before Cataclysm ships. I know that even if I don't play Diablo III (which is unlikely, how will I be able to resist the barbarian?), being able to talk to the various friends I have across six servers will be a positive boon for me.

Want to get Gold Capped? This column shows you how. Join author Basil "Euripides" Berntsen, also of outdps.com, the Hunting Party podcast and the Call to Auction podcast.

Each server has two markets. Two economies, two sets of prices and two mostly isolated groups of players. The neutral auction house (conveniently located about as far from civilization as you can get in Gadgetzan, Booty Bay and Everlook) is the only place where Alliance and Horde characters can trade with each other, and this auction house has a much steeper cost of doing business. The deposit and AH cut are both three times the price as the normal faction AH.

Needless to say, the central location and competitive fees of the neutral auction house lead to most business' being done on the faction AH. So what purpose does this place serve? An intelligent arbitrageur can use it to transfer goods and money between factions for personal profit.

Today's question is possibly a strange one: what's this game's Holy Grail? You know, the Holy Grail is that Arthurian object that you continually quest for -- if ever you actually reach the Holy Grail, you know that your quest, whatever it is, is finally at an end. So what's the Holy Grail for World of Warcraft, the thing that, if we ever actually reached it in the game, would change things forever?

When we posted the rumor that Gnomeregan would finally be retaken, I thought of this -- Gnomeregan has been, since the beginning of the game, a place that's generally off-limits to lore and change. The Gnomes are pretty much defined by not having a city, and if they were actually to take back and reclaim their home city, Ironforge wouldn't be the same, and once you've messed with Ironforge, then WoW, to me, is fundamentally changed. Same thing if they ever include cross-faction communication -- this game is so defined from the core as a game with two factions separate from each other that if they ever did allow us to speak across factions, it'd be a different game. Not necessarily a bad game, not that I'd quit, but the game's so defined by that, in my mind, that if it ever actually happened, we'd end up on a whole other quest. So what do you think: what's WoW's Holy Grail?

As noted in my previous article on the subject, the new and improved Battle.net won't affect only StarCraft II -- among other things, the Real ID feature will allow you to see what other Blizzard games your real-life friends or acquaintances are playing, should they desire it. But that's apparently not the only perk for WoW players. Blizzard recently announced that migration of WoW accounts to Battle.net accounts will soon be mandatory, and posted a FAQ about it on the official website; one detail immediately caught my eye...

What will change in World of Warcraft after the forced migration?

The core gameplay experience will remain unchanged as a result of the migration. However, you'll be able to take part in all of the new Battle.net features, such as cross-realm, cross-faction, and cross-game chat.

That's right. Got a friend that plays Horde and you play Alliance? You'll be able to talk to them from inside WoW, even if they're on a different server. Heck, even if they're playing StarCraft II or Diablo 3, you'll still be able to chat with them. How cool is that?

To quell some concerns that'll surely get posted in the comments, the extent that others can utilize your Real ID is completely up to you. You decide who gets to see what information and to what extent -- if you want your best friend to be able to see what game you're playing or what server you're on, you can do that, but you can also prevent your annoying cousin from pestering you to play StarCraft II while you're raiding. No, Jeff, I actually can wait for you to "pwn" me. Gots to get me some purps.

Some days, I just don't feel like playing my main character, so I hop onto an alt. Before long, I encounter some poor clothie of the opposite faction camping an elite quest mob hoping that someone else will show up and offer to group. Usually, the ground is speckled with skeletons.

Then the dance ensues. I salute, and the Mage waves. The Mage starts /saying things that I don't understand. I shrug. I wait for awhile, hoping that this will signal that I am willing to let the Mage go first. I'm hoping that my politeness infers that I will help.

Finally, I point at the Mage, then at the mob. Taking a leap of faith, the Mage tags it, and I run around behind to help, perhaps with a guildmate at my side.

After our parting farewells, I sit down to await a respawn. Personally, I think it would be much easier if I could say "I'm here to save the day!" or "I come in peace." Of course, there is some charm involved in finding a way to use our current emotes to communicate other messages, especially after Blizz added new ones in 2008.

How do you communicate to a player of the opposite faction messages that aren't directly built-in to emotes? Are you aching for a certain emote that would help you do this, or do you enjoy having to puzzle it out by piecing together existing ones?

You may remember that we announced that a Brewfest Kodo was hidden in the WoTLK Alpha files some time ago. With patch 2.4.3, the Kodo did in fact get into this year's Brewfest. The Brewfest is currently open for testing on the PTR, and you can see the Kodos for yourselves - but only on the Horde side.

That's right. Blizzard has added the Kodo mount, but not in the way many of us had hoped. The Ram mount is now available for purchase only on the Alliance side, and the Kodo mount only on the Horde side. Kisirani has confirmed that this is intended. She says that they came to this decision only after much deliberation, but it's likely staying, although she'll listen to constructive criticism. As you can imagine, this has not been well received.

Great news for compulsive /inspect-ors from the new patch -- Hortus confirms that in neutral areas and out of combat, players will be able to do a little cross-faction inspecting. No more will you have to wonder what kind of helmet that dirty Human Warrior is wearing around Shattrath -- you'll be able to pull them right up and check out all of their gear.

The sky, as you may have noticed, didn't fall when Inspect changed back in patch 2.3 to let anyone see anyone else's gear and talents, and it won't fall again when this change is introduced (trust me). It is interesting to consider how much the Armory has changed the game, though -- odds are that if you'd suggested that we should be able to check the other faction's gear and talents to a developer at the launch of vanilla WoW, they'd have said that, like limiting cross-faction communication, it wasn't right for the feel of the game they wanted to make.

But now that the Armory is up and showing off everyone's secret gear of shame, there's no reason to hide it any more in the game either.

I can't say I agree with the premise of this post that reader Syp wrote and sent to us (I'm Horde to the core, so for me, Gnomes only rock when eaten with a side of fries and Horde soda), but I can't really argue with most of his points. He sets out 10 reasons why Gnomes rock, and I have no doubt that they're sure to inspire lots of cross-faction discussion.

I do have to admit-- the Gnome mount is one of my favorites, and engineering has gotten to be lots of fun. Escape Artist is an excellent ability (especially since it went instant a little while ago), and I have missed out on the fun that I hear is Toshley's Station-- I'm trying to work my little Gnome Warrior up to the mid-60s so I can get in on the Star Wars references, too.

But I do take issue with Syp's "underdog" and "conformity" points. If you really want to play a race/gender that doesn't get a lot of love, try a Dwarf Female.

Arenas pit same-faction members against each other, but having Alliance and Horde on the same team seems just ridiculous. What do you guys think? Have you ever seen a glitch like this? Have you ever found yourselves with an unexpected helping hand, particularly in Arenas? Since Arenas allow members of the same faction to duke it out, is it too much of a stretch to team up with sworn enemies?

From the "OMGWTFBBQ" department comes a tale of mixed up raid ID's. Seems that two members of the Alliance guild Conquest on Kilrogg ended up in a BT raid with Horde guild Temporary Insanity. The forum thread contains many interesting screenshots for you to puzzle over. If these are digitally edited, they're done well. Bluetracker allows you to skip to the part where Tigole steps into the thread and informs folks that Blizzard is looking into it... what I personally want to know is, was this just a random glitch or 'insert conspiracy music here' is Blizzard trying to test some kind of cross faction raiding on us? Are we guinea pigs for their diabolical schemes?

No, probably it was just a bug, as cool as I think cross faction raids could be. I especially like the suggestion in this screenshot of cross faction raiding with everyone flagged for PvP. Imagine a raid where you could accidentally, or even purposefully, frag your fellow raiders? Or a raid where horde and alliance players actually had to race to the end boss, perhaps even sniping at each other along the way? Being that I'm starting to PvP more and more lately, I'd find that an interesting change to the raiding/PvP mechanic. Imagine that, instead of racing to opposite sites of Alterac Valley, you both had to race to the same place to kill the same guy.

At any rate, the folks of Conquest and Temporary Insanity got to do what almost no one else in the entire game has, namely they've confronted Illidan, the end boss of the current game, with a cross faction raid. That's one interesting bug.