It's time for another Nostradamus column. This time we predict that Blizzard is just thinking about whether they will break down the faction boundaries before or after patch 10.0 and let Horde and Alliance players play together in dungeons and raids.
The signs for this are written all over the place. The fact that it's absolutely stupid and doesn't happen in any other game that people can't play together if one likes Night Elves and the other likes Orcs has been discussed here many times. In addition, Game Director Ion Hazzikostas has commented for the first time that they are thinking about removing the faction boundaries.
And it's about time. Alliance guilds die out, Horde guilds wait several weeks in each content for the Alliance to fill the Hall of Fame as well. Now is the right time to consider the Hall of Fame as a prestige achievement only and decouple it from unlocking for cross-server Mythic raids, at the latest when it is filled in the upcoming Mausoleum of the First raid. Meanwhile, chances are good that Blizzard will make changes to their MMO sooner than they have in the past.
In several interviews, Game Director Ion Hazzikostas confirmed that they are breaking free from the shackles of oldschool developers and their views, there are collective contributions from employees who can suggest changes and have already implemented a lot of it - and that doesn't only concern sexy-purge changes.
There are also three other things that speak for a dissolution of the factions: 1.: WoW's (buy now ) lore has reached the endgame. 2nd: The server transfer bundle would not make sense without a simultaneous faction change and 3rd: Blizzard seems to be ready for big changes by now.
Imagine you want to explain to players after MoP, BfA and now in the afterlife of WoW in one of the following expansions that once again the war between Horde and Alliance has broken out. Difficult. At some point, you can't sell that story to the player in a way that makes sense either.
It's funny how much Shadowlands has in common with Avengers Endgame, the finale of the Marvel superhero series. The big bad guy Zovaal (Thanos), who wants to reforge the realities (killed half of the universe), has the five seals (Infinity Stones) and must be stopped with the power of all imaginable armies (the pacts and the factions). WoW has reached the Endgame. After that, a new era begins.
11:26And how did Narrative Lead Steve Danuser put it so well in the preview video for Patch 9.2? Shadowlands Patch 9.2 is the third and final act of this lore section of WoW from a Warcraft 3 perspective. So it's time for a fresh start, a breaking of the endless cycle of "we get along, we fight" between Horde and Alliance.
character transfer bundle was announced five weeks ago
, nothing has been heard about the discounted mass transfer. It's strange to announce something like that and then let it sit for weeks.In our interview of 3.11. with Ion Hazzikostas we asked: is a faction change included in the bundle and don't they think that the imbalance of the server population is endangered, ergo more guilds die out? That more and more players leave servers, because the realm pool no longer offers much choice of raid guilds, I have experienced in Shadowlands now several times on my own body.
Where is the character transfer bundle for Shadowlands? 5 weeks and no update. Is there a good reason for that?
Source: Blizzard
gameHazzikostas' answer to this: There are several ways to control the number of players in the game world, etc. (phasing, server bundles, etc.). When asked about an included faction change in the bundle, he could not give an exact answer.
I believe Hazzikostas that he really didn't know the answer. Because just to spill the beans: I know that shortly after the interview about the bundle, his PR team either briefed him again in detail to appear more confident in interviews, or went over the bundle with him again. I think Blizzard didn't really know what the character transfer bundle was going to look like at that point themselves.
I think it will definitely include discounted faction switching for multiple characters, because faction boundaries will be thrown overboard and in the future anyone can be with anyone in dungeons and raids. Why else would they even make the importance of server transfers an issue with this offer, when they say they can control the server population so well with other features like phasing and server mergers?
In our interview and also many other interviews about patch 9.1.5, Ion Hazzikostas put a lot of emphasis on mentioning that they are now rethinking the philosophies drilled into them by the oldschool developers and are no longer hesitant when it comes to changing WoW. And that could include breaking up the factions.
WoW is now 17 years old. 17 years of Horde vs Alliance. You can stay true to this motto across battlegrounds and also pit lore characters against each other. But based on the declining player numbers for years, Blizzard itself sees that their MMO is now ailing and the split between Horde and Alliance players is not helping the community grow. After almost 20 years, I think the developers have also realized that you can now jump over your shadow. There's not much more to break, and with all the changes in the company and around WoW, now is exactly the right time to do it.
unification
Apart from the endgame aspect, the faction unification can easily be explained with the new Chiffen feature of Zereth Mortis. Here, a machine is available whose function we gradually understand and through which we learn the language of the mechano-beings Automa.
Through the cipher system we learn a new language in patch 9.2 of WoW Shadowlands. Why not also the languages of the other races?
Source: Blizzard
Learning a new language, I don't think there's been anything like that in WoW yet. Such a coincidence that it could perhaps be used to communicate with other races beyond the confines of the common and orc language? WoW. This way it would make sense in the game why all of a sudden I as a Taurean can communicate in my language even with a Night Elf beyond sign language with hands and hooves.
I'm so sure that the faction borders will be broken soon, that as a Horde player for years I'm currently already playing up Night Elves and co. because I like the aesthetics of the Alliance peoples better. With my Horde people I can then play with the race I want.
How about you, do you believe in the soon fall of the faction borders in WoW? We are looking forward to your opinion in the comments.
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