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It Don’t Matter If You’re Orc Or Dwarf
Tired of always being on the losing side in BGs? Has Blizzard got a microtransaction page for you!
We wanted to give everyone a very early heads-up that, in response to player requests, we’re developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. There’s still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm.
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about 1 year ago
It’s a good thing if players use it to even up the battlefields on servers were one side is sorely outnumbered.
Unfortunately, my experience is that more players tend to want to join the winning side instead. So my guess on what this will do is that it will result in a lot more servers which are heavy on one side.
Then again, who’s to say that outright server-to-server transfers (which have been in for awhile) haven’t done most of that damage already?
about 1 year ago
smart
I hopee they have enough sense to charge a lot.
about 1 year ago
This is bad. Like, really bad. It’s like that point in time where you realise your best buddy has betrayed you. AND THERE IS NO GOING BACK UP THE RABBIT HOLE!
about 1 year ago
Jesus H Christ…is there nothing sacred anymore? Why not just give people level 80 characters
about 1 year ago
I wonder if I can convince my entire guild to flip to horde. My server has a huge alliance to horde ratio, and I’d love to not be part of the problem anymore.
about 1 year ago
@Hudson
Yes. I think that’s what they should be doing. The need to figure out how to sell more expansions and they keep coming up with gimmicks like faster leveling and now race changes. Why? It’s a wasted effort. Just sell characters at the level cap and put those developer resources into creating new content.
I really and truly don’t understand where Blizzard is coming from here. What do they fear. Death by a thousand cuts is still death. Cut to the chase and get it over with.
about 1 year ago
If only they would, maybe I’d re-up my subscription…
The forced segregation based on server is bad, but they’ve allowed you to bypass that for a while now. With this change you’ll finally be able to meet up with your friends wherever they happen to be, and that’s quite a big deal.
It’s good for the players, and it’s good for the game. It’s just the sort of player friendly change WoW needs.
about 1 year ago
Out of curiosity, why are these comparable? They don’t seem very similar to me at all.
about 1 year ago
What – and put the real money traders out of business?
about 1 year ago
Its just a game – why does any one really care? Personally I think the factions need to be owned by the players, and not set in stone.
I never could figure that out in WoW. My alliance toon can talk to Tauren, Orc, and even Undead quest givers/trainers/vendors (typically npc’s that will talk to either faction) but no matter how long I play I can’t talk to real players playing the same races? Plus my Darenai Shaman came from Draenor right – where she lived among the orcs, but can’t speak orcish.
about 1 year ago
First, it has been proved that if you let opposite players talk to each other, they will start saying bad words to each other. Good in EVE Online, Age fo Conan, DarkFall, etc, but not cool in the +12 WoW.
Second, if server transfers already happens, side changes dont matter that much, I mean, not many people will expend money in that, just as not many people expend money in server transfers or sex changes. Yes its a considerable number, but its not the majority for a long shot.
In short, its not that important.
About the “get chars level 80 form the get go” …i dont think that they will do it. That means a lot of content (not counting dungeons), without any use aka it will be erased. And a chopped off WoW it doesnt look cool, dont atract people.
If you could get a char to level 80 by paying money, it would truly suck because there would be created an elite of fresh 80 that would act like they are hot shit and gank the few guys that level their chars. Those fresh 80 wouldnt know jack about their class, or even the game of course which would make almost all dungeons more painful than the worst PuG imaginable. Forums would be a turmoil and it would be a mess. Thats why they try to keep around the same time in getting to the level cap at least once.
about 1 year ago
If PvP mattered to me at all, I guess i would care. Fortunately it doesn’t.
I look forward to several more years of “tough guys” on my PvE server whining about how world PvP is dead.
And I look forward even more to playing LoTRO on my other game where PvP isn’t even an issue (and PvMP will never be a world affecting issue)
about 1 year ago
WoW. I agree with G. Can this end in any other way than the Horde showing up in Arathi Basin one day and finding all the alliance has joined them?
about 1 year ago
This right here has to be the most frequently annoying comment I see on the web. Not just WoW related.
Seriously, before you say that again, go and read this: http://www.pinkpigtailinn.com/2009/05/merely-wow.html
about 1 year ago
Ok so the day Blizzard pays me to play WoW like the NFL pays its players to play Football I’d agree, but until then – the worst thing that can happen to any WoW player is your guild wasting time on stupid crap in a raid – that’s not a game, but the rest of it is. They don’t however, and most players aren’t being paid to play wow so why flip out over a decision like this? I’m not planning on switching my shaman to horde – why would I care if someone else did?
We’re talking about a decision someone can make that affects their own character. At the very most it will affect the pvp balance of a particular realm, or you may lose a guild member, but since realm transfers and pvp realm transfers have been in place – likewise I doubt it will have any affect on how any of us play the game.
Same with Martin’s Fury – that didn’t affect any of us – it really didn’t – so why does this blogger even give a rip? It is just a game – Blizzard dealt with the problem and life goes on. Cosmically speaking if your fantasy football league sucks, or you didn’t get a drop in Naxx/Ulduar because of crappy loot rules or favoritism – you’ll still be ok. If not – seriously get help. So I stand by it – it’s just a game, and when it stops being that – that is when I stop playing.
So yes – while there are things out there that this phrase trivializes – none of the examples in the blog post here on the one you linked really apply I think.
about 1 year ago
@GX1080
“First, it has been proved that if you let opposite players talk to each other, they will start saying bad words to each other.”
Second, it has been proved that if you let same side players talk to each other, they will start saying bad words to each other. Just sayin’….
about 1 year ago
Please. It’s entirely facile to think that the overpopulated realm is the one ‘winning’. WoW has nothing that involves horde vs. alliance.. not one single aspect of it works that way in any meaningful extent. BGs are entirely trivial being so far subordinate to arenas as to be all but inconsequential. WG has designed mechanics that practically guarantee an overpopulated realm will not be able to hold it indefinitely.
about 1 year ago
Well, sorry Blizzard, you’re about years late to make me change my mind and actually be able to merge with my friends when we all started playing.
It’s a nice feature to see, though I have no interest anymore. I see these things as just opportunities for money. Though I know tons of people who’d use them just to get revenge on their enemies.
Though I expect it will be like I remember, the winning faction having 2 hour queues, and the losing faction having no queue time. Sadly, I could make more honor on the losing side, just cause I could get into games, and running pre-mades always worked well.
There will be a balance, and it’s not like one side will win and have instant queues, so it all is fair in the end.
It’s just more money for Blizzard, eventually they’ll be selling their own gold. (Which I’d secretly have done since the beginning if I were them, seeing as I know people who’ve spent multiple hundreds of dollars on gold and related services)
about 1 year ago
Sounds pretty cool to me although at Blizzard’s rate of development it will be a year or so before we actually see it in game so don’t worry too much about it.
about 1 year ago
K. Few corrections to the “facts.”
A) Arena participation has dropped dramatically over the last few seasons.
B) I was using AB as a metaphor due to it is one the Alliance traditionally fairs poorly in. Sure WG is geared for the O to win, but world pvp and battlegrounds are a different story.
I don’t know which server you’re on, but mine sees a lot of world pvp. Usually way more horde that alliance out there though, and horde tends to reinforce with “friends” a lot faster.
C) Anecdotal evidence clearly demonstrates most hard core PvPers tend to flock to the evil or “gritty” side of any given conflict in any given MMO.
D) There is a tendency by the realm that perceives itself as the losing side to flop over to the other. This would only be accelerated with a transfer.
E) Back to the metaphor. I can see a lot more alliance people transferring to horde than the other way around.
about 1 year ago
Jeff – Arena participation peaked in Season 2. Quite early in season 2 given a closer parse of the avaliable data. Next season, I expect it’ll halve again.
about 1 year ago
@Angelworks
I do.
about 1 year ago
What I’d like to see instead (and would bring me back) is a restructuring of alliances.. make up some bs storyline about the horde and allies banding together and take out the seperations completely. keep the pvp, but mix the teams up.
about 1 year ago
Just a few notes here on the whole pvp thing. I am on a normal server and I happen to have an level 80 character on both Horde and Alliance.
PvP in all battlegrounds except Wintergrasp are not just one server. They are a cluster of servers or a battlegroup. The clusters include normal servers, pvp servers and RP servers.
I have played both sides and both sides have equally crappy days. Fortunately I can switch when I need to and that helps curb the frustration for a while. However, I have tried to play the side I percieved as being the winner, often results on me finding the same problem on the other side and still being frustrated.
Not only are the BG’s clutered with other servers, there are usually several different instances going on. The group you get one game, will likely only have a subset of those players in the next. You can also create premades with guildies or other friends but you will still get a random group of people you can’t rely on to help you win.
I guess what I am getting at is the concerns here are really not valid. People that think the other side always wins have never played the other side.
The people on your own team are often more mean to you then the enemy. They belittle you for your performance and even accuse you of losing an entire BG. If you aren’t geared or don’t call out incomming enemies or turn the flag at the wrong time or many other offences, you will be bashed by someone. Usually the PvP server people because they are truly the only ones that can call themselves PvPers.
I personally think that outside of the BG’s we should be allowed to share commerce and speak to whom we choose. I think we should be able to email and even guild with our Horde or Alliance counterparts
Wintergrasp and arena would also not be affected. WG has a mechanism for dealing with the population issues. Arena is also controlled by the cluster or battlegroup.
Anyway. That’s my 2G.
Fear
about 1 year ago
No LAN in Starcraft 2 confirmed. Faction change in WoW.
Dolla Dolla Bill YO.
about 1 year ago
Blizzard’s doom is working as intended. If you believe this has been done in error, please start a petition we will subsequently ignore.
about 1 year ago
It’s not as big of a deal as it used to be. With the tenacity buff in Wintergrasp, all things even out. Blizzard has made changes to try to balance battlegrounds and arenas via team size and gear.
I suspect the new battleground coming up in the next patch will have similar ‘balancing’ features.
about 1 year ago
I could see Horde->Alliance transfers being a lot more popular if they let you retain your original race, as in the EQ2 betrayal system. The wording I’ve seen so far doesn’t specifically address this, but it seems unlikely.
about 1 year ago
@Aufero
Aufero, while that may be “cooler” to play the Undead or Tauren that has seen the light, it’s sort of a disaster in BGs when you’re trying to identify who the enemy is.
Yeah, I know that you can see see red text over their heads.
about 1 year ago
I think Spitfires has the right response to this issue.
about 1 year ago
How can you all be so focused on what was actually written when you SHOULD be complementing Lum on making a subtle Michael Jackson-homage reference (well-played)? The nerve!
Ok ok fine – so about the WoW topic, this isn’t anything surprising as far as I’m concerned with Blizzard. For a long time now, WoW has been the McDonalds of MMOs, offering anything and everything under the sun to please the masses, so why not offer a faction transfer? The classes are the same on both sides so I’m surprised this didn’t really happen any sooner.
What this does guarantee is thousands more drama postings on server forums, where rivers of tears and flamethrowers will be wrought as whole guilds faction transfer and upend their respective communities. The popcorn maker will be busy, indeed.
about 1 year ago
Funny story… My W.o.W. forum account was banned years ago for saying that race switching in W.o.W. was inevitable due to the games innate imbalances between races in PVE and PVP.
Start the egg timer on race switching for PVE play. It will happen. As the economy declines and the subscriber base wears away… They will do anything for money. Anything. Is china’s currency still directly tied to the dollar?
about 1 year ago
What I like about this is the possibilities for victimising your guildies. Lost a roll for an item? Switch sides and corpse camp the winner till he quits the game. Takes guild drama to a whole new level.
about 1 year ago
I’ll put money on this coming out with patch 3.2 or shortly after it goes live. Blizzard has shown that they won’t announce something unless it is close to being a realty, duel specs being officially confirmed to when it went live was something like 3 months.
about 1 year ago
That would be an interesting reason to get banned in how poorly it would reflect on Blizzard. I would suspect it had little to do with this and more to do with the way you went about it.
about 1 year ago
Humans are never more serious than when they play.
about 1 year ago
Their Racial “Perception” sees what you did thar.