CantFaketheFunk said:
Nostalgia said:
Neth was very vague, but I really hope that I don't start seeing damn UD players on Alliance. HOPEFULLY, it'll just be a mere race change sort of service that will allow you to switch factions in the process. Community on WoW has been dead since TBC, so a change like this doesn't bother me as much.
Undead on Alliance, though? Dwarves on Horde? No, gtfo.
quiet_samurai said:
Why would you ever want to be on the alliance?
Because we rather not associate or hang around with people who have this attitude.
Bingo.
Tell an Alliance player you play Horde, it's like "Eh, ok, no big deal."
Tell a Horde player you play Alliance, it's like you just killed their dog.
I smell one of those oh so fun WoW flame wars of
"Who is the bigger douche" comming down the pipes very soon.
Being a person who's got 80's on either side I feel I can safely say the attitude players have towards their opposing faction is the same on both sides, and varies from server to server; person to person. Not at all like you've described it CFF.
You have your die-hard loyalists that KoS any player of the opposing faction (or just fuck with their questing if you're on a PvE server) And then you have the players who indeed have that "Meh" attitude towards both sides.
Deny it all you want, but there are indeed WAY more children playing Alliance side; and they stick out like sore thumbs when they talk. You've got them horde side as well, but they are in the minority.
As for why someone would want to play Alliance side its a very simple answer. Personal preference is the generalization but when you get right down to it both sides make up 2 parts of the same story. Though I was rather unimpressed with doing identical quests once I hit outland on my Ally toon. Both sides don't paint pretty pictures of the other.
Playing Horde you get the feeling the allies are utter douche-bags who won't let bygones be bygones and keep raining on the Horde's parade. The trolls, tauren, and orcs are all portrayed in their very tribal natures, and are just acting in the way most tribal societies act. Expand and protect their lands. The Forsaken...I'm sorry they're just straight up evil; I've done their quest chains and I'm shocked they haven't gone for world domination yet. The player's assigned role Horde side is essentially a tribal warrior...unless you're undead then you're just one of the bigger evil fucks amongst other evil fucks.
This brings us to the Alliance's side of the story, its your basic feudal fantasy society. If its not civilized then its evil. There's a definitive grudge the Alliance can't seem to get rid of from the Orc's initial invasion; despite the evidence coming to light long ago the orcs were manipulated and tricked. The picture painted for Alliance characters is that the horde sits across the sea plotting with its Forsaken allies on how to kill Superman...I mean conquer the world. Still dealing with rogue factions of orcs and trolls this indeed keeps the threat of another orc invasion alive and well for members of the Alliance. The player's assigned role Alliance side is revered defender of the realm, vanquisher of evil, etc etc...
Left out on purpose out of the above synopses is the included factor of Blood Elves and Dranei. They've been left out for the reason that the two races are still rather non-existent in the story arcs of classic WoW content, thus do not contribute a significant enough piece to the pictures painted as the player levels in original content.
With the inclusion of Blood Elves and Dranei in The Burning Crusade expansion the pictures do not change so much with the story arc of Outland. The Burning Crusade is definitely a very Horde heavy expansion in terms of story (at least in my own personal opinion). In it we see the revelation that some orcs were able to escape the demonic corruption, the discovery of Grom Hellscream's son, and the long awaited redemption of the Blood Elves at the Sunwell Plateau as the culmination of the expansions story arc.
My memory of the Alliance's story for The Burning Crusade is very dim considering I leveled through Outland almost a year ago on an Alliance character. If someone could fill in the cracks on that it would be great.
Here in the present as we deal with the current story arc for Wrath of the Lich King we see the Horde and Alliance coming from their united victory over Kil'Jaden at the Sunwell to deal with (to their knowledge anyway) the last greatest threat to Azeroth; Arthas. The two factions still keeping their distance from one another are still keeping their distance but realize they are working to achieve the same goals.
The three monkey wrenches in this system are Varimathras and King Varian of Stormwind, and Garrosh Hellscream.
Varian with his infinite anger and hatred towards the underground (might I add illegal if I read right) arenas that he somehow ties to Thrall. His anger though is not unfounded considering it was Garona the half Orc slew his father and made him both Orphan and King of Stormwind at the same time, so maybe he just needs a few anger management classes before he can sit down at the negotiation table with Thrall to plot Arthas' demise. To be honest I need to finish reading his comic book story arc before I can draw more definitive conclusions.
Garrosh Hellscream is far to much like his father; hotheaded and brash in his zeal to prove himself as a leader to Thrall he has become more of a liability to the horde's efforts in Northrend than an asset. As far as I can see Saurfang and a beat down from Thrall are the only two things stopping Garrosh from tearing a new asshole in the Alliance war efforts in Northrend. Though for those of us who witnessed the Wrath pre-release events in Orgimmar Garrosh came dangerously close to defeating Thrall, and may well have done so if not for the sudden undead invasion.
Varimathras the dreadlord that in Sylvanas' infinite wisdom swindled into being her second in command. Swindled is debatable since dreadlords are the master tacticians of the burning legion. He is the one that ignited the already brewing powder kegs that were Garrosh and Varian. Those of us Horde side saw how crushed Thrall was at the end of the wrath gate quest chain, how the tenious peace he and Jaina had struggled so hard to keep was all brought down so swiftly. Though his coup of the Undercity was quite possibly the most awesome thing to happen to WoW since flying mounts it is the beginning of the rising action in the Northrend story arc.
As we sit at the current juncture in 3.1 the horde and alliance are in all out war against each other, refusing to work together even to stop Yog-Saron despite the immanent threat he presents. The picture presented to both sides is now an even worse one than when we had in classic WoW. Both sides view each other as mortal enemies, not tenuous allies, and it yet again falls to 3rd party factions to get the two waring parties to put aside their differences long enough to deal with the real enemy. The ultimate conclusion to Wrath of the Lich that we can speculate at this point is Arthas' eventual downfall thanks to the combined efforts of the Horde and Alliance via mediation through the most likely candidate the Argent crusade.
My word I seem to have flown very far from the original topic. I apologize, as a lore junkie once I get started I can't seem to stop myself. At any rate I think I've given a semi-good synopsis of the story from both sides to the best of my knowledge. (leaving out, well, some rather large bits of back story that come from books and what-not) It's probably Horde biased in some way since I do primarily play and interact with the Horde's side of the story Arc, but I feel I've got a pretty good grasp on the bigger picture.
