So probably one of the most important lore developemt is the cross faction guilds. So goodbye faction war forever?
16 Likes
Seems itâs going to be less likely in the future and I am honestly happy with that
10 Likes
I donât see why that means no faction war. Guilds are just a game mechanic for players to begin with; theoretically we could have another BFA while players could still group with each other cross-faction anyway, as a separation between gameplay and story.
14 Likes
Be honest, if BfA had happened with cross faction guilds available I would expect a decent amount of vitriol from certain people causing all sorts of guild drama. I doubt Blizzard would want such situations.
6 Likes
Okay thatâs fair, lmao.
But then again, thatâs what mutes and guild kicks are for, if people spill the vitriol over to other players.
2 Likes
Putting a pin on this for now. Man an actual underground zone/s sounds awesome:
- You can fly into the caverns from Thaldraszus, Azure Span and Ohnâahran Plains and there wonât be a loading screen.
Steve: We wouldnât have started undertaking any cross-faction grouping and systems without thinking through the lore implications and what it means to the world. Regardless of cross-faction guilds, we are still maintaining the identities of the Horde and the Alliance. Those are still organizations that exist in the world. And Stormwind and Orgirmmar will always be those bastions that represent those member races and feel like a home base for them. We donât want to lose that. The Horde and Alliance have very different outlooks on life, which play out through the way they approach solving problems, and the kinds of characters you meet depending on which faction youâre involved with. All of that stuff is important to maintain, and that is very fundamental to the DNA of the game.
But at the same time, weâre opening things up to allow the possibility for these cross-faction groups. And thatâs fundamental, even going back to Warcraft 3, which was a story of cooperation in a lot of ways, of these two sides standing together against a threat of the Legion. Weâve seen that happen time and time again, throughout World of Warcraftâs history, where some threat has arisen to our world, and weâve had to set aside our differences and band together and face that. Those differences still existed and they came to a head in Battle for Azeroth, but in the aftermath, we have been able to tell stories of those forces coming together.
In Dragonflight, there is so much content that is available to every player regardless of what faction they are. And we have things like conditional quest text in places, that allow us to maintain some of that flavor showing differences between the Horde and Alliance, so weâll continue keeping that spirit. But in terms of the fiction of the world, it gives us a lot of opportunities and places to take the storyline that would be more limited if we had just a hard line of these two factions never being able to cooperate. Morgan can chime in on some of the pvp details of this.
Morgan: Like Steve was mentioning, that participation has been present for a long time, so this is almost in some ways, the systems catching up with the world. Thereâs been this participation thatâs been a major driving force in our previous expansions, and this is just allowing that opportunity for the systems of the game to reflect the world. And in terms of PvP, there are definitely very cool opportunities there to fictionalize that, but also there just is some degree of âthe gaminess of PvPâ at times in order to create the best experience. Ultimately, thatâs always going to be our focus, whatâs the player experience? Even dating back to Burning Crusade, we had HvH and AvA areas for the sake of competition.
2 Likes
Well they had me worried when it was subterranean but thankfully the zones are large enough for dragon riding.
Looking forward to that laboratory full of failed experiments. Been a critical lack of Vitamin Boo! in this expansion so far. Gnolls are the closest we come and theyâve a pretty small roll. So a kaijuâs Umbrella lab sounds fun.
4 Likes
Best change Iâm hearing though is theyâre cutting the ties between renown level and story quests.
Which is a smart move. Because Iâve missed a lot of content purely because not all the factions interest me or have stuff I want.
4 Likes
Blizzard really tries to kill this game. I will never work with alliance scum.
2 Likes
Iâm looking forward to this dragon riding mount, especially since I can now have all five flights represented.
5 Likes
I love the look of the new dragon. It actuallyâŚ.well a more natural dragon to me. If that makes sense
1 Like
But then what will the Story forums talk about?!
5 Likes
The actual current lore and not atrocities committed by Murloc Murders Inc from 300,000 yrs ago and during the height of the long armed T-Rex reign 
8 Likes
Underground zone giving me heavy Blackreach skyrim vibes. My knee jerk reaction to this is to say âewâ, but weâll see.
Blackreach, though. Ew.
2 Likes
Iâm holding out hope too. Weâll see how it turns out. I been burned too many times by being excited for something and said thing turns out to be nothing like what was promised
I dont know about that. Blizzard usually sees vitriol and toxic behavior surrounding the faction conflict as âplayer engagementâ until it is directed back at them.
I secretly hope for another elven subrace in the underground zone who are blatant Drow expies.
2 Likes
Faction wars.
I feel bittersweet at having an underground zone because Azjol Nerub should have been the first underground zone.
9 Likes
Presumably guild members canât PvP each other. But you know it will be drama when someone decides to PvP a guild member with an alt.
1 Like