The problem is many Alliance are assuming this is because of racials.
Two things we need to understand.
-
It’s not REALLY because of racials, the power gap is not that big, although PERCEPTION about racial balance may play a role.
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Band-wagoning, whether due to aforementioned perception of racial balance OR just due to the fact that there is a community of likeminded players (or both) on one side or the other is a problem.
This has to do with player knowledge and and how the modern gaming community is connected. Us “Classic Andys” (most of us, tbh) are tryharding and researching stuff on YouTube, or playing off old memories and perceptions… but WoW was not designed with us in mind. It was designed with the idea that new players would be coming in hopefully at a steady pace (I doubt they even really expected anything near the size of initial overnight success they had with vanilla).
I actually think possibly the biggest issue is marketing. They’re selling this to targeted WoW-interested audiences as a nostalgia trip. Even the whole presentation of TBC at Blizzconline was devs reminiscing. While that’s a big part of TBC, in actuality I think the reason this game was so in demand to be brought back is because the design principles were SO STRONG that it’s a good game period, regardless of when it was released… so they need to figure out an angle to go out and just get new players flooding in all the time. Most new players are not going to be subject to all this weird crap and I see the Alliance often assuming. e.g. “You knew this imbalance was going to happen you could have researched it!”. That’s not how most new players ever came to WoW, they didn’t extensively try to understand the game and it’s meta before playing, they just saw a cool ad or heard word of mouth and came to play.
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The idea that people are incapable or don’t bother to research things before making a purchase, especially with ubiquitous internet access via devices in their hands 24/7, is totally laughable.
You knew this imbalance was going to happen, everybody knew it was going to happen, you didn’t even have to actively research it. It was everywhere. Racials are certainly an important factor, along with Blood Elves, and Horde dominance in retail, and then the inevitable bandwagon effect from those factors.
I just think you and the handful of forum-goers making this argument are out of touch with standard consumer behaviors. The WoW community is millions smaller than it once was, and it’s clear that most of the people still playing are highly interested players who were already good at the game and thus more likely to be aware of things like this (even if the info is wrong e.g. this faction is “better” than this one).
It doesn’t matter that the information is easily accessible, you’re missing the point. A LOT of information is easily accessible (and a lot of misinformation too), that doesn’t mean people have the attention spans, time, or willpower to go and get it, or sift through counter-arguments etc. - you’re assuming a lot based on the experience of a smaller number of players… I’m looking at not only how the game was developed but who it was developed for (originally, not just Classic), combined with the facts about how it played out during it’s initial design vision.
I think they can re-harness a lot of that if they try, even if culture has changed. Human psychology has not dramatically evolved overnight. Our behavior may be changing due to social dynamics, but what people want deep down and how games can set the scene to pull that out of people is still much the same.
Right now (in terms of assisting faction balance causes) it’s really just a matter of selling the core fundamentals of WoW to new audiences like they did back in the day (think Shatner, Vernon Troy, Mr T. commercials). Target people who don’t know much about the game and don’t have preconceived notions about band-wagoning yet, but want (or COULD want but don’t know it yet) to play in a giant fantasy MMO.
P.S. pro-tip… maybe “sell” the Alliance to be a little better or cooler than the Horde in the ad campaigns lol, just nudge that scale… 
That is the biggest crock of bull I’ve had the displeasure of reading in quite awhile. I hope you don’t actually believe it. I wasted time leveling a new char from 1 only on the weekends because my time during the week is limited, made it to a couple bars from 70 and then blizz did this and put the nail in the coffin of my server. They killed my girl. Done with this, going back to pservers probably at some point, but right now I just have a bad taste in my mouth.
And with you peddling bs like this
GFY
When you don’t have a good counter-argument just rage and call it BS lol. K have fun getting your PS character randomly deleted, on that server with like 500 people on it, using a buggy out of date client with grainy visuals, alongside a global community with language barriers for group formation.
You could just try to understand good arguments (might require activating your brain n setting down the pot) and do what you can to make the ACTUAL game better, alternatively.
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/lol
We really need a laugh react for posts like this one.
I’ve witness 2 servers destroyed due to blizzard’s actions. Skeram and now Herod. The idea that there is any sort of longevity with blizzard, or that the visuals or the client are out of date. I mean, this game is from 2004. The whole thing is out of date. Oh, but they may flyhack. Just like people were doing on blizz servers in zg. Oh, but the bots. Better than blizzard. Granted, that is a truly low bar.
You should cancel because you have show helm checked with helm of the claw on lol
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The hype of being classic was too strong back in phase 2. You really need that pointed out? 2 years later, this gets old fast, and will decay the player base guaranteed
MMORPG PvP, lol. The absolute worst genre for it.
give humans the emfh racial, early, as it was in wotlk. mwahaha
For having a pre raid bis no thanks.
You are really using “hype of classic” as an excuse why alliance players should deal with it, and horde have real problems now? That’s all I need to know about your arguments.
i like you. you’re fun to read, level headed, well-informed about psychology, particularly gaming psychology. so if you wouldn’t mind, could you watch this vid (the whole thing), released post tbc announcement but before tbc release, and tell me, by the end of the video, what faction + race you would choose if this video was the only info you had about the game?
Spoiler
if all i cared about was min-maxing, i’d choose as follows:
for pvp
- undead lock
- dwarf priest
- belf ret pally
- nelf druid
- orc hunter
- troll mage/shaman
conclusion - 4 horde vs. 2 alliance
its different for pve though. its pretty even for pve because draenei are op in pve tbc.
Your lack of comprehension is astounding. I said back in Phase 2 they were willing to put up with it because of the hype of coming back to vanilla classic. They shouldn’t of had to put up with it then, and it looks like they are unwilling to put up with it now. Because “now” is 2 years of being a second class community in the game.
The horde queue problem is a player created problem, because blizzard’s mismanagement of server populations, faction populations, and exacerbated by the boost. It’s been a 20% shift from alliance to horde since TBC.
Solution is buff alliance racials, and allow faction swaps, not horde v. horde BGs.
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problem with this is, horde players that play horde exclusively and perhaps have been horde since vanilla/tbc, will interpret such changes as a game breaking departure from original tbc - primarily because the experience would be so dramatically different in pvp. if there are more horde than alliance on pvp servers, to begin with, buffing alliance in a way that hampers/destroys nostalgia at the game play level, is bad business, also.
the devs are stuck on this one. i say give humans emfh as it was in wotlk, where it was essentially like having 2 pvp trinkets on different cds, but oh man, that’d be so devastating in pvp. haha. humans as far as the eye could see. 
something has to give, something has to break
where the biggest thing they push and advertise about the game is the cash shop 
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