It up and died, duh.
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Nothing crazy or dramatic.
People just got burned out and found other games to capture their interest. We went from having 15ish people ready to raid/rated PvP down to 5 over the course of about a week.
Theyāre good people and I miss them, hopefully theyāll come back.
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I agree with playing with your friends being great for the game. My question is what is the incentive to play Alliance if faction barriers were removed?
I think Ion mentioned this ā someone (e.g. Tsataga) might really like an Alliance race/aesthetic, but they have to choose a Horde race in order to play with their friends or have an easier time joining groups for more challenging content.
Assuming balanced racials, if faction barriers were removed, players could choose their favorite race without having to worry about how that choice will severely restrict who they can play with.
Iām in this post, and I donāt like it.
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I understand the theory behind this. I suppose what I foresee happening is that people will just go Horde because there is no reason to be Alliance, so all the Alliance cities, chat channels, war mode etc become wastelands.
I just donāt see a way around that. Having a new player join the game to be introduced to Stormwind City to see nothing but NPCs around would be a pretty crappy experience IMO.
If they keep the current system, isnāt that whatās going to happen?
At this point, keeping the same system, Blizzard would have to purposefully overbuff Alliance racials to get players to go Alliance.
Sorry buddy. I will be back one of these days. The game is just too sweaty for me right now. I got a lot of stuff cooking irl and when the thought of oh crap I didnāt get torghast in this week hits you on Sunday/Monday, the enjoyment factor starts falling off the deep end lol.
I donāt want to rant or ramble about the game to bring bad vibes into the lounge but Iām not playing many games at all right nowā¦ just building a castle in valheim a few nights a week. Itās just nice to not have to be in sweaty progression mode in my free time.
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Possibly. But if the end result is the same, the proposed solution isnāt actually a solution.
I donāt think this is the solution, it will just reverse the problem. I do think there are a few more immediate things Blizzard could be doing, such as offering free faction and guild transfers.
I donāt know what it would take to get players to play Alliance. Itās not our jobs as players to come up with a solution to problems caused by idle development. This isnāt a new problem, it has been something that has been happening for several years.
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No need to apologize friendo, I get it.
Iām glad I had the opportunity to raid and PvP with you goof balls and Iām sure itāll happen again.
Iām just gonna causally play this one and maybe level a few other druids I have around the World of Warcraft.
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Well, you think the end result will be the same.
Others hope the end result will be different if Blizzard changes the current system by removing faction barriers.
Why would anyone take a free faction change to the Alliance right now?
With faction barriers in place, Horde players are discouraged from switching to the Alliance faction because it has fewer people doing more challenging content and itās harder to find recruits/groups/guilds.
OP Alliance racials would get players to go Alliance, but itās not a good long-term solution, and as youāve noted, itāll eventually reverse the problem.
Personally, I think the Horde vs. Alliance thing has been going on for a bit too long now, and itās starting to hurt the lore/story and most importantly, the gameplay.
Why would anyone pay to do it? It costs a lot of money to transfer guilds and faction changes. I think as a gesture of goodwill it would be nice to have the option there - I think some people would take it up purely because it is easier to get coveted titles. Definitely not enough to balance things, but it would be a small step on a very large staircase.
It will be interesting to see what steps they eventually take (if ever). I still donāt see how removing faction barriers would work in the world, unless you are suggesting everyone in war mode is hostile to each other regardless of faction? Sort of like we are all mercenaries, instead of heroes?
The entire concept of World of Warcraft is built around faction conflict. Removing that is a game changer.
Blizzard has been idle and probably because the changes that are good for faction balance take away from their bottom line. No faction swaps from alliance to horde. No horde boosts. No merc mode. No same faction PvP. When playing the dominant faction isnāt the best of all worlds, players might consider the other faction.
As long as there is no reason not to play horde, people will continue to migrate and Blizzard does nothing to stop it. In fact, theyāve taken steps over time to make it easier.
Classic is waiting for you!
Iām still having a blast in classic. Iāve got one character to rank 10 and one to rank 11 because most of my time is spent in old school WSG. Druids and holy pallies are game changing! (Unless they get globaled by a shammy) 
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I donāt want to be laughed at for being a Moonkin. 
That does bring up a question Iāve been meaning to ask: are you salarying classic or moving in to TBC?
In classic thatās known as a āmeme specā. So is shadow and ret. Meme specs unite!
Also get the angry little gnomes who are dying a lot and blame the hybrids for not pocket healing them. Thatās when you point out how many times theyāve died. āHoly crap, youāve died 18 times. Ouch!ā
Yes Iām doing TBC. I think Iām going to clone my 60s so I can still play classic with them too if I want.
Which coveted titles are easier to get on the Alliance?
Idk if many players still care about wPvP. You can disable/enable war mode. Blizzard uses phasing and pulls random players across various realms together to try to balance the numbers in the world. To me, wPvP doesnāt really feel the same anymore, compared to when wPvP only involved players from your own realm.
I think the faction barriers are more about instanced content (e.g. arenas, dungeons, raids, etc.).
I know there is a faction imbalance that has negatively impacted the Alliance for quite some time but I think this player drought is affecting both sides. Seems like everyone has gotten burned out very quickly on SL. Iām one of the crew thatās somewhat ghosted on Tsaās team but Iāve also seen my friends list across the board go pretty dark too.
I speak only for myself but Iām exhausted with these borrowed power systems and the included grinds that come with them. A lot of that comes from being an enjoyer of alts, but I feel like alt friendliness is key to keeping most of us around.
As JD pointed out, it takes weekly commitment to keep a toon viable not just bleeding edge, but playable. Thatās not an alt friendly environment, and so if youāre burned out on being sweaty on your main, and want to screw around on alts there isnāt much room for enjoyment after hitting 60 because you have to get sweaty on them too.
PS This is Muffindiver.
Yes, it would be a big change, but Iād argue itās a necessary change for the game if we want to keep going.
Mandating that the Horde must always be fighting against the Alliance limits what they can do with the story/lore, and now itās really starting to hurt the gameplay.
Maybe Blizzard can also consider adding new factions to make things more interesting? For example, some people might want to play the races/classes of the Burning Legion.
Has faction balance been ok on Classic?
I think you have it backwards 
like right now itās emptying out because no matter if you like the asthetic or the amazing racials you donāt have enough people to play with. If factions sorta merge you could play that di dwarf racial with any horde members. If you like the look of castles over huts you could play your alliance toon with any horde people. It would 100% increase or at least stop the decline of alliance.
That being said the nostalgia in me doesnāt want it lolā¦
Was wondering what happened
Then I read this. I donāt have many steam friends but man 100% of them are playing that every single day lolā¦ Iām resisting because Iām a rebel without a cause. Instead Iām just leveling in classic for tbc lol