I have little faith that Metzen in particular will change anything on this front.
But I guess we’ll have to wait and see. As I said, I feel like the ship has unfortunately long since sailed on this one.
But I’m always willing to have my skepticism proven wrong by Blizzard.
Blizzard did have an idea that they did not follow through with:
ah yes, from before they divided Ardenweald off and made it something totally different. Perhaps it is for the bast they did not make the former nightwarrior a member of the shiny blue human memory cult.
Particularly given there are rumblings that the aborted Drust content was going to be that the Night Warrior was actually all evil Drust magic and was not tied to Elune at all.
We already covered this in the thread you pulled all this from:
Sylvanas shows up
“Did you not notice Ardenweald characters were here? The Shadowlands was connected to the dream. So surprise b@!# I’m back. Now burn it.”
Is there any evidence for this being a plan though or is it just “I heard from someone else who heard”
So Blizzard makes NE lore part of an entire patch. And you also want them to restrict Horde players playing in it?
You can have it be only some Alliance only side questline (which would have been complained about). Or it can be part of the central plot both sides play. (Which is being complained about)
Ok, here is a thought. Maybe, just maybe, bel’ameth is allowed for horde players during dragonflight by 11.0 they get their boot as bel’ameth is stablished as Alliance territory.
I’m fine either way tbh.
In future content, either Bel’amath is Alliance only (likely) or Blizzard starts making everything neutral (not likely).
I think maybe what they do here is how they are going to handle Silvermoon in Midnight.
I think people are only complaining about the horde being allowed in bel’ameth is because for a lot of people it feels like it’s too soon
It’s my guess anyway
But the issue remains. You can’t make it the plot of an entire patch with out both sides playing it. If it is “too soon”, I guess you could have waited to do it. But then there would have been claims that Blizzard won’t do anything at all. (And, IMO, there would have been a chance of some new writers coming in and deciding not to bother with some old issue and going on to their new cool stuff instead.
It was nearly 6 years ago both in the lore and in real life.
How ‘soon’ is ‘too soon?’ lol.
You guys are entertaining (and championing) the idea of having all racial capitals go neutral when most fanbases never even got to truly connect to THEIR city and see THEIR racial narratives advanced there, simply because most of these racial capitals have been left strictly untouched ever since the expansion they were introduced in ended.
This is pure nonsense. One has to be blind not to realize that making generalized neutrality the new standard going forward is a terrible idea. Depending on the race we play, we don’t care about the same things. We don’t care about the same story and worldbuilding beats, we likely don’t want to interact with the same characters, aren’t into the same aspects of the setting, the same places, the same aesthetics. That’s the reason why giving a differentiated questing and narrative experience to players depending on the faction (as had been the case from Vanilla to WoD) is the right thing to do : that way it’s just more likely for every fanbase to get a little something to chew on.
They stopped doing this starting from Legion, and as a Horde fan, it’s been… a frustrating ride. Cuz yeah, “neutrality” hits different whether you’re an Alliance/Elf player or not. “Neutral stuff” will always tend to mean “Alliance/Elf-driven stuff”, for reasons tied to the foundations of the setting.
f neutral all day every day
Just saying it’s how some people feel. Stupid or not, people feel how they feel 
Alliance players able to walk through places like Thunder Bluff doesn’t mean that Tauren will never be the focus of their own narrative.
Like, I don’t get why so many people see the faction system as ‘narrative training wheels’ for Blizzard to write about things other than Elves, Humans, or Orcs… The faction system existing doesn’t stop them from doing that anyway, getting rid of it isn’t going to change how Blizzard envisions the story.
I’m sorry to say, but whether Alliance characters can walk through Horde cities and vice versa or not, Blizz probably wasn’t going to write anything substantial about the Darkspear Trolls anyway.
I know, I’m just trying to understand why people feel that it’s ‘too soon’ when it’s been nearly 6 years both IC and OOC.
I don’t think you specifically feel that.
Blizzard would only turn a city into a neutral hub if they come up with a neutral storyline tied to said city. That’s literally what just happened with Bel’Ameth.
Okay? First of all, you don’t know that. Blizz could just turn every city freeroam for both factions because the Horde and Alliance ‘become allies.’ Second of all, even if the narrative did begin to focus on a city like… say… Thunder Bluff so that it becomes neutral… don’t you think that’d mean the narrative would center around the Tauren?
I’d say likely every city except Stormwind and Orgrimmar are on the table to be made neutral. The major faction city likely is safe from it.
I don’t think capitals will, or probably should, go neutral. We are engaging in sheer speculation with little to actually go on.
The idea that Bel’amath being neutral is future content is, IMO, similarly unlikely and probably undesirable. it just that if they did it. I could also be a way for them to handle Silvermoon (and what might be a series of expansions centered on different zones as part of revamping them).
As far as “zones” go. I guess the same it true, though I am much more open to the idea. It is “interesting”.
But like kohnilla is saying, as a worgen player I don’t want the forsaken walking through gilneas, just like I’m not interested in walking through any horde city. And I enjoy the horde, but if I want to walk through a horde city, I’ll roll a horde character
Let people enjoy their racial capitals in peace.