Is the Alliance ever going to get a payback for War of Thorns?

[Dawnsong-tichondrius (Dawnsong)]

Alliance won’t get a payback for War of Thorns because they’re already having it in Battle of Dazar’alor according to their interview in November. It’s not same but that’s what they said and there seems to be a huge disconnect between Blizz and what players sees.

I think Jellex deconstructed where the disconnect is perfectly. (I love you for this post!)

@Dawnsong-tichondrius

There is a conscious effort to balance “bad” events for factions in WoW’s storytelling. Battle of Dazar’alor is the “response” to Burning of Teldrassil when it comes to the balance of power between the factions.

@Jellex-wyrmrest-accord

Here’s where I suspect the disconnect is. Their view is like this:

1. Burning of Teldrassil happened. Major “bad thing” for the Alliance.
2. Siege of Lordaeron is a break-even, maybe slightly for the Alliance, maybe not, but no real winners.
3. Burning of Dazar’alor counteracts event 1, bringing things back to parity.

But we, the players, experienced something a little different:

1. Burning of Teldrassil happened. This is still unquestionably a major dump on the Alliance, but the Horde begins to fracture over the bluntness of Sylvanas’ villainization.
2. Siege of Lordaeron is a break-even as far as the military tally goes, but is still stuffed chock-full of ‘Horde tension’ themes, including Anduin’s “She’s blighting her own troops” and Saurfang’s decision to try and suicide by Alliance.
3. Horde and Alliance players quest from 100 to 110 in the new zones. Alliance players experience themes of renewal, empowerment, reconciliation, and redemption, while Horde players experience decay, defeat, fracture and frustration.
4. Horde and Alliance players partake in their respective War Campaigns. Alliance War Campaign has them strike at a number of Horde assets (even if some of them don’t exist for the Horde, the spymaster and the Golden Fleet are big ones). The Horde War Campaign is a muddled mess that involves raising a few undead and hunting for a corpse of questionable value, which is discarded at the end of the campaign (Valentine) and a random artifact which is given scant explanation (Tide Scepter).
5. The Battle of Dazar’alor occurs. The Horde suffers a defeat here while the Alliance claims a victory, a fact noted by NPCs of both sides.
6. The War Campaign continues in 8.1. The Horde’s efforts of the previous patch are almost entirely invalidated with the theft of the Tide Scepter, and all that remains is Derek Proudmoore’s corpse, which is used only to further Sylvanas villainization and Horde disunity themes. The Alliance opens up a new front of questionable value in Darkshore, and Tyrande gains a power-up of questionable value. The Horde raises Night Elves. Nobody seems particularly happy with the course of these events.
7. Horde disunity continues with the Saurfang saga. Horde players are being asked to explicitly pick a side, cementing and canonizing the divide in the playerbase.

To conclude, they seem to be ONLY looking at the score in terms of major story event tallies, which is why they’ve concluded that Dazar’alor restores things to even. Players, however, have been experiencing the story not just through these major events, but through gameplay as well, which is why I think it is possible for them to both think that things are “even” while at the same time the Horde can feel like they’ve been kicked into the mud with 8.1.