I think that a great way to fix the faction imbalance while still keeping the faction split would be the ability to make your guild Neutral. Meaning you could recruit from both factions allowing you to group with opposite faction members for PvE content if they are in the same guild as you (and War Mode is off ofc). This way people can play the faction they want without feeling like they’re being separated from their guildies.
Of course there would have to be an incentive not to choose this option and remain a “Loyalist Guild”. Something simple like increased Honor/Conquest gain while in a guild group since the people who will be least interested in this will probably be the PvP guilds.
Thoughts?
EDIT: Didn’t think I would have to spell this out. The reason I think there should be an incentive to remain a Loyalist guild is because becoming a Neutral guild and being able to expand your recruitment pool to the other faction is extremely big incentive in and of itself.
In other words if there was no incentive to remain loyalist then there’d be literally no reason not to become a Neutral guild.
If there was an alliance, neutral, and horde then arent you creating a pseudo 3rd faction that would split the player base more since purists would not join a neutral party, thus creating less opportunities for horde/alliance to recruit from the player base.
Why not just allow cross faction gameplay, so it doesn’t limit peoples choices.
It wouldn’t be a third faction. Orcs aren’t going to suddenly be hanging out in Stormwind. You’d just be able to group with guildies on the other side. Literally nothing else would change.
That’s literally what I said lol, which would just divide the player base even more. You’re incentivizing staying loyal, people would choose that and not cross group.
I think you have to either allow complete cross faction gameplay, or don’t. Trying to find an in between just creates even more weird imbalances.
I really don’t get you’re point of view here.
Why couldn’t a purist pug join a neutral group? How would this divide anyone?
Try spelling it out with a hypothetical scenario because I don’t think you can and you’re just jockeying for removing the factions over trying to preserve the identity of the game.
You said you wanted peoples thoughts and I gave you my thoughts. Now you’re accusing me of something I never did. I don’t want the removal of factions, nor do I want the game to allow it and for people to be incentivized to stay loyal.
Don’t ask for discussion if you’re going to throw a fit and accuse people of things.
This question is only looking at the scenario one way. By his suggestion, people in a “neutral” guild would not be limited to only joining “neutral” groups; they would still be part of their faction and be able to join pure faction groups if they wished.
Then why reward people for staying loyal? Which was my point. People are going to take the easiest route, more rewards = easiest way. Now I feel shoe horned into staying loyal to be more efficient in earning currencies in game. This would create a divide for me because people who don’t care can go be neutral where I would be stuck staying “loyal” for rewards. This essentially creates pseudo factions. Pseudo doesn’t mean it’s a physical thing, it’s just how it would feel to certain players. If you’re going to allow cross faction cooperation you may as well allow it to be free reign with no rewards tied to the gameplay. I do not think that would be healthy for the game either, but I think it’s worse to try and bandaid it.
They asked for thoughts, I gave my thoughts. I don’t see how this is seen as anything else.
Neutral guilds are for PvE players because they’ll have a larger pool of raiders to recruit from. Loyalist guilds are for PvP players since faction purists and PvPers go hand in hand. This isn’t supposed to be a head scratcher.
If they did that then what would be the point of staying loyal? It’s the problem Chaotic is talking about except it’d be an actual problem.
Being able to recruit from the other faction IS the incentive to go neutral.
Also in WoD faction balance was okay since alliance had very strong pvp racials. Which then got nerfed to the ground, along with the trinket changes which even further divided it. It would slowly fix itself with the improvement of alliance racials for raiding and pvp imo. It’s this way for m+ already, and people tend to copy the high end. I remember I swapped horde years ago because a yt I watch they did as well.
Can somebody explain what needs to be fixed in the first place? Anybody who wants to PvP, raid, or run with a M+ team can do it readily on either faction.
There is a huge imbalance for alliance players, it is much harder to fill guilds. This can be seen by the fact they barely filled in their hall of fame for N’zoth. (It might not have even been done.)
How does it divide them more? We work together in every expansion. It wouldn’t be any different. Horde are Horde, Alliance are Alliance, can’t do quests in each others’ zones or go to each others’ cities, they just work together.
Cross faction groups and guilds wouldn’t divide anything. They’d give people a larger pool of people.
I don’t agree with this whole “incentives” thing, though. I think it should just be straight up “you can group and guild cross faction, that’s it.”