To add to this thought, I would add that the in-game community system is half-baked.
What really needs to to happen is that a new cross-faction, cross-realm, account-wide guild system needs to replace communities, and have them function like Discord servers, where you can join multiple communities.
I should be able to join my account to a game community, have it function as a guild, and be able to join others as well.
Now, I realize there are several large technical jumps here, and that it’s not trivial. This is where we need to be headed, though. This would solve a lot of problems we have right now with declining communities.
Except we’ve seen normal /ginvite function? We’ve seen normal /trade function? We’ve seen normal queuing function? We have seen the ability to heal cross-faction? We have seen the ability to have cross-faction passengers?
What stopped Blizzard Developers from adding that then? All the mentioned have worked without issues in testing environments?
I’m not going to complain, because this is obviously just one step toward this process being fully complete and seamless. There are a few very GLARING concerns that remain here, however, and I am going to identify them for you.
Ideally, you will reach a point where the guild affiliation can either be selected by the Guild Leader and/or permit an option in which the guild is not affiliated with EITHER FACTION. I understand that this is probably complicated to untangle on the engineering / programming side, but this would absolutely be a more seamless method of integration, and should absolutely be the design goal / objective moving forward.
The restriction that players MUST BE in a Battle.net Community or already be Battle.net friends seems draconian and like a step backward from the originally expressed spirit of this system. I want to be able to target any player character in the game and /ginvite them. You already let us mail anyone. If this is an engineering / code thing, that’s fine … but you urgently need to fix this to create a comprehensive and “feature complete” deployment of this system.
I have still not seen any clarification what-so-ever on whether or not guild members will be able to queue for content like Random Dungeons, Random Battlegrounds, LFR, Timewalking Dungeons, etc. I am HOPING AND PRAYING that this restriction has been LIFTED with the release of cross-faction guilds, as there would be nothing in the game so disappointing as being UNABLE to queue for content with your guildmates. I understand there are probably, once again, some technical issues to smooth out here … but if this is not already part of the feature package / plan, it needs to be URGENTLY remedied to make this feel good for players.
You seriously need to just drop the communal play restriction outside of instances. I totally understand keeping it in place for WAR MODE, specifically, but for non-war mode situations, you should be able to form cross faction groups and complete content normally, even if they are NOT guildmates. This is the tonal direction of the narrative of the expansion and this is frankly what most of us WANT. What happens next expansion when these cross-faction guilds CANNOT QUEST and CANNOT LEVEL with their guildmates? That one has GOT to be fixed for this to work properly.
The next step should be implementing a system whereby any player character can undergo a series of quests to either JOIN THE OPPOSITE FACTION formally / fully / completely or, as an even better option, have the ability to ABSTAIN from joining the Horde or Alliance entirely. I also think that if “Faction Aligned” guilds remain a thing that the MEMBERS of that guild should be ALLOWED ACCESS to the guild’s home / parent cities provided that they are not in War Mode. If I have Humans and Dwarves running around under my HORDE banner, they should be allowed in Orgrimmar, etc.
/ginvite and other guild/group functions have worked in a testing environment without issue, so them demanding Battle.net, and remove the actual part of cooperation for anyone but organized content, makes no sense at all to me.
Will the in game guild finder be able to be used for Cross Faction invites? Having to be Bnet Friends or part of the same community is going to create a logistics nightmare for guild officers.
Amazingly put. I do hope that this is the future for WoW, especially those of us who aren’t keen on the faction wars.
As for those who are, I believe you should be able to opt into a Horde/Alliance Loyalist system that would let you keep things as seperated as you want them. But I assume doing that much rewriting and editing would be a long time out.
The day of it limiting players has come and gone. And keep in mind this is coming from someone who was totally on your side, then that first week of cross faction I ran into people I hadn’t played with in over a decade. JUST RANDOMLY!
That isn’t to say I think the faction war needs to end and everyone makes friends. The faction war should stay, but it should be a cold war with story driven flare ups. If anything this makes the story better… potentially. glares at Blizzard writers
Gotta build hype somehow for a dying game. They at least held on to some folks with the hope of change. And it’s coming.
Just be glad they’re trying to give a crap. The alternative would’ve been waiting two expansions for something assuming the whole fiasco didn’t happen in the first place.
The 10.1 integration is a start, but there are ABSOLUTELY a ton of things that need to be done in addition and this post identifies the biggest ones. +1.
While I understand why we are pushing cross-faction guilds, the implementation is awkward and is going to cause issues as players will assume that being in guild will allow cross-communication no matter the content.
That said, I have always felt that when the time comes and Blizzard removes the faction divide, this should be something that is earned through lore - something players “unlock” as part of the story we experience. And by “unlock” I mean Patch x.x has the narrative quest chain that resolves the role of the player character in relationship to the factions and at some later point cross-faction communication opens up across the board - so players invested in lore get the payout for playing through the explanation, but those who are just in WoW for the mechanical parts can still get the functionality.
As far as the conceit, it’s simple enough to satisfy all parties. The factions themselves may still have issues with one another, but the player’s character has always been tangential. Even when we have served in our faction’s military, we are rarely, if ever, included in all the military decision making. We have always been the “contractor” brought in to augment the army regulars (except within the conceit of pvp). As an outsider, this gives us latitude to be able to reach across the divide, much like most third party organizations. The player’s guild is then akin to the Argent Crusade, The Cenarion Circle, The Earthen Ring, the various pirate organizations, etc.
This allows the players to choose to be cross faction (or faction only) and engage with the game in a narrative that works for them, while allowing the main factions to maintain their tensions as the NPCs do their own thing. This also allows Blizzard to customize the warmode experience - allowing players to see more of the tension, and play that tension, while allowing pve players who are not as interested in the conflict see more of the mutual-if-not-occassionally-reluctant cooperation.