RTS Horde > MMO Horde

[Zuleika-hyjal (Zuleika)]

@Solarion-wyrmrest-accord

they wanted the Scourge to be a playable faction in the next installment of the game.

That was almost certainly during the time when they were envisioning the Horde as the playable evil faction (like in WC1-2). See this post for a fuller account from one of the devs of how their ideas about the Horde and the Forsaken changed during the development process:

@Zuleika-hyjal

Early on, the Horde was definitely considered the “evil” faction. The Forsaken were going to be the undead player race (they weren’t called Forsaken yet). Possibly even part of the Scourge. Metzen was still writing WCIII at the time and nothing was solid yet. Once WCIII was done it was obvious that players couldn’t be Scourge, what with being minions of the Lich King and all.