If even ION admits it, you know it’s a problem. In fact, in another Forbes interview, he admits that the faction imbalance is a serious problem that he claims they are discussing.
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Those games were failing when they added cross faction play and doing so saved those games for a time.
There’s also a big difference between an RTS and a persistent world MMO. In WC 1 and 2 there was clearly a good side and a bad side and each had different motivations. In an MMO the devs can’t really do that and all the faction divide does is divide a dwindling player pool.
I dont think it’s an easy solution though. Racials are currently the most balanced they have been in the history of the game. Giving mechagnomes best in slot racials for 3/4 of the classes for arena and raiding, therefore bringing back racial imbalance seems like a fighting fire with fire idea
It was an easy solution for the horde and you KNOW it would work.
That’s probably what worries you; you would have to face the same things the Alliance currently do.
Mechagnomes will be nerfed three times before they go live.
It would work for all the wrong reasons, people wouldn’t be going alliance because they WANT to (which should be blizzards goal), they’d be going alliance because they felt like they HAD to (which is why i leveled up a human priest to unlock mechagnomes)
I think their welfare epics for Warmode was also a bad idea for the same reason, people just play warmode because they enjoy PvP, thats why rewarding people who turn on warmode, do the quest, and turn it off feels so BACKWARDS instead of rewarding players who play with it on 24/7. The easiest fix would be to bring back pvp servers but then that means theyd have to admit their precious warmode failed by design
53-47 = 6
I’m sorry this just really bugged me for some reason.
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rude…I wasn’t even talking to you I, the person I asked the question of answered me in the affirmative so maybe take up your problem with her.
Yes, thank you.
You are right but wrong. Its more like 100 = 53 + 47. If the horde loses 1% the alliance gains 1% making it 52 - 48, both changed by 1% for that to remain true.
100% agree here. It’s why I think Ion needs to take his guild alliance for an entire expansion just to eat his own dogfood since he has admitted to never playing alliance.
First, warmode is a failure in its current iteration. It’s too easy to turn off and too easy to just opt-out when you start losing. IMO, Warmode should be a commitment. Not a “mode”.
Second, I don’t think the epics for Warmode were a bad idea in concept. Just in implementation. The fact that a guild could faction transfer, get epics, and transfer back in the span of a week or two is the problem. It’s why I feel that any reward tied to faction population balance incentives should be locked to that faction.
The problem isn’t that the devs awarded heroic level gear (I mean, they could farm superior gear in M+ dungeons once the higher-level rewards unlocked globally). The problem is that, again, enjoying the rewards they got for spending time as a part of a faction that needs more players did not require any kind of commitment to that faction.
They got to act like a lush. They just dropped in for the free booze and then left once they got what they wanted while giving nothing back. And that is why the AOO rewards didn’t work.
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It’s honestly kind of amazing how many people will still say things like “Well the horde is just better and cares more about blah blah blah” as if we’re at a point where that’s a relevant argument.
Imagine for a moment the top 50 best players, we’re shrinking numbers down to something reasonable for this thought experiment. There are 13 on one side and 37 on the other. The side with fewer wants to run a Mythic raid, and needs 20 people, but there’s a faction imbalance… The 37 on the other side have enough to run their raid and have backups! If someone needs a night off or there’s an emergency, or they need specific class comps for a fight. The other side doesn’t even have with warm bodies to start.
This is where the problem is. So your options become A: faction change, and now the 12 people remaining have less of a chance and you contribute to the scale tipping or B: you quit because there’s no way to do the content you want to do. Even if you’re the best player in the world. The game needs n+1 players, be it 5 for M+ or 20 for Mythic raids.
And sure, there’s probably another 50 on each faction, but those other 50 might… Be on a different server with no cross-realm mythic, or maybe they’re not geared because they were on a break, or those other 50 are busy PVPing, or it’s a low level alt doing quests they missed in another zone.
One side is losing their warm bodies, and while on paper the populations might look the same, it ignores things like… How I have 2 max level Horde and 5 max level Alliance characters. I can only occupy one at a time, and most are fresh 120 from the anniversary event so they’re not going near raids.
(And before someone goes and complains that I have no right to argue because I haven’t cleared whatever, yeah. I’m only back for the month because the game has nothing to offer me, due to the aforementioned “not enough warm bodies” and my raid group fell apart.)
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Our guild is in the exact same boat, we’re on Emerald Dream too, which is hilarious considering Horde players up above are calling Emerald Dream balanced LOL.
He also admitted at Blizzcon that they will never merge the factions because Alliance vs Horde is the foundation and core of WoW and it’s never going away, period.
I understand that you are saying that in a static 50/50 scenario if 3% of the population decided to switch factions it would result in a 53/47 balance.
This still creates a 6% disparity between the two as a total. Your line of thinking requires the specific static scenario above. What if nobody switched factions at all and the population of the Horde simply increased with new subs? Would you still say there is only a 3% difference in that scenario?
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Ion said 54- 46, which =8
Dude the maximum number of players at all times is 100%.
If horde is 53% of those players and alliance is 47% that means that if the horde were to lose 1% of their players for any reason really both numbers would shift likely resulting in alliance % going up and horde going down.
The maximum number of players is still 100%. If horde goes from 53% to 54% no matter the reason alliance will drop to 46%
This sounds more like an Alliance issue than game imbalance issue issue when i read comments such as ‘even if its 50/50 split 70 percent horde of that 50 play end game and 10% of alliance of their 50 play end game’
I do think the whole no cross server raiding is stupid though they should remove that. Infact they should consider just making dungeons/raids cross faction as well or at least open up raiding after like first month or 100 kills of end boss not the 100 from both sides bs. This would still keep the faction for world content and story
Thanks Ralph, you’ve shown that the imbalance is in a lack of Alliance players willing to take on that content. That’s a participation problem, not an imbalance problem at the faction level.
So…what to do? First, eliminate this issue:
The fix is ludicrously simple, end the cross-server delay. Allow cross server raids at all difficulties and same-faction cross-server guilds for all I care.
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Here’s a question, what happened during wod to legion where alliance was dominating in pvp, had really long bg ques like horde does now and also had a strong pve community.
I wonder what was changed that made everyone move to the horde, and guess what, if that happened once it can happen again if the devs want it the other way around though considering how bad their horde bias is i doubt it.
People didnt wake up one day and all decide to play alliance or horde, there is a reason this happens and devs CONTROL that reason and can change it to have the opposite effect
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Yeah we “worked together” In warcraft 3. I get it I know the lore no need to post it. I’m sure I’ve played a lot longer than you. All I’m saying is that the faction divide is staying because that’s what makes it warcraft :)’
I’m not worried I Know it will never be cross faction but I still want to voice my opinion that it’s a horrible idea 
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