But the Horde and Alliance had the same goal in WoD.
And they will again in Shadowlands.
They’re not. They’re character vs character, character vs supernatural, or
Character vs nature would be like if there was a drought, or a flood, or a storm, and our characters simply had to survive it.
An invasion of monsters, or general plotting with death is not a Characters vs Nature story. These conflicts revolve around the motivations and choices and decisions individual characters make.
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The faction conflict is actually the thing with the least amount of time in wow, the alliance and horde are normally working together to fight a greater evil.
And the Horde and Alliance conflict apparently won’t be a thing in Shadowlands. Thus, no separate stories.
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If that’s how you want to define it, but characters vs. supernatural does not require anyone on the Alliance or Horde to start conflict.
They already said that the alliance and horde are working together under the leadership of bolvar
There was plenty of conflict between the Horde and the Alliance in Legion, and there weren’t separate stories there, either.
The Horde vs the Alliance is the foundation of Warcraft. In Warcraft 3, the big selling point was that you played different campaigns with differing stories.
Yes, in the end they temporarily ally to face an even greater threat, but the idea behind having Alliance and Horde (or Night Elves or Scourge) wasn’t just multiple different ways save the World Tree.
In Vanilla WoW, the Horde vs Alliance conflict is the only overarching threat that persists from beginning to end. You don’t even learn Onyxia, the Old Gods, Hakkar, or any of the other world ending threats are a thing until the end game, but you’re encountering the other faction at much lower levels.
And even when you do face off against the world ending threats, it’s not a case of the Horde and Alliance as a whole coming together. It’s neutral third parties like the Zandalari trolls and individuals working in the shadows that recruit you- the individual adventurer- to resolve the issue.
Expansions since then have kind of waffled. Sometimes the Horde and Alliance armies operate together on the field of battle, sometimes they’re squabbling while the main character does all the work, and sometimes it’s just fractious elements of the Horde and Alliance working together.
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Because it followed the champion, who wasn’t operating as a member of the Horde/Alliance, but as an extension of the neutral class halls. But when they did introduce Horde/Alliance specific content in Stormheim, the stories did diverge.
And it’s no coincidence that Legion story was also the expansion featuring the fewest number of Horde characters in any significant roles.
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Thus no separate stories.
So my point stands, that neither whether the Alliance and Horde have shared goals nor whether or not the Alliance and Horde are in conflict actually is relevant to whether or not the Alliance and Horde get separate and individual stories away from each other.
I’m not making these definitions up.
Just because the Dark Lord, Black Knight, or Demon King is poetically described as a “force of nature” it doesn’t make conflict with them a Man vs Nature story. Because in a Man vs Nature conflict, you can’t win by entering a dungeon and punching the hurricane in the face, after which the hurricane gets a brief monologue.
WoW’s chief antagonists are actual characters. Often times thin ones. But characters nontheless.
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That was the core of my point, not the definitions of terms you used.
They are not.
Then Horde and Alliance only get separate stories when their conflict with one another prevents them from cooperating in pursuit of a common goal.
That’s why they got seperate stories throughout WoD. It’s why they got seperate ones throughout BfA. It’s the sole reason why they got anything different in Legion.
It’s when the Horde and Alliance conflict is not relevant, but the Horde/Alliance character have converging goals, that they’re free to cooperate, and when this happens, they don’t bother with the pretense of separate storylines and just have everyone follow around the same neutral characters. Like much of Legion. Or BfA after the faction war ended.
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Well no, it doesn’t require anyone on the Horde or Alliance side. That’s why I originally said someone.
Someone does have to start the conflict. And unless that someone is going to always some third party, then at some point, that someone is going to have to come from within one of the factions. And so far, when that happens, it’s only been the Horde.
My original quote. In its entirety, for proper context.
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LOL maybe in the case that you pick your faction and thats what team you are on, but when it comes to the story not really lol
This whole thread begs to differ.
The Horde and Alliance conflict was not relevant to Warlords of Draenor. They had a peace treaty, noted even by the Horde player themself, and had the same goal, as you pointed out.
And in the context of your original quote, that someone doesn’t have to be the Night Elves, or anyone in the Alliance or the Horde.
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If that was all, I would trade you in a heartbeat. I frankly don’t give a rats butt about those cut scenes, particularly since the narrative in them is utter rubbish. The only time Saurfang was honest about the Horde as it has been in BfA was when he was telling Anduin it has no honor. That is all blizzard give the Horde about it’s factions identity. Empty words that the story constantly contradicts.
I would be happy enough with that but it is never going to happen regardless what we want. They have outright stated that Shadowlands will be much more neutral in it’s narrative much like Legion. The Covenants will be the factions in Shadowlands.
Last time Blizz released a statistic on it I am pretty sure it was only a couple of percent difference. Doesn’t make it much better regardless.
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