The Faction War works fine when it was in the single player games WC 1-3. It failed miserably the two times they tried it in WoW. A third time is not going to be the charm.
It’s stupid that people think blizz will somehow miraculously get it right the third, fourth or hundredth time when they can’t even coherently write a conflict that anyone cares about.
I personally don’t want them ever trying again. War in WoW can still exist in a meaningful way beyond the stupid Zug Zug me smash alliance because they MIGHT do something later on
But seriously, I do hope that we get a cosmic effort spearheaded by the Horde and maybe a little less of the the faction appearing as a wet dishrag dragging behind the plot.
What’s “stupid” to think is that because it hasn’t been done right in the past, that it can never be done right.
There is no logical basis for the idea that this is something that can not be done. Turning this franchise into Peacecraft isn’t the answer to it’s problems… it’s the nail in the game’s coffin.
To tell you the truth, I actually think that we are finally starting on that very goal… and the beginning of this process is Bel’sameth itself. It starts with the little things such as the minor snubs thrown at the Horde Champions who saved the tree.
I have returned. But before we get down to business, some things to address. My next post after this will be the unnecessarily long, extra-wordy proper response. But things have been said, and things much be addressed.
Anya, what have I told you about hiding in my closet to spy on me? It’s too cramped in there, and you’re gonna pull a muscle!!
It is very true, I am very punny. Puns for nights. Puns for days too. I am, as you stated, full of punniness.
Now stop me if you’ve ever heard this one before, but…
Insanity is repeating the same thing over and again, and expecting different results.
Something has been done, over and again. Expecting a different result the third time seems pretty insane.
Horde Champions have been “snubbed” by Alliance NPCs since Legion
Again, until FLAWS are assigned to and centered and expanded upon the Alliance as a whole faction and for each race therein, ALL faction conflict WILL ALWAYS BE “Horde Villain Bat”
And the faction war sucks and can’t be done right because NOBODY IS ALLOWED TO ACTUALLY WIN and we have to revert back to the status quo.
This fact alone is why it will forever fail as a main story beat. Simple as that. It ONLY works in the vaguest most obscure manner to justify PvP and the battlegrounds.
The games design of a two faction system alone sets up a faction war narrative for complete failure. You can’t have one side win and the other faction loose.
Has it passed that need though? From a outside/meta perspective with what we’re given in game and its all dont touch this ever again with an 11 1/2 foot pole. However how actual coalition/faction rivalries happen they continue to wax and wane at various levels of cooperation and antagonism.
We’re 20 years out from Classic, 24 from WC3, and hardly 30 from WC1, its been hardly more than a generation since Azeroth has been more or less turned upside down by the Horde. The level of absolute destruction that has occurred, the loss of life, culture, and land, we should just barely be starting to normalize relations. That animosity towards each other, if we were in just a slightly more realistic setting, runs deep. We have characters with “normal” lifespans that remember all that, that participated in all of that.
Part of my own aversion to removing the animosity is that instead of grappling with the consequences of their own narrative actions they did a 180 and pretended they never happened. Few humans, even if they are from a younger generation and want to ‘break the cycle of hatred’ from the older generation can look to the 4th War and go ‘should we really trust them?’ By all accounts the Alliance shouldn’t trust the Horde, and that mistrust should then play on the Horde’s apprehension and guilt. The Horde knows they’ve been in the wrong, they know the atrocities they’ve been complicit in. That should build the animosity, they should hear all the Night Elf calls for vengeance and go, ‘okay, double the troop presence and patrols at the Barrens, Valley of Spirits, and Azshara.’ They should see Trollbane and go ‘The Revantusk might be in danger. Not to mention the Darkspear and Zandalari if this xenophobic dynasty gets the kingdom up and running again.’
None of this has to be ‘lets gear up for a 5th war’ but rather we can’t trust each other outside of existential, world ending, crisis. Even that is only at the top level of leadership. The Warlord in the Barrens who sees Theramore Remnants still occupying Northwatch has a very different perspective on what matters and wants to ensure they stay hemmed in there.
The whole appeal of the Horde to me was that they were enemies of the Alliance. I love orcs being a legion of conquerors and the forsaken being scourge 2.0. Any narrative that tries to defang them for the sake of faction unity or “the greater good” of Azeroth is a failure in my book, and is why the current setting doesn’t appeal to me at all.
We definitely are passed the point of “we need them” from either side to address threats that come to them. Everyone should be helping each other because the people we find wherever it is we end up going are trying to help. If we find a base of Horde members trying to stop some force from corrupting Azeroth that is not a moment to stop and wonder “Why should I help?” it’s a moment of joining. The exact opposite of Varian in the Ulduar introductory cinematic who just walks away from the threat of an Old God to rather nurse his anger at the Horde.
This is an easy one. Because the Night Elves know how much of a threat the Void can be. The Night Elves had been dealing with the Nightmare forever, and in BfA we found out that it’s not just the fleshy Old God variety of the Void that wants to corrupt the Emerald Dream, but the shadow based ethereal Void that is the Old Gods’ source itself that wants to as well. If the Blood Elves are fighting off the Void, that alone is reason for the Night Elves to help them.
If only Blizzard was capable of applying that logic to the Amani, who BECAME the Amani after CHASING DOWN AND DEFEATING A CTHRAXXI REVIVED BY XALATATH THAT HAD PREVIOUSLY COST TYR HIS HAND, whose capital is built over the defeated remains of such.
I will say the faction conflict is a lot more fun when it’s goofy and not warcrimes for breakfast.
And even if Bliz was inhabited purely by the finest moralists ever to grace this green earth, an MMO would probably not be a great vector for a nuanced, realistic story about war. My main evidence is that every time someone tries to write subtle, delicate stories where both sides are sympathetic and relatable (and their pain is worth empathizing with), it may as well be written as a score for kazoo and airhorn.