What does Wyrmrest Accord think of BFA?

This argument seems to be based on the assumption that it is not just being active in and of itself that makes a story valuable, but that getting to be more active than somebody else inherently makes it more valuable. I disagree with that premise.

Both faction stories should be active and coherent. Making the Alliance’s story more active and coherent is something that Blizzard should do. Making the Horde’s story less active and coherent at the same time, however, does not make the situation better for anyone.

If Blizzard is not capable of making two faction stories active and coherent at the same time, then they should not be writing a two faction game.

Here’s a more difficult question.

Say that’s not possible. Say that Blizzard is incapable of focusing on both factions at once. What should we do, then?

it was legit just another way of saying decency
Nice try attempting to imply something pretty negative, though

But they aren’t capable of that and they are writing a two faction game. So, where do we go from there?

I see no reason to even consider that hypothetical. Blizzard obviously has the resources and capability to do this; they lack the inclination. And they should be held to account and criticized for this failure.

My point is it’s important to push them to be mindful of the balance in their use of resources when designing content for the two factions. Trying to push them to neglect the Horde in the Alliance’s favor would be wasted effort, and would not improve the health of the game if they actually went and did it.

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Nobody should make that call, unless it’s asking horde players to join the alliance

:ok_hand:

But given the fact that the Alliance is not given the same care and attention that the Horde are, wouldn’t any solution, be it giving the Alliance more attention or taking it away from the Horde, be seen as anti-Horde?

Regardless of how you do it, the end result is still that the Horde will receive less attention.

If they are incapable of fairly writing a two-faction story, but insist on writing a two-faction story anyway, then probably the only thing we can do that would have any effect would be to stop paying them. They seem to be more inclined to lie about what they’re doing, and/or insist that we’re taking it the wrong way, than they are to make meaningful changes in response to criticism. To my knowledge, criticizing the story and not paying for the story are the only forms of protest available to players, and if the first doesn’t work then it leaves only the second.

None of this is wrong but at the same time yes, we know Blizzard can’t juggle both. We know Blizzard can’t give a meaningful, satisfying story to both. They should be criticized at every turn they fail to do so.

But why is it only the Horde that gets to benefit from their single-minded focus? That is what Enekie is asking.

Mm. I concur. Yet, none of us are doing that, so here we are.

There’s no problem with the Horde receiving less attention per se, so long as the attention is balanced. I think the issue is a lack of will to treat both factions with equal interest; Horde bias exists within that and would be addressed best by addressing the overall problem.

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Precisely. Thank you.

Yes, but to restore balance, the Horde is going to have to receive less.

If the Horde is currently getting 90% of the attention and the Alliance 10%, then there will have to be a point where the Alliance receives 90% of the attention or the Horde continues to give up 40%. Either way, the Horde has to give up some things.

Do we know that?

It can be done. It’s been done in other games. It was done up through Wrath in this game. Blizzard has the resources and the talent. The problem is that they won’t, not that they can’t, and that distinction is all-important. Saying they can’t pull off a well-written, balanced game is giving them license not to try.

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I’ve been considering at what point I’m going to unsubscribe. At this point in my thinking, there are a handful of directions that the story might go which would lead me to cancel my subscription before BfA is over – short of those, if the next expansion doesn’t turn out significantly better, I’ll likely decide to take my sub money elsewhere.

Sure, that was my point.

What really matters here is not specifically that the Horde gets more focus but that the developers aren’t really trying to divide their focus equally. If they were to rectify that failure, then it inherently doesn’t matter which side they favor. The problem is not their love for the Horde but their inability to keep it out of doing their dang jobs.

Let’s assume that’s true, that they can juggle both and simply don’t. If the end result is one side getting most of the attention and the decent writing, then what does that distinction really matter? Players have been criticizing Blizzard’s writing and weird takes for more than a decade and it hasn’t had any lasting effect; why would it start now?

restore balance by dismantling both factions at the end of BfA :+1:

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Maybe it won’t help.

A point comes where we all have to consider the utility of anything we’re doing here. Is it worth continuing to subscribe? Is it worth continuing to criticize? For me, personally, the answer to both of those questions is yes. I reserve the right to change my mind and I wouldn’t make that choice for anyone else.

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There can only be one true faction

Gnomes

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