I remember the night of January 15, 2007.
I stood outside a game store in the bitter cold anxiously awaiting the doors opening so we could get our hands on a shiny new copy of the
freshly launched Burning Crusade.
There were probably thirty people there, and of course the conversation was all about
World of Warcraft.
The air was tense between proud members of the
Alliance and the Horde. Most players
identify strongly with one faction or the other.
It was strange to me how the faction rivalry crossed over into the real world.
I play Horde. I've been known to wear a t-shirt that says "Real Women Roll Horde." I've tried playing Alliance characters, and it just doesn't work for me. My real-world friends who play WoW also play on Horde side. I gravitate toward fellow followers of Thrall. Recently I've started a new job where a number of people play the game. Much to my surprise, I've found some Ally players that I actually like.
There seem to be a lot of stereotypes of players on either faction: Allies are kiddies and goody-goodies; Hordies are bloodthirsty, basement-dwelling jerks who don't even play nicely with each other. If I come across someone who seems like a total stooge, the thought, "That guy probably rolls Alliance." crosses my mind. I've discovered that these are merely overgeneralizations and there are great players and great people on both sides. Maybe I won't pick fights with chicks who play gnome when Wrath of the Lich King is released.
What's your experience with faction rivalry beyond Azeroth?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
3-15-2008 @ 8:08AM
Heilig said...
I think you can draw certain conclusions from the fact that the overwhelming majority of PvP servers are horde-dominant, while the PvE servers are owned by alliance.
I'm really not sure what that conclusion is, but the numbers are there.
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3-15-2008 @ 8:25AM
Matthew Rossi said...
Tauren are the best looking race in the game: all their warriors look awesome, druid gear and druid forms look best on them, and their shamans and hunters make that mail look reasonable. Even the giant eyeball shoulders.
So for me, it's basically Tauren, then Alliance, then the rest of the Horde.
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3-16-2008 @ 10:39AM
Skurd'jin said...
I've seen alot more alliance players doing /rude, /spit, etc. at me than I see horde doing that when i play alliance. One of the reasons i went horde is for nicer players who are more mature (this is just averaging the players i know there are plenty of nice guys who roll alliance).
also on a side-note I think trolls are the coolest race, not tauren =P
FOR THE HORDE
-Skurd'jin
3-15-2008 @ 8:31AM
skalgrim said...
Anyone who takes this game and the views held within it into real life has serious issues. I play Dwarves and Gnomes. I do this because of how they look, I enjoy it. I gravitate away from horde as I hate the way they *all* look (taurans and trolls - bare feet, orcs = hunchbacks, undead = armour looks crap on them). I hate how humans are muscle bound freaks and NEs and BEs? well, never, ever.
And I'd certainly never draw any conclusions about anyone I met in RL that played a certain race, faction or class.
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3-15-2008 @ 8:35AM
Kaphik said...
When i first started playing WoW over two years ago, I chose Horde because I wanted to be the bad guy. Little did I know that there was no "bad guy" side, per se, in the game. Still I've found those who mainly play Horde have a different mindset than Alliance players.
I remember being at Blizzcon, and standing outside the doors that opening morning. Looking at the shirts, hats, costumes, whatever people were wearing, there seemed to be about an even number of Alliance and Horde players. Suddenyl a couple of people shouted out "For the Alliance!" Immediately, a much, much larger number of people shouted "For the Horde!" and continued shouting it. Horde seem to be more boisterous, louder, you know when someone we're in the room.
In PvP, from what I have seen (and only playing Alliance pvp from 10-19), it seems that Horde are more willing to stick together. If one player is being attacked by Alliance, most Horde will stop and fight. Even if it isn't the smartest thing to do. I see a lot more Alliance players run past their teamates in distress. I'm not saying Alliance doesn't work together, I've seen that many many times, just looks to me like Horde does it more.
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3-15-2008 @ 8:36AM
vildand said...
I've played both because the rl friends I was playing with decided to go alliance somewhere around the TBC launch. So maybe that is why I don't have much faction pride.
I'm tied to races instead, I help out the alliance races I like and shun the ones I don't. Which for example means I refuse to group with elves, that aren't in my guild, which does cause some drama when you're the tank. :p
The same thing is true for horde where I usually emote away with tauren and trolls but go out of my way to make life misserable for bloodelves and undeads.
I guess it's not a very nice thing to do but it's a rp-pvp server and I'm a little dwarven racist!
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3-15-2008 @ 8:36AM
Kaphik said...
Edit: Second, paragraph, last sented SHOULD read "Horde seem to be more boisterous, louder, you know when we're in the room."
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3-15-2008 @ 8:42AM
Seamus said...
Horde sucks.
3-15-2008 @ 8:41AM
Nati said...
Faction rivalry is ridiculous. Both sides have the exact same types of players.
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3-15-2008 @ 8:51AM
BitterCupOJoe said...
Agree with Nati. Faction rivalry is as stupid as those guys that paint their faces at football matches. It's just another idiotic form of tribalism. Whichever side I'm on, I'll try to beat the other side, if on a PvP server or BG. Other than that, I don't care if someone plays Alliance or Horde. It's just a game.
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3-15-2008 @ 8:54AM
Terrant said...
I think it's cool if people feel an attachment to one side or the other -but I don't! For $15 a month, I'm squeezing every bit of entertainment I can out of the game, and that includes seeing both side's quests, thank you very much. :)
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3-15-2008 @ 10:44AM
Juliah said...
Mostly agreed, Terrant. I'm here to play all the content. Frankly, I think it's a bit silly to make sweeping generalizations about one side or another, given that this game is so huge. There are far too many players of both faction to say "Horde players do this/act like this," or "Alliance players do that/act like that." I guess it's all right if it's playful ribbing, but that's as far as it should go. Any real aspersions or negative judgments about someone based on an in-game faction are ludicrous.
3-15-2008 @ 2:48PM
PropagandaPanda said...
Same, I play both factions. SO not sure what conclusions you can draw from that.
3-17-2008 @ 10:30AM
Calybos said...
EXACTLY. I have characters of all classes and all races, so I can see all areas and quests in the game. I can't imagine, even on the RP servers, taking "faction" so seriously as to deprive myself of some game content.
3-15-2008 @ 9:30AM
Tenchan said...
Faction pride is cool. Faction hostility is not.
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3-15-2008 @ 9:51AM
Jane Gray said...
Lol yeah on the racism... I love that I can give people crap for going Scryer and becoming "filthy elf sympathizers". Fortuneately everyone ASSUMES I mean filthy blood elves... not so. All elves are inherently freaky. Stupid nelfs with the jumping and the ears are just as bad.
I have noticed that blood elves are the only ones who like to wreck a good losing premade AB naked dance party.
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3-15-2008 @ 10:09AM
Scrooge said...
I don't know what it is, but I only have dwarves and gnomes. I think part of it is I love the snow in the beginning and the only capital city that I like is IF. I don't mind SW, but I can't stand all the others. My brother and friends give me a hard time about it, and some think I'm weird. Lots of people think I'm weird though because all my characters are named after characters of Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol."
But as far as horde goes I just never have been compelled to roll one. My brother badgers me all the time, but I have yet to roll horde. I don't have a prob with them though. I actually had a horde rogue save my dwarf life one day. I'd aggroed a huge mob, blown all my mana, and was going to die on the last guy (that really hacks me off by-the-way). Suddenly the rogue appears and kills the last guy, saving my butt. It was the first time in the game where I wished I could communicate across factions other then the emotion deals.
Oh well to each his own.
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3-15-2008 @ 10:18AM
Zeldaguard said...
My main is a tauren, so I tend to roll horde more often. However, when my friend rolled a gnome lock and I laughed at him, he told me I was racist...so now I don't hate gnomes as much. Night elves are a different story.
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3-15-2008 @ 10:22AM
TomWolf said...
I like faction rivalry. I think that if you play Horde you should hate, or strongly dislike, the alliance and its races. When you roll a Human you should fight undead with bloodthirst. Atleast when it comes to rp and rp-pvp servers.
That aside, it's your character that does the hating of other characters. You, as a player, should be aware that the other players are often enough nice people, no matter what class, race or faction they choose to play.
I have friends on both side of the faction limit and I play on a rp-pvp server. Those I know who are Horde I mostly fight fiercly when we meet except in some cases where we have a roleplaying reason to not attack eachother. One player I know have one troll character that are like a brother to my dwarf while he has a tauren who rips my dwarf a new one when they meet.
The only *players* that are deserving of some dislike are those that exploit bugs in battleground, whiners who cry "we are gonna loose again!" 5 seconds into the battle and blood elves. (last one was a joke for those that didn't get it right away)
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3-15-2008 @ 10:42AM
Dahk said...
Yea, I moved to a new city last fall to go to school at a university. After trying for a while to find some other fellow WoW players, I kinda gave up, but not because I couldn't find any. My problem is that I play Horde, but everyone here (Boulder, Co) that I've met is full out Alliance.
I even had one experience where a guy saw me on my laptop looking at WoW stuff and tried to recruit me into his guild. He looked over my armory and we chatted about what my experience was, what I knew about my class etc. Later on I found out he thought I had a human mage, but was mistaken since I have a Blood Elf.
Regardless I'm still For the Horde!
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