From the first day World of Warcraft became available to play, even pre-launch and into the game’s beta, its Alliance vs. Horde faction war has been core to the MMO’s experience. It’s ingrained in World of Warcraft‘s story as well as gameplay systems. Yet, with each expansion, it’s also something players are increasingly requesting be dismantled. It’s perhaps time to end the faction war. While Blizzard has so far made no such movement, it’s now looking like the possibility is at least being considered.
During the BlizzConline 2021 Q&A panel for World of Warcraft, Game Director Ion Hazzikostas was asked specifically about whether Alliance and Horde will ever be able to raid or do Mythic-difficulty dungeons together. Surprising everyone, Hazzikostas replied, “I honestly would not say never.” It’s the first time that Hazzikostas or any World of Warcraft leadership member has ever made such a claim.
Hazzikostas doesn’t stop there, however. He then provides his thought process regarding the situation, starting by explaining how important it is that World of Warcraft‘s PvP Arenas allows for factions to matchmaker against not just each other but themselves as well. This provides some insight into how Blizzard is approaching the issue. If it means a better overall gameplay experience, then Blizzard should make it a priority. And that’s not even the only reason why it makes sense.
Another reason cited by Hazzikostas for considering cross-faction support is that World of Warcraft is, at the end of the day, “about being able to play with your friends.” He explains how there are currently tens of thousands, or maybe more, World of Warcraft players who join a faction so that they can be a part of a guild or raid when they’d rather be in the other faction. As things stand, Hazzikostas says the current game doesn’t allow these people to play the faction they best identify with and that Blizzard wants to do something for them.
In other words, Hazzikostas isn’t just thinking about cross-faction raiding and dungeons. Blizzard’s thinking about going even further and supporting cross-faction guilds and more. Of course, none of these ideas have been announced for implementation. But Blizzard considering them is better than not.
Also worth considering is that while Blizzard is evaluating these cross-faction features, it still wants factions to continue as normal otherwise. Changes to existing features would be in service of reinforcing factions, rather than dismantling them. World of Warcraft, in Blizzard’s eyes, will always be a story of the Alliance and the Horde.
World of Warcraft is available now on PC.
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