Story Imbalance - Faction

Oh, goodness.

The Horde have a more impressive storyline than the Alliance in Cataclysm. The Horde have gained more territory than the Alliance in Cataclysm. The Horde have their Mary Sue leader who's been center stage for an entire expansion, and they'll be getting him back as their own again. The Horde have manlier shoulder pads. The Horde have bigger ... weapons than Alliance.

Seriously? People want equality?

Because I'm pretty sure they actually don't. I'm pretty sure they simply want to dominate for no apparent reason.

This is all purely opinion here. I'm too lazy to do any serious research. That said, the Horde got some extra mounts, the Horde got some more pets, the Horde got more territory - all of this (as far as I'm aware) is true. What that ignores is that Horde originally had fewer of each available to them for the longest time. So their newest toys supposedly bring them up to Alliance standard (well, except perhaps the mounts... Worgen vs Goblin, that was just kind of pathetic and sad, but even so, WTF should you care? Grow the hell up; people who care about mounts will be able to tell that your mount count is equivalent to XY Horde's mount count because they'll know how many are even a possibility for you already. Those who don't know shouldn't matter to you in the slightest).

But that's pretty meaningless, isn't it? That's rather shallow, and cosmetic.

What really matters is the epic story lines! Man, those Horde. Escaping their home planet. Rediscovering their home planet. Going to clean up some Alliance prince issue and having one of their own betray the entire faction. Losing their Mary Sue leader who got all of Jack done for YEARS (speaking of which - it seems that what the Horde Thrall bootlickers like best about Thrall is his display of purely positive Human traits, rather than any apparently Orcish behavior; I find that kinda funny) and instead finally gaining an active, alive, and extremely flawed leader. Some love him (huzzah, not a Mary Sue, and someone who leads FOR THE HORDE!), some hate him (I WANT MY MARY SUE BACK). Then an expansion where Mary Sue gets emo. I suppose, considering it's Thrall, he finally hit puberty. Not only that, he got his first girlfriend. Which, even for the most stable very young man, is certain to cause a bit of soul searching which includes self loathing and self righteous rage. So he's supposed to save the world, and hey, look, he does - in one of the least popular expansions of the game!

Well, I can't lay the blame solely at his feet. He was just along for the ride. When you get right down to it, his story about saving the world was limited by the fact that it had to be told during an expansion, and within the game. And the game is produced by a company with time and financial restraints. Blah. Blah. BLAH.

ANYway.

I agree with the people who are upset that so much Warcraft story is being left out of the game itself. I'm one of those players who will not purchase a Warcraft book, Warcraft comic, Warcraft manga - any Warcraft story-telling device just so I can figure out why something that makes no sense in the game is supposed to make sense.

I play Warcraft because I like the game, and I am intrigued by the story within Azeroth. If I were a Warcraft book reader, I'd just be reading the books and I wouldn't purchase the game to pretend I shared a world with the characters I'd been reading about.

I do not agree with the people who demand that the Alliance gets equal "air time." World of Warcraft is not a TV show. World of Warcraft is not a sports team. World of Warcraft is a game, based on some story telling. A good story with a strong theme does not often come from a number of sources. The fewer story tellers involved (assuming the story teller isn't crap), the more solid and cohesive a story will be.

I'd rather have a good story to observe, than a crappy, uninteresting story that lets both sides take equal turns at being extremely mediocre and equally uncool and unlame.

When the story devolves into all Horde being blood thirsty savages and all Alliance being corrupt, slave-thieving jerks, then sure, there's room for complaint. As things stand now, the world of Azeroth has a story that is progressing, and in order for one side to change, the other side needs to change as well. Just because your side doesn't seem to be taking the first step each time doesn't mean your side won't get its chance.

The Alliance is reactive. That's just what they are. They refused to band together until each race's surviving city had no choice but to seek out assistance. They refused to coexist (for a very short time) with the Horde until their entire world was other wise doomed.

The Alliance is not proactive. The Alliance hides a lot of corruption. But the Alliance is not only corruption, Alliance is not only people sitting on their rears waiting for bad things to happen. If that's what you want Alliance to be, you are free to believe it. You'll be wrong, is all. ^_~

I don't really understand why players need to treat the factions like sports teams, and keep score. I just plain don't get it. I don't think that's how a video game should be played. With that in mind, I really don't understand why observers feel such a sense of possession of sports teams in general. I understand a certain degree of sports team pride (yay! my favorite player on my favorite team did well today!) but I haven't yet managed to twist and corrupt that pleasure into a hatred of other teams, of other players.

I'm not an Orc. I'm not a Gnome. I'm not a Worgen, I'm not a Tauren. I'm a human being in a completely different world, pulling on the racial costume of my choice to romp around in Blizzard's story. I'm occasionally disappointed that certain faction leaders might as well be 2x4 planks with voice recordings, but since I've nothing to do with Azeroth politics, it actually doesn't matter to me at all. The story will be what Blizzard wants, and I'll nod and smile and then probably go raid whatever there is to raid and get gear, and not much care about Azeroth politics.

You're not playing WoW for the story line. You're just not. You might enjoy the stories, you might enjoy the lore, but that's not why you're playing. You're playing because your an MMO junkie and prefer to get your fix through WoW. When you want story, you read comic books and manga and authorized fan fiction that gets published in paperback. Don't be sad that Metzen isn't writing about your favorite characters. Just like with normal authors, purchase and support the books that are about the characters you care about, and don't purchase or support the books about the characters you don't care about.

Piers Anthony is stuck writing Xanthe books he HATES WRITING because they pay the bills, because people buy them. Blizzard will be more likely to write the books you like if those are the only ones they're making worth while profit from.

Don't be a dork.

I'm wrong a lot here. That's okay. You're wrong a lot too. But this is my corner of wrong, and I'm not going to trek over to your corner to pinch you about it. You'll need to come here for my pinches. Sucker.