World of Warcraft has been allowing Horde and Alliance to experience Azeroth together for several months now. But an important feature is still missing: cross-faction guilds. They are sure to come, said the boss. A new statement sounds more cautious.
What kind of feature is this?
- Since the end of Shadowlands, Horde and Alliance can play together, at least to a limited extent. Certain content like mythic dungeons and raids work together in groups. Open-world content is not yet included.
- For this reason, the system has now been expanded with Dragonflight. The factions share mobs while leveling, and there is no more war over “tagging” enemies.
- The idea of cross-faction gameplay has been brewing in the community for years, and the first taste is causing old calls for guilds for Horde and Alliance to resurface.
This is what Blizzard says now: In a conversation with PCGamesN, Production Director Patrick Dawson mentions that cross-faction guilds “are something we are thinking about.”
This is a wording often used by developers when they are not yet ready to commit. This often happens when features are not yet finalized or are only set to appear in the distant future.
On reddit, this sentence has made waves and certainly confused players. Because it was already established: Guilds for Alliance and Horde are definitely coming. Only the “when” was still open. Now it sounds different.
In our special, you can find all information about Dragonflight. The trailer showcases the most important features once again:
“No question of if, but when they will come”
In several interviews before the release of Dragonflight, Game Director Ion Hazzicostas (cover image, right) has already spoken about cross-faction guilds, for example with the popular statistic website raider.io. There it is stated:
On the further path, when – I won’t even say “if” – when cross-faction guilds become a thing (because it’s something we want to do), there are still some difficulties we need to overcome.
In an interview with player Maximum from the professional guild Limit, Hazzikostas explains that currently there are still technical limitations in the way (via YouTube).
He did not want to specify a concrete timeframe because “it could still take years”, but the goal is to release the feature during Dragonflight.
The new statement from Patrick Dawson now causes confusion because many players still have Hazzikostas’ words in mind, who has already firmly promised the feature. Cross-faction guilds are important, especially to improve raiding, create more opportunities for cooperation, and break up the system of the Hall of Fame.
What will really come remains to be seen. Cross-faction play is currently still not mature, but the work seems to be heading towards softening the faction system. Dragonflight is already laying the foundation for the future in many respects:
WoW developers in interview: ‘Features of Dragonflight will forever improve the future of WoW’
