Horde and Alliance, soon together in World of Warcraft – most of you would want that without hesitation. You have made it clear.
The identification with one’s own faction and loyalty to it is an important pillar of World of Warcraft, both for Alliance players and Horde supporters. Or… maybe not? We conducted a survey about the upcoming “Cross Faction Play” feature and you participated in large numbers.
The result: The vast majority is already willing to allow cooperation with the enemy.
What is Cross-Faction Play? A new feature announced for patch 9.2.5. Horde and Alliance will then be able to adventure together in groups, as long as it involves “closed” content – meaning dungeons, raids, or PvP battles. Friends will be able to play together across faction lines.
The result of our survey was quite clear:
More than 40% want the feature as standard
A full 42% of participants, which corresponds to 392 votes, are of the clear opinion that collaboration between Horde and Alliance is long overdue. Such a feature should not just be an option, but the standard. Many are excited that more players will be available for group searching, making it easier for Alliance players to join raids.
Others are simply happy that they can play with their loved ones in the future, like Pjer Kretschmar, who writes on Facebook:
My wife is Horde, I am Alliance. Finally it’s going to happen again!
Aymen Jedir feels similarly:
I love this feature and can finally play with a colleague again.
Niklas Gareis even sees this as the logical next step for the story.
Honestly, it’s about time. The concept of ‘Alliance versus Horde’ is played out and as we have to face the dangers outside of Azeroth, namely Void, Light, Legion, Death, and so on, I believe it’s time to not be Alliance or Horde anymore, but a Child of Azeroth. I find this development good.
More than a third want at least the option
Somewhat fewer players, namely 35% (326 votes) find the feature perfectly fine as long as it remains optional. This is how it is also intended by the developers. Because through automatic player assignment, you always end up in a group with players from the same faction.
Only those who manually look for teammates and actively decide to can form mixed groups of Horde and Alliance or join such groups. Ultimately, the decision always lies with the leader of the respective group.
Sui Enferum wrote about this on Facebook:
This is the only right thing. From the story perspective, it makes perfect sense. Everything else would be nonsensical. Just because a few isolated players are having a mid-life crisis, apparently, it can be made optional.
Almost every fourth is strictly against it
However, not everyone welcomes the upcoming feature, nearly 23% (212 votes) are clearly against the plans and believe it will harm the game. That Horde and Alliance are different factions should also be evident in gameplay, and communal play should not be possible. For some, this seems to be a step that signals the end of WoW.
Sinophax writes:
And this is how WoW goes completely to the dogs… One realizes that they really don’t know anymore what to bring next. They should end the game with dignity. It hurts to see what has become of the once-great game.
LikeADwarf formulates this a little more precisely:
I personally (caution, subjective) think that the factions are part of an MMORPG and especially WoW.
Other MMORPGs I’ve played that didn’t have a faction system always felt a bit strange to me. I like belonging to a faction and fighting against other factions. Identification is a big aspect and one of the points that make WoW so great.
Did you expect such a clear result?
