I have two 120 character I play everyday. One horde and one alliance. Both with war mode on all the time because I like world PvP. With the Horde character it's almost always peaceful. I attack almost any Alliance I come across, but there are just too few of them.
But when I log on my Alliance character, dear God. Champions of Azeroth quests are the worst, with 10, 20 hordies against me alone. It doesn't matter if I'm playing on an Alliance dominated realm (77% at level 120, according to Realmpop), because the horde comes from many different realms.And here we have the latest in a long history of examples, dating from Ultima Online, that when given a choice, people choose the non-PvP option, especially when it's likely they will lose.
So how would we fix this, or at least bring it up to reasonable parity?
Here's my idea:
- Balance War Mode zones to be equal Horde and Alliance. Move all unmatched Horde players into empty zones without Alliance. Better some Horde have no Alliance to kill, than all Horde. These Horde would still get the War Mode bonus.
- War Mode raids automatically get moved into an empty zone. As well, the War Mode bonus stops applying in raids.
Basically, we are trying to guarantee two things. First, War Mode is always equal in terms of numbers. Second, War Mode is about individual and small group combat. There's no more forming a large raid and steam-rolling all the opposition.
I think those two guarantees would be enough to allow Alliance to feel like there is a level playing field, and make them more willing to try War Mode. Restricting War Mode to small groups also feels more even.
The downside, though, is that you do give up the raid vs raid clashes, as in the old days of Southshore and Tarren Mill. It also would make Capital City raids, to kill faction leaders, rather weird. You might need special rules for faction zones.
But I think it would improve the day-to-day experience of War Mode in the regular leveling and expansion zones.
Funny thing...when levelling, I had no problem as Alliance with PvP on, not even on my alts. Horde normally let you just level... Now, my Horde Pally ..that is different, I always have to be ready to battle (always a rogue) two chars.... Alliance will attack everything.
ReplyDeleteHeh, that's an interesting observation. I wonder what accounts for it.
DeleteIs it more of a Horde thing or a Rogue thing? I used to get attacked more frequently on a Rogue than the other classes.
Delete@Redeard, I meant that a rogue is always attacking me, or one is very nearby. I play a Paladin Horde-side
DeleteConfirmation bias in action, and taking action based on that is a horrid idea.
ReplyDeleteWhich part is confirmation bias? There seems to be a fair amount of support in the community for the idea that the Alliance is withdrawing from World PvP. Do you think that's wrong?
DeleteI'm not surprised that this is happening. I consider this a misreading of the interests of the average WoW player, and a desire to insert PvP back into the heart of WoW. I get the "orcs vs humans" historical aspect of WoW, but a lot of players don't see it that way.
ReplyDeleteI think it was more of a "streamline the servers" thing. Allow the people on PvP servers an option to switch away, and the people on PvE servers an option to switch on PvP. Now there's pretty much just 2 types of servers (Normal and RP), down from 4 (PvE, PvP, RP-PvE, RP-PvP).
DeleteIt also renders the old "flagging for PvP" mechanics obsolete. I imagine that a future version will remove those mechanics entirely.
As well, allow PvP to be more optional, like maybe you turn it off while levelling, so no ganking, but turn it on at max level.
It may simply be that different factions appeal to different people. There's also only 2 alliance guilds on the world top 20 according to raider.io. I read both of these points as Horde appealing to the more competitive people out there with their savage aesthetics and bestial races, while Alliance appeals to more "peace-loving" people looking for other things in the game. Using the old D&D terms, Alliance is Lawful Good, while the Horde is Chaotic Neutral.
ReplyDeleteOf course this is a very broad characterization and will vary from player to player and their circumstances, like if they play their faction through their personal choice or to join friends.
There might be something to this speculation. When my old Horde guild was contemplating what side to play in SWTOR when it was released, the overwhelming desire was to play the Sith Empire side and participate in raiding/PvP. "The Republic is for [redacted]", one of them said in Guild Chat.
Delete