WoW to Get Faction Change Feature

Are you a Night Elf who always wanted to play a Troll? Wish your level 80 Orc Shaman were a level 80 Draenei? Blizzard has announced plans to let players change their in-game World of Warcraft factions.

The "basic idea," as WoW Community Manager Nethaera posted on the official forums, is as follows:

(P)layers will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we're pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it.

Of course, there are plenty of hurdles that need to be worked out here, especially when it comes to WoW's Achievement system: If I have all my faction-specific mounts on my Alliance character, and I make my Night Elf a Tauren, do I keep them? Do I get them all replaced with their Horde equivalent? That's just the tip of the iceberg, too.

This is a pretty monumental change. It isn't to say that I don't understand why they did it, because I do - what happens if your (Horde) guild decides to transfer servers, but you'd rather stick around, only now all your friends are Alliance? It really is the logical next step: change your name, change your server, change your appearance and gender, and now change your faction.

Even so... this just feels strange. The two-faction rivalry has been at the core of WoW since it launched in 2004. Hell, it's been the core of the Warcraft franchise since Orcs & Humans. So it's an understandable move, but an odd one nonetheless.

This is going to wreak havoc on RP servers.

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Ok guys, ALL the tanks can't be cows.

Makes me wanna log on WoW forums just to se the whine.

They complain about the barber shops, I wonder how much whine will this get.

Two rival factions? More like two peaceful communities farming instances peacefully while ocassionally making forced clashes for goods.

Kinda glad, my time playing as an Night Elf Hunter has left me with one thought bore into my mind, Alliance sucks. Seriously Horde is just so much cooler, Alliance players in my experience are all small children wanting to play the hero. Horde characters on the other hand have realized this, and are using their characters to punch these small children in the face.

This IS Blizzard, after all, so it will probably cost about as much as buying the game, each time you do it.

This sounds like maybe slight hyperbole... surely it can't work as they'd imply? Having said that, Blizzard are monstrously capable, so I'll reserve judgement until I see the outcome.

I'm calling it here and now, race changes within the same faction. As a test or compromise before this gets implemented.

needausername:
Kinda glad, my time playing as an Night Elf Hunter has left me with one thought bore into my mind, Alliance sucks. Seriously Horde is just so much cooler, Alliance players in my experience are all small children wanting to play the hero. Horde characters on the other hand have realized this, and are using their characters to punch these small children in the face.

Wow, I don't even know where to begin with how wrong this is. :P

Psychosocial:
This IS Blizzard, after all, so it will probably cost about as much as buying the game, each time you do it.

My guess would be probably around the server/name/appearance changes. $10ish.

I think it would be way cooler if you could have 'defectors'.
You know, playing a night-elf on the horde side.
Then you'd keep all of your gear, and mounts and everything!

And THAT would cause loads of whining.

This seems extremely....interesting to say the least. The one thing that worries me is if people don't get to choose their race when transferring factions, as if someone was a Draenei, I doubt they would want to end up as a blood elf. The main thing that worries me though is Arena: I thought they didn't want a dominate race : /.

CantFaketheFunk:

needausername:
Kinda glad, my time playing as an Night Elf Hunter has left me with one thought bore into my mind, Alliance sucks. Seriously Horde is just so much cooler, Alliance players in my experience are all small children wanting to play the hero. Horde characters on the other hand have realized this, and are using their characters to punch these small children in the face.

Wow, I don't even know where to begin with how wrong this is. :P

Clearly you and I have had different luck in the game of WoW.

Funk, you know you wanna see the cool side of the game :D.

With that said, I will personally hunt down and murder any defectors from the Horde.

Baby Tea:
I think it would be way cooler if you could have 'defectors'.
You know, playing a night-elf on the horde side.
Then you'd keep all of your gear, and mounts and everything!

And THAT would cause loads of whining.

Nu-uh, the only time a gnome is involved in anything to do with the Horde is as the ball in sports matches.

stormcaller:
Funk, you know you wanna see the cool side of the game :D.

With that said, I will personally hunt down and murder any defectors from the Horde.

Funk raided with Horde all through 60, and some at 70 as a troll mage. ;)

stormcaller:
Nu-uh, the only time a gnome is involved in anything to do with the Horde is as the ball in sports matches.

Hey! Gnome Punting is a serious offense that can land you with anything from Jail time in Gnomeregan to Irradiation of your race's capital city. (Please note that in the event it is a Troll Offender the punishment is placed on Orgrimmar.) Besides, Why would a Gnome defect from their own faction to go hook up with goblins? *Shudders*

Hm, I might actually see this being used by people too lazy to re-learn all of the quests for leveling again. They level their character through the quests they are comfortable with, then switch the factions when they hit level 80. But, that takes the fun of discovery outta the process, so I don't see myself using it in the future.

This is cool news, i am, technicaly, a noob when it comes to WoW, i have been a fan for years but only recently been able to play (lack of funds) and i went for horde straight away as the few people i knew at the time were horde, now I know more people in WoW most of whom are Aliance and i cant be arsed gettin a new player up to Lv40 as i alredy have 4 characters arround that level.

Baby Tea:
I think it would be way cooler if you could have 'defectors'.
You know, playing a night-elf on the horde side.
Then you'd keep all of your gear, and mounts and everything!

And THAT would cause loads of whining.

Should have been a feature to begin with. And the ability to learn the other faction's language. That would've been so great...

I've never heard of this "World of Warcraft", but I'm intrigued. Sounds like it really might catch on.

Seriously, though. I've been considering signing up, since I will soon have a computer capable of running WoW. More features like this (ie. ability to change sides if I discovered that I picked wrong) are always a nice addition.

oliveira8:
Makes me wanna log on WoW forums just to se the whine.

They complain about the barber shops, I wonder how much whine will this get.

What do you take your whine with?

Personally, I prefer it with cheese and hax.

This can work as long as the "equivalent race and skills" are well thought out, possibly with a few choices for the player to make regarding skill set.

I first joined the game a couple months after release and all my friends played alliance. Rolled a warrior and pali to 60 then after about 6 months of BC everyone defected to horde, but i didn't have the time to relevel to do stuff with them so i quit all together. This may bring me back.

why dont they just make it so we can change races on our OWN faction, that would be so much simpler, i hate my blood elf pansie bitch

Dele:
Two rival factions? More like two peaceful communities farming instances peacefully while ocassionally making forced clashes for goods.

Bingo. I never felt we were "Opposing" we were more like "One side stole the others popsicle, so theres a little tension."

The Shade:
I've never heard of this "World of Warcraft", but I'm intrigued. Sounds like it really might catch on.

Seriously, though. I've been considering signing up, since I will soon have a computer capable of running WoW. More features like this (ie. ability to change sides if I discovered that I picked wrong) are always a nice addition.

I'd like to jump in and say that unless your friends are playing, WoW can get pretty tedious. If your friends play, you can have a blast. If they're not, however, you'll end up farming alone or raiding with people you don't know, and that's no fun. There are better ways to spend $150 dollars and $15 a month.

Clashero:
I'd like to jump in and say that unless your friends are playing, WoW can get pretty tedious. If your friends play, you can have a blast. If they're not, however, you'll end up farming alone or raiding with people you don't know, and that's no fun. There are better ways to spend $150 dollars and $15 a month.

Oh, I know. I played it briefly and got bored and quit. But I think it was because I had no idea what was going on. Plus, I didn't know anyone. But now I have friends who play, so I would hope it'd be better.

Although $15/month is still pretty brutal...

Why would you ever want to be on the alliance?

I like this change. Even if I won't use it since I have so many Alliance friends, it is a good idea

quiet_samurai:
Why would you ever want to be on the alliance?

Someone has to be. Otherwise PvP would be quite boring.

Am I the only person left who likes gnomes? :(

Neth was very vague, but I really hope that I don't start seeing damn UD players on Alliance. HOPEFULLY, it'll just be a mere race change sort of service that will allow you to switch factions in the process. Community on WoW has been dead since TBC, so a change like this doesn't bother me as much.
Undead on Alliance, though? Dwarves on Horde? No, gtfo.

quiet_samurai:
Why would you ever want to be on the alliance?

Because we rather not associate or hang around with people who have this attitude.

Nostalgia:
Neth was very vague, but I really hope that I don't start seeing damn UD players on Alliance. HOPEFULLY, it'll just be a mere race change sort of service that will allow you to switch factions in the process. Community on WoW has been dead since TBC, so a change like this doesn't bother me as much.
Undead on Alliance, though? Dwarves on Horde? No, gtfo.

quiet_samurai:
Why would you ever want to be on the alliance?

Because we rather not associate or hang around with people who have this attitude.

Bingo.

Tell an Alliance player you play Horde, it's like "Eh, ok, no big deal."

Tell a Horde player you play Alliance, it's like you just killed their dog.

Mrsnugglesworth:

Dele:
Two rival factions? More like two peaceful communities farming instances peacefully while ocassionally making forced clashes for goods.

Bingo. I never felt we were "Opposing" we were more like "One side stole the others popsicle, so theres a little tension."

You obviously never played in the good old days of world PvP, where Hillsbarad Foothills was the battleground and the general consensus was: "If it's red, it's dead." Red meaning an Alliance player, obviously. Honestly though, I wouldn't change to Alliance even if Blizzard paid me. But I agree that the level of rivalry between the factions has diminished with the expansion packs. Which is a good thing, becaue there are no more level ?? dwarf paladins or nightelf hunters ganking my alts in Stranglethorn, and a bad thing because you lose the tension between equal level players trying to kill each other off in world PvP.

Boxpopper:
Am I the only person left who likes gnomes? :(

Yes.

Psychosocial:
This IS Blizzard, after all, so it will probably cost about as much as buying the game, each time you do it.

Not at all.

I don't play MMOs, and if I did I'd never play on a PvP server. But I have a few friends who play WoW and I know that they have battle grounds for this kind of thing. Hating the other faction is only one step above racisim.

This might actually bring me back to the game funny enough. But only on my paladin, I used to LOVE playing the CoT instances. Humans look fantastic in plate, blood elves do not :(

Christ, only 2 months of not playing, and Blizzard find a way to bring me back.... DAMN YOU!