About Same-Faction Battlegrounds

What’s your take on it?

After the success of the release of TBC Classic, of course, problems would start popping out. One of the biggest ones is the inordinately long queues for Horde Battlegrounds. This is mostly a problem in servers with a big imbalance in the factions players join. There are too many Horde players, and only a small percentage are Alliance players. Sure, it’s a good break from farming WoW TBC gold, but not when it takes about 2 or more hours just to play in a round that lasts a fraction of that time.

The Solution

Blizzard is testing the same-faction battlegrounds, which in-universe, is explained by being a military training exercise. The game will still try to match with the opposing faction, but when that falls through it’ll queue up a same-faction one.

Of course, the path to progress never runs smooth. Half the players like this idea, while the other half vehemently oppose it. After all, some are calling the Alliance’s fast queues the only advantage it has over Horde. For the former, it’s easier to get Honor for the PvP WoW TBC Classic items.

Why Is There Such an Imbalance Anyway?

Well, it seems that the Horde’s racial abilities are better than the Alliance’s, especially the Undead’s Will of the Forsaken. That skill can clear up CC statuses like they’re nothing. Also, if enough corpses pile up in the battleground, they can use Cannibalize to regenerate health.

In general, Horde racial skills are advantageous for most classes, while Alliance racial skills mostly benefit only one or two. For any player who likes min-maxing their characters, it’s a no-brainer to go Horde, because that’s where all the advantages are.

Is There Any Other Way?

Well, some of those who don’t like this feature is pushing for a faction transfer. It can be a good idea, since friends might’ve ended up on opposing factions, and there is no communication between the two. However, there are considerations.

Should it be paid? Will that be in real money or WoW TBC Classic gold? Can players switch between the two factions more than once? (Okay, that may be a stretch and could ruin the immersion, so it should be only once.) In-universe, what could be the explanation of suddenly switching factions? Are they going to stay the same race or will there be an ‘equivalent’?

To be fair, considering all of these can take time, and something like the same-faction battlegrounds is relatively easier on the devs. The battleground system is already there, they just have to modify things a bit to accommodate this new feature. They’re testing it right now, and it shouldn’t be long before it gets released.

On the flip side, they have to create new code for the faction switch. As mentioned above, there are so many considerations to choose from, and they don’t have a ready code they can just tweak. A faction change system would take more time and effort to make, and well, they can never please everybody. Giving a faster solution is better than having to wait for a feature that not many players might use.

Conclusions

Well, for one thing, this feature is already in the testing phase so it’s likely they’ll be pushing it rather than a faction change. As for the noisy players, they just have to suck it up. Nobody ever gets everything they want, and maybe they’ll see later that it was a good change and not as bad as they thought.

At any rate, despite Jeff Kaplan leaving Blizzard, it doesn’t mean that WoW is going to suddenly be bad. Other employees and workers could’ve stayed as long and had the experience to pick up where he left off. (Surely not all of them were laid off a while back?) There’s definitely going to be some change, but at its core, World of Warcraft shouldn’t be too different from before.

So why not be glad that there’s a solution already in the works? Why complain or whine for a solution that may not even work as they intended it to? Then again, there are just those kinds of people who love stirring up trouble for others. They’re the actual ones who are ruining the game, nobody else.

In the end, it’s up to you to find a way to still enjoy the game. If you think it’s not for you anymore, then maybe, it’s time to quit for good. It’s alright to make that decision, and you can move on to other things you can enjoy better.

Have fun, and look forward to a better WoW!