WoW Life Lesson #9 - A New Perspective Can Change Your World
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Admin on Tuesday, February 3, 2009 - 35 Comments Tags: Alliance, Horde, wow life lesson, wow life lesson #9, wow life lessons
Admin on Tuesday, February 3, 2009 - 35 Comments Tags: Alliance, Horde, wow life lesson, wow life lesson #9, wow life lessons 
As you may have noticed this week, the guys are running lowbie Horde characters - quite a departure from the Alliance toons they usually run. Watching them run RFC as Horde is a real treat because, from my perspective, it shows that WoW is a fun game for both 'sides'.But as you and I are both aware, there is a dark side to WoW, a dark side far more angry and divisive than anything in Sunwell or Icecrown, and for some, it begins the first second they create a toon. It may not have been talked about before as candidly as I am about to and I think this week is the perfect time to discuss it and how it relates to this life lesson.
As you know, there are two main 'sides' or factions in World of Warcraft: The Horde and the Alliance. These two side are pitted against each other by the forces of fate seemingly set in motion to create conflict and instability throughout the entire WoW universe. And it is in this illusion of opposition that cultivates perspectives which foster in some an unusual hatred of the 'opposing' faction.
I have know some Alliance players who unilaterally vilify the Horde as all being monsters bent on destroying all that is sacred to the World of Azeroth, somehow believing that it is their duty to eradicate all Horde on sight.
I also know some people who play Horde who believe that the Alliance is filled with do-gooders, pompous elitists, essentially zealots, bent on purging thought any means all those unlike themselves.
These perspectives are from RL people who actually see other RL people who play opposing factions as enemies based solely on a story told to them, a story which basically says those not like you are the enemy. All of this stems from basic misunderstandings and cultural stories based on inference and conjecture rather than direct experience and personal evaluation which unfortunately escalated into open conflict.
Being primarily an Alliance player, I know the lore and stories I have been told about the Alliance and their heroic efforts. I have been ingrained with stories of the Horde as the 'evil' ones and that it is 'my duty' to destroy the Horde whenever possible. But over time, I have met several Horde players in game that were kind and generous to me even when I was on a PVP server that made me reconsider all of those stories I was told about the 'evils' of the Horde.
While I have never played a Horde character for any substantial length of time, I can appreciate some of the stories of a few of the Horde races. From watching the opening cinematics of each of the Horde races and playing a Horde toon up a few levels, most of them seems to be races of people thrown into conflict and doing their best to survive the circumstances thrust upon them. Paramount to their struggle is trying to change the perception by the Alliance, somewhat based on purely visual cues or the manipulation by others upon them, that they are essentially monsters while in truth they are just a race of peoples doing their best to survive.
It also seems to me that the Alliance may be misunderstood by the Horde as well. The Horde may not understand how deeply the Alliance was affected by the events of the past perpetrated by an essentially mind-controlled group of peoples manipulated to do the bidding of another. Maybe the Horde's main struggle against the Alliance is to get the Alliance to understand that those horrible events of the past were not their true intention and that they just wish to live their life.
While I know I will never play a Horde toon again, I can see why some are drawn to those races. I can appreciate why someone would choose to have their character's backstory be that of the Orcs or Tauren or any of the other Horde races.
All of this points to a greater concern within the World at large, the RL world that we all venture into from time to time, usually on Tuesday mornings.
If everything is, as I believe it is, a microcosm and macrocosm to everything else, than this game of WoW shows how some - only some - use inaccurate stories, limited perspectives and general omission of facts to create divisions and conflicts between peoples. The only way these falsehoods can be lifted is through direct experience and personal evaluation based upon internal criteria rather than external dogma or consensus.
There are many people on this planet, many people, with many perspectives and beliefs and interests that it's a wonder small groups of us can agree on anything. Some would say that there are more than two factions in RL while I would say that there are none. It depends on your perspective. Do you choose to see disharmony or potential? Do you choose to see adversaries or opportunities? What do you choose to see?
So here's the challenge to you, to put this life lesson into action, and it will only take one hour.
Would you be willing to run a toon on a different faction up to level 10? Would you be willing to do that? And if you do, let me know what you think.
It's only one hour, but that hour may change your perspective of your entire world.
At least , that's my perspective.
Reader Comments (35)
I started the game as Horde and when I finally convinced my friend to start playing his dumb ass rolled alliance. So I joined his server as a Pally and got to about lvl 15. I don't care much for the Alliance. I could never find help for anything(since I didn't know where anything was this was a huge letdown) and everyone just seemed to be huge jerks to me.
Oh well......
FOR THE HORDE. :)
I have a 70 lvl ally that I played with in TBC and I now have a 80 lvl tauren and I must say, the factions are all the same really. At horde side there's these people claiming that allies are just bunch of coward gankers who have to take a group with them if they're going to pvp. But I'd say excactly the same about alliance.
I mean, time after time I see "Noob ally/horde gankers" -kind of things in the general chat and next thing you know, the whiners are at gank squad yelling "FOR THE HORDE/ALLIANCE" and doing excactly the same that they were whining about.
Faction doesn't change player's personality, we're all the same really. There is a difference between individuals but essentialy the player's are the same at horde and at alliance.
I've been a horde player since Warcraft 2. The back story is just so much better imo.
I've played an Dwarf hunter up to lvl 45 (pre BC) and it was boring, no real depth to the stories compared to the Horde. The only race i dont like in the horde are the blood elves as they just dont fit. Just as the night elves dont really fit in with the alliance.
I've played both sides as well and personally, they both have their ups and downs. It's how you choose to play the game that matters.
Just last night I was finishing some quests on my Nelf DK, just to clear out my log and when I was half way on the elite I had to kill, a Forsaken DK and Belf Pally came in and started whacking away at the same person. I was grateful as I was having some trouble and wasn't sure if I could finish them off on my own.
I bowed to them in thanks, then sat around. In return for their help, I stayed to help them slay the same elite. (It was High General Abendis, if that's how you spell her name.) They thanked me as well.
So it's really how you play the game. Pushing aside the racial hatred that you go through in lvling the character can be a bit over whelming. I'm sure they were wondering "wtf are they doing?" when I helped them, but they were grateful like I was.
As another note, My friends and I like to stand around in areas and dance with each other. It's probably odd to see a Nelf Priest dancing with a Forsaken Warlock in the middle of Howling Fjord or even Dalaran, but it's what we like to do. XD In RP we act like we're trying to form a link between the two factions. One of non-speaking, but gestured, friendship. Though if we went to kill something and she started dying I wouldn't be able to help her one lick with a heal. XD
I play an alliance char (80 huntard - go us!) and I don't really see a problem with the factions. There was a 5-man quest in Icecrown that I couldn't do and I watched a horde warrior nearly kill it. So I helped him, and a number of emotes later, he helped me do it as well.
At the end of the day there shouldn't really be a difference between the 2 sides, there are people at both ends, some of them who seem to think that the other faction are crazy idiots, but really, there is no difference. Just help each other =P
Well I enjoy playing both sides and I find them equal. Althogh I preffer horde, I have nothing against the alliance. It really depends where I can find true friends and with whom I will have more fun.
I am an altaholic so I've played both sides up and through the game. I've done my Ally time here and there to play with friends and it's what I started as. That being said, I prefer the horde, Tauren mostly. Tauren are my favorite class because they're gentle despite their size and out of every class druid is the funnest for me since you can fill any role. Maturity of players isn't a faction issue. I've found knuckleheads on either side and tend to stay away from them.
I will say that while on both sides I've noticed priests will ALWAYS try to gank you if they see you. And anytime you see a male NE you better hope you're more geared/skilled than him because he will gank you and more than likely he's had ALOT of practice at it...
i really enjoy the horde alliance rivalry. For me it gives an added element to the game that i think would be missing without the separation. I am a big horde fan but have nothing against the alliance a couple of my RL friends play horde so when i found out i switched to horde early in my WoW history. I think it is kind of like a rivalry between two bigname colleges. You really have no reason for hating each other and its nothing personnal all you know is for no apparent reason you hate them and that that is the way it is and is supposed to be. Finally i just want to emphasize my main point IT IS NOTHING PERSONAL.
Hating someone for playing an opposing faction makes as much sense as hating someone from a rival college, 6 years after graduating. It’s a game and I pity the people that can't let it go. I enjoy ribbing someone that my faction/race/class is better than theirs, but it is only in fun. If you base your 1st impression on someone solely on their choice of toon, then you need to stop playing and seek professional help; I hear a white jacket and padded walls calling your name...
All that being said, it is difficult to have a war/battle based GAME without opposing factions. =)
"I'm not addicted; I'm just dedicated"
I've had some bad experiences with Horde (I'm a dedicated Alliance player myself!) but more often than not, have had wonderful cross faction experiences with Horde.
The one example that comes to mind is from when Quel Danas first opened up. I happened to be grinding rep on my tankadin and as the Belf's started to respawn faster than a greased goose (wtf?!), I found myself slowly becoming overwhelmed. It was at this point an Orc shammy who was obviously on the same daily came along...not only did he help me by taking on enough mobs for me to recover, we ended up fighting side by side and quite literally back to back just farming these belfs lol.
After that, we'd occasionally run into one another and do it the same way no matter what we were doing. Of course, if you want faction hatred, there's always Battlegrounds!