Wishful Thinking: Neutral Faction
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iTZKooPA on Friday, July 24, 2009 - 42 Comments Tags: cross faction, faction choice, goblins, murloc, naga, neutral faction, ogre, the next expansion, third faction, vrykul, wishful thinking, worgen
iTZKooPA on Friday, July 24, 2009 - 42 Comments Tags: cross faction, faction choice, goblins, murloc, naga, neutral faction, ogre, the next expansion, third faction, vrykul, wishful thinking, worgen 
Could These Be The Faces Of The Future?Ever since MMO-Champion.com dug up those stupid masks the corner of the Internet that is home to WoW has been a storm of investigation. Shortly after discovering the pair of Worgen and Goblins masks another four pairs, Naga, Ogre, Murloc, Vrykul were found. The discovery dosed the fire surrounding Horde Goblins and Alliance Worgen, while at the same time fueling the idea of a third faction being introduced to World of Warcraft.
In my opinion two factions suck. Few games have implemented just a pair of competitors successfully. This is in large part due to the grass is always greener effect. If you are beaten badly by the opposing team, then the developer likes them more, they are overpowered or there are population problems. Some of the complaints are certainly real, but one way developers, including Blizzard itself, has skirted the issue is by having more than two factions (see Starcraft's three factions and Warcraft III's four). As such, I would love to see a third faction, but I don't expect it to play out as many would have us believe.
Most of what I have seen points to the neutral faction being one in name only. That somewhere down the line you would chose who to fight for, Alliance (obviously) or Horde (fail). It sounds absolutely awesome, and I would love to see it happen, but I doubt it. To implement this Blizzard would have to drastically change the stance on factions, again. Specifically, the company would have to allow players to have characters of different factions on the same server (already allowed on non-PvP servers). Otherwise my Goblin (duh) could never be truly neutral if Solidexplosion was forced to select Alliance down the road because of Solidsamm's and Solidsagart's affiliations.
But that doesn't mean I don't see a neutral faction happening. In fact I wrote the unique classes hoping this could come to fruition. Blizzard could easily implement a third faction (based on the masks no less), one that stays out of the Alliance-Horde affairs. One that watches from the sidelines offering refugee for any that may require it. One that I will label as the "Swiss" faction. These non-aggressors will act as diplomats between the warring sides, while still contributing to the often combined goals of said sides, such as killing the Lich King. In the long run there'd be more work needed to create a separate entity, but the new content should be far more appreciated than tacking on a choice down the road.
Certainly if a neutral faction was to happen, the cash flush Goblins would be the race in charge, with the battle hardened Worgen, brutal Ogres, and the swarm happy Murlocs lending a helping hand. The multi-talented Vrykul are new to Warcraft, so their addition as a playable class would annoy this purist. After how many times I creeped them, or grinded them for reputation, I believe the fifth slot should go to the furry Furbolgs.
And yes, I know I ignored the Naga masks. While there could be some sort of Forsaken-type branch or tribe, I write off their addition to the line-up of Hallow's End fun to the fact that they are the incoming bad guys.
Again, I'd love it if Blizzard makes me eat this post with a side of 'in your face,' but I just don't see Blizzard revamping the PvP servers to allow them to go cross faction. It'd be a bit of work, just for a choice down the line. But they have done crazier things. Speaking of the choice, let's hope it'll be a cool, lengthy quest line to prove your allegiance.
What would some of the racial benefits be? Goblins get extra gold from kills, Murloc has higher level fishing, and Ogres get, umm, kaleidoscope vision? What is more likely, the labor intensive relative to reward faction choosing, or an entirely new faction? What about blending the two, letting you chose a side, or remaining in the new faction? That'd be interesting.
Reader Comments (42)
ok come on people this is just halloween masks for wow its not another class we have all seen thos things while playing so they made them as a mask i dont rlly think there would be a nuetral fraction either thats dumb do you really think blizz is going to let us play as a big serpant or a murloc come on think people
Ogre DK? fail
Worgen DK? could be cool
Murloc DK? EPIC
naga DK? cool
Vrykhul DK? cba
:p
@ Drekraijin
I totaly agree with you there with the names. come on people just look for the red names. I don't see the problme unless you don't know how to work the interface menu. and murloc DK would be epic. But what about murloc hunter, with BM talent. Now thats epic
Too bad the masks added later all use existing textures, while the female worgen is still brand new art.
There was something that EverQuest did way back when it was starting to try and compete with Warcraft. I recall that they added the ability for a player to "posses" an NPC Monster character. Generally a lower level monster in a relatively low level area. You could then use the NPCs inherent abilities and run around basically making a mockery of newer players who expected the fight to be simple, i.e. drawing the player into aggro range of other monsters. You could never, of course, control a powerful monster (for obvious reasons). It just seems that adding additional factions into Warcraft this late in it's development would really just be something like what EverQuest did. A way to distract high end players who have achieved so much that they have become bored with the standard game play.
Pandarens would not be horde at all. IF you read wowwiki, it states they hate the NE but love the Dawrves since they love Alcohol as much as them.
the BE hate all of the horde but the Forsaken.
Yes i have been wanting a neutral faction for years. i think it would be soo cool for play as a centuar!
First!
i dont realy care about new race`s but i would love if they would switch Blood Elfs from green to Blue eyes. i mean they could , Kil`jaeden`s been banished Kael`Thas is dead (for now) and the SUNWELL is restored purified so we got our magic addiction prety much settled so can we pls go back to blue eyes it would be so much cooler
First of all, a 'choose-your-faction' type thing is already on. Ever been to Shattrat? Scryers, Aldor?
Choosing between Horde and Alliance would be more difficult since every race has his own side. Not individuals but complete races made the choice to form the Alliance and others the Horde. Also its easier to recognize your factionmembers by race (sounds a little rascist, sorry for that)
It could be an idea to create a third faction of goblins and ogres, since they're already part of the neutral factions Booty Bay, Everlook etc But Worgen? Naga? Murlocs? Except for a murloc-pet I've never seen a friendly one. Putting them together with the goblins and ogres... Furbolgs would be better, those Sporeggar-guys or Ancients of the cenarion circle. Imagine playing one of those!
But here's another idea. Why not just let the Ebon Blade return under the Lich King's command and so create a faction of all DK's, Horde and Alliance?
Since every DK, Horde or Alliance, already fights for the Ebon Blade and not for the faction they're in. The Ebon Blade commands them to fight for the faction they were in before they died, but they still even haven't got a mind of their own.
They would be neutral, they kill both sides and more.
10 races to choose from, giving each race some extra advantages towards others.
To equalize the strength between Horde/Alliance classes and DK's, there can be a debuff. Horde or Alliance player can say: mommy/daddy is that you? and the DK gets the recognize-debuff, making him/her cry and disabling parry or dodge chance.
Problem would be, that both other factions lose alotta cool daily's for the Ebon Blade and they would be hostile or hated or something like that with them, like towards eachother.
Not a big fan of DK's, I see too many decay uh DK's around. Last time I looked Stormwind turned into an Ebon Blade stronghold. Would love to clear that up.
But if this happens, I will lvl my DK. Made one, was hoping to stand beside the Lich King forever, hearing the words 'For the Lich King' everytime again, fighting for his glory for eternity. But . . . . . . fail.
I think "neutral" is a bad way to describe the faction. I would love to see the faction to be hostile vs both the Alliance and the Horde.
I don't see how Blizzard would need a big retcon for this to happen. If Blizzard puts in this new faction it could be because of several reasons, and here is one way to put it:
The goblins see that the Alliance and Horde are getting to powerfull beating the Lich King and decide to make an own Alliance in their own benefit. They call in the Ogres and Vrykul and find a somewhat renegade group of Naga who quickly join them along with troop of Murlocs. In the end Worgen join as well somewhere ;)
Now for this to happen another more important question needs to be asked: What about the cities, starting areas, mounts, if they are hostile vs both Alliance and Horde alot of new quests need to be included than... (Maybe they start at level 65, adding a new zone to outland or "maelstrom zone", so they only need to make ajustments to Northrend, still very unlikely)
So me thinks these masks are there to support an altered version of "A Mask for All Occasion" ;)
Well if neutral means you start neutral in starting zone but once exit you must choose a side would work. If on a pvp server and you are alliance and you start a neutral character you get no choice your forced alliance, I don't see the big deal on that argument easy to solve.
Now a true 3rd faction that could be a bit harder and to solve enemy issue 3 way war hostile against Horde and Alliance. BGs easy the queue picks the first two sides that have number needed fight. Make similar but altered a bit of the bgs so it different depending on which two fighting. WG well that needs some fixing anyway.
New faction small size not an issue if they getting races that are the most wanted list like worgen, naga, goblins, ..sigh pandareans, etc. Glad that not mask rather get drakonids masks/race first :P
Well, actually, a third faction is kind of interesting, and well.. perhaps that is what's going on, or perhaps a way to switch sides.
Why do I think this?
Well, City of Heroes/Villains (hereafter referred to as CoH for simplicity) has kinda had these ideas that Blizzard implements shortly after they are done in CoH. Like big game changing stuff.
For instance.. CoH implemented a Badge system. The system rewarded you with Badges for exploration, completing certain quests, lore discovery, killing mobs, taking damage, healing, etc and these badges would reward you stuff, like nameplate modifiers (titles) etc. A few months later, this was also implemented in WoW as Achievements.
CoH also announced and implemented another biggie before Blizzard, and that was Dual Spec. 2 different specs you could swap between.
Anyhow, the reason I mention all this is because a new expansion was announced for CoH called Going Rogue. Which will allow you to effectively change faction, and possibly have a third Rogue faction. I'm not entirely clear on the details, I just know faction change is in.
Will we see this in WoW? Only Blizzard knows that, either way, I wouldn't be too shocked if it was announced at Blizzcon.
First! :D
well this is all good and all and it would be awsome if we got to have a third faction that is ahelper of both sides but i cant w8 for blizzard to open up the pandarians to us and mabey have us explore panderia!
If the nuetrul fraction is real we will learn more about it when blizzcon comes. but there will have to be a ton of stuff to work out like having a new starting place for pvp. then is there going to be a new class along with the new fraction?
mount ideas
I think orcs should have a new mount a boar and worgens get the wolf murlocs ride a fish thing goblins rhave a jet pack turtle or go cart thingy vrykl thingy midgey should have a RHINO! and naga should ride a snake