zillah975 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
zillah975) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
adventures_in_azeroth2011-12-01 10:09 am
zillah975) wrote in adventures_in_azeroth2011-12-01 10:09 am
Factions
So with all the talk on the forums about faction favoritism (and seriously, why did they pick a Horde-side dev to address problems with people feeling like the Alliance gets shafted by the devs? are there any Alliance-side quest writers? and if the devs are all Horde-side, shouldn't this be a clue that they need to beef up Alliance storytelling to make it compelling enough that some of the devs want to play Alliance?) and the snarking from Hordies in the comments about how they're so awesome and Alliance sux and we should just switch factions and stop QQing, it got me thinking about factions and why I keep playing Alliance even though I'm so, SO curious about the Horde-side quests and story lines, and even though I like Thrall about a millionty times better than Varian Wrynn (about whom I know almost nothing. Apparently there are books? Should this be in the game?).
Wow, that was a long sentence. Ooooops.
ANYway.
It mostly comes down to aesthetics, and a little personality.
* My back starts to hurt just watching the Undead and the male Trolls. Why can't they stand up straight? Srsly, I know it seems weird, but there it is, I can't do it.
* The female trolls all look too much like a former friend with whom I had a falling out; I tried, but I can't play one without thinking of her and it's just uncomfortable and not fun.
* The Goblin starting quests make me uncomfortable for reasons I won't share right now. I may try it again sometime, but I also really hate the city you start in. It's too noisy with the engines roaring and all those neon lights, it just doesn't please me to play there. It makes me tense in the bad way.
* The Blood Elves idle animation -- at least the females -- make me want to smack them. It's like they're constantly sulking and rolling their eyes, it's irritating and makes me feel like they think they're doing me a favor by allowing me to play them. Irrational, yes, but I just can't get into the character.
* I really like the personalities of the Night Elves, Dwarves, Draenei, and Gnomes as displayed through voice, NPC text, and idle animations. The Gnomes' voices and NPC text are so chipper, the Dwarves seem really good-natured, and the idle animations for the female Nelfs and Draenei make them just look cheerful and glad to be there. I love that! (I don't know about the male idle animations because I don't play the dudes.)
* The Tauren and the Orcs are my favorites of the Horde races. If I play Horde-side for any length of time, it'll probably be one of them, because I mind them least of all of the Horde-side races, but...
* With the exception of the Draenei, I strongly prefer the landscapes of the Alliance starting zones. It's not that I think the Horde-side starting zones aren't well done, or aren't generally interesting and appropriate, but I really like Teldrassil, Darkshore, Elwynn Forest, and Dun Morogh. The Tauren and Orc starting zones are nice places to visit, but I don't like living there. The Belf starting zone is so sunny and brightly colored it almost gives me a headache, I've already talked about the Goblin starting zone, the Undead starting zone is very sufficiently creepy that I don't want to stay -- and their starting quests creep me out a lot too.
* I also got off on kind of a negative foot with one of the early Orc quests, where you have to go hit lazy workers with a truncheon or something. :/ It set a bad tone. Then later there's some guy waiting to be tortured, and you have to take part in some pit-fighting ring or something and kill enemies who are being forced to fight you for their lives in the pit? It's been a long time since I played on my Orc so I may be remembering wrong, maybe that was someone else. But it seems like something you would have to do as an Orc. Idk.
Also, Orgrimmar is the MOST confusing EVAR. God, that place is frustrating!! If I can ever level a character to the point where they can fly, I might not hate it so much, but argh, foo, Orgrimmar why so hard??
Also, what the hell did you do with my Orc's quest turn-ins? THEY ARE NOT THERE, I DON'T CARE WHAT IT SAYS ON THE MINI-MAP. *tiny fists of rage*
But I really am super curious about the Horde-side quests, after seeing what people have to say about them on the forums.
Now that I have Quest Completist installed, maybe I'll try another Hordie.
What do y'all think? Does the Horde really get better, meatier, more engaging quests than Alliance, or is this a "grass is always greener" situation?
Wow, that was a long sentence. Ooooops.
ANYway.
It mostly comes down to aesthetics, and a little personality.
* My back starts to hurt just watching the Undead and the male Trolls. Why can't they stand up straight? Srsly, I know it seems weird, but there it is, I can't do it.
* The female trolls all look too much like a former friend with whom I had a falling out; I tried, but I can't play one without thinking of her and it's just uncomfortable and not fun.
* The Goblin starting quests make me uncomfortable for reasons I won't share right now. I may try it again sometime, but I also really hate the city you start in. It's too noisy with the engines roaring and all those neon lights, it just doesn't please me to play there. It makes me tense in the bad way.
* The Blood Elves idle animation -- at least the females -- make me want to smack them. It's like they're constantly sulking and rolling their eyes, it's irritating and makes me feel like they think they're doing me a favor by allowing me to play them. Irrational, yes, but I just can't get into the character.
* I really like the personalities of the Night Elves, Dwarves, Draenei, and Gnomes as displayed through voice, NPC text, and idle animations. The Gnomes' voices and NPC text are so chipper, the Dwarves seem really good-natured, and the idle animations for the female Nelfs and Draenei make them just look cheerful and glad to be there. I love that! (I don't know about the male idle animations because I don't play the dudes.)
* The Tauren and the Orcs are my favorites of the Horde races. If I play Horde-side for any length of time, it'll probably be one of them, because I mind them least of all of the Horde-side races, but...
* With the exception of the Draenei, I strongly prefer the landscapes of the Alliance starting zones. It's not that I think the Horde-side starting zones aren't well done, or aren't generally interesting and appropriate, but I really like Teldrassil, Darkshore, Elwynn Forest, and Dun Morogh. The Tauren and Orc starting zones are nice places to visit, but I don't like living there. The Belf starting zone is so sunny and brightly colored it almost gives me a headache, I've already talked about the Goblin starting zone, the Undead starting zone is very sufficiently creepy that I don't want to stay -- and their starting quests creep me out a lot too.
* I also got off on kind of a negative foot with one of the early Orc quests, where you have to go hit lazy workers with a truncheon or something. :/ It set a bad tone. Then later there's some guy waiting to be tortured, and you have to take part in some pit-fighting ring or something and kill enemies who are being forced to fight you for their lives in the pit? It's been a long time since I played on my Orc so I may be remembering wrong, maybe that was someone else. But it seems like something you would have to do as an Orc. Idk.
Also, Orgrimmar is the MOST confusing EVAR. God, that place is frustrating!! If I can ever level a character to the point where they can fly, I might not hate it so much, but argh, foo, Orgrimmar why so hard??
Also, what the hell did you do with my Orc's quest turn-ins? THEY ARE NOT THERE, I DON'T CARE WHAT IT SAYS ON THE MINI-MAP. *tiny fists of rage*
But I really am super curious about the Horde-side quests, after seeing what people have to say about them on the forums.
Now that I have Quest Completist installed, maybe I'll try another Hordie.
What do y'all think? Does the Horde really get better, meatier, more engaging quests than Alliance, or is this a "grass is always greener" situation?
no subject
Contrariwise, there's a Stormwind quest where you're supposed to go beat up a prisoner until he gives you information and then kill him; I still don't know how that turns out, because I have yet to have an alliance-side character who thought that was an acceptable way to treat a prisoner.
The Horde-side quests have the advantage that the Horde is often the underdog -- they're defending their *actual homes* against the people who are trying to drive them out, while Alliance is trying to protect settlers from the forces that want to retain their rights to the land being settled. (Gosh, familiar tropes much?)
But both sides end up having to interact with Forsaken, as well as fighting the forces of the Lich King; I just find I can't get much past level 20 on a Forsaken without either getting bored or getting stuck because the next Required Quest is one I won't do. I may eventually work out a backstory for a character who thinks poisoning an entire village is peachy-keen, but I haven't managed it yet. ...Maybe a lunatic, who's decided that being undead means being immortal and is therefore the best thing since sliced bread and it's a gift that should be shared with *everyone*?
Anyway. :) I like running dwarves, gnomes, worgen, and orcs best, I think, with tauren, night-elves, and draenai (sp?) coming in fairly close second.