Tuesday, December 27, 2005

For the Horde. Evil? A debate

One post at TerraNova about has created some lively and lengthy debate: Read the post

The author (Castronova) is asserting that the Horde in World of Warcraft is inherently evil and that rolling one of those characters does indeed say something about the person... though you should really read the post to get its full flavour.

My own experience is markedly different and goes against the grain of what he is saying, based on his experience. I talk about some of them here.

1. I joined a PvP (player versus player) server, which pits the factions of Alliance and Horde against one another. Not only can you be killed by the usual NPCs (Non-Player Characters) but also other players of the other faction. As one of my friends has said, this makes it "A different story, and a different struggle. The other servers are CAREBEAR."

2. While I have Alliance alts on other CAREBEAR servers, my main is on a PvP server, where my offline friends spend most of their time as well. I ended up rolling a Horde character and was compelled to spend the most time on this server. There are fewer girls who are Horde, allegedly because the characters are uglier (possibly true). I just took it as a necessary ugliness if I wanted to join the same guild as my friends. There are also fewer Horde in general, and Alliance are perceived as "kids" and "pansies" whom Blizzard favours and gives quest/item/everything advantages to. Horde is good for people who like playing the underdog, because it is.

3. Even though I am in the Horde faction, I do not think of myself as "evil" or acting out "evil" tendencies. This is especially true, because as people familiar with the WarCraft storyline will know, the Horde in WoW is comprised of Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, and Undead (yeah I know they like biological warfare) who broke away from the Burning Legion and are trying to lead an honourable existence.

4. As mentioned before, Alliance are perceived as "cheap-assed pansies" because on a PvP server, you learn to sympathize with the other side. This has always been something WarCraft has done, because even in the RTS games, you could play the different factions, go with their storylines, and sympathize. There was no "this is evil, that is evil" as such... but you had to have opposing light/dark because that's just cool and Lord of the Rings-ish. Amongst Horde, Alliance members (even though they're 'good) are thought to have less honour (they gank lowbies without necessity), and exhibit dishonourable behaviour more frequently.

So, in sum, I don't think that the post was quite on the mark and would tend to agree with more of the comments subsequently posted there.

Daboo.

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