After nearly 20 years, the official World of Warcraft recently announced that players from the Alliance and Horde will be allowed to team up to play the game. And in an interview, World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas explained the reasons for the decision and confirmed that there will be no more Alliance and Clash of Clans-focused expansions since then.
In World of Warcraft patch 9.2.5, after the Eternal End update, players of the Alliance and Horde will be able to complete dungeons, raids, and PvP together, regardless of which faction they allegiance to. Hazzikostas said that cross-faction world content will be a huge undertaking due to the game’s framework, which means it’s unlikely to happen, although it’s possible that cross-faction guilds will emerge in the future.
At the same time, Ion Hazzikostas also emphasized that “it is better not to close any doors.” He does not want anything to be excluded from the discussion, nor does he want to cut off any community formed by adding cross-faction content. As such, World of Warcraft’s story is unlikely to be as focused on faction warfare as Battle for Azeroth.
Like Shadowlands, the Battle for Azeroth expansion sold well at first but quickly fell out of favor with World of Warcraft fans. While the world-building and plot are interesting, the faction wars following the Legion feel forced, and it destroys the integrity of many characters in the process. Battle for Azeroth proves that World of Warcraft fans are tired of faction wars and would love to see it over.
This made World of Warcraft’s decision to allow cross-faction play to be met with a hugely positive response, with players almost unanimously wanting to focus on getting out of the war rather than dwelling on past conflicts. They also want to be able to play games with friends regardless of their chosen faction or race. Many hope these changes will create a World of Warcraft community that discourages half the players from hating the other half.
However, there are still a small number of players who are firmly opposed to cross-faction play. Some consider faction warfare to be the essence of Warcraft, even though Alliance and Horde have been working together to fight their enemies as early as Warcraft 3.
Still, others hold grudges against players of different factions for other reasons, such as malicious behavior or resentment caused by the story. For this reason, Blizzard says it wants to keep cross-faction gameplay optional, and plans to listen to player feedback and wishes as it explores a new era of World of Warcraft.