All right, I must admit, this isn't as pressing a matter as Bird Flu or emo ranting, but SOMEONE has to ask drunkduck about their Azerothian preferances...
Horde or Alliance: Which do you like? Why? You're only allowed to pick one here for the sake of the debate, though you may mention that you like them both (if you do... you Alliance-lovin' scum...).
Before I begin my reasoning, for the people who don't know what I'm talking about, or would like to know more, you can read this: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/story/chapter2.html (go from Ch.2 on)
Obviously, I like The Horde. My family's a Horde family. My brother likes Horde, my Mom likes Horde. But here's my reasoning:
I like the Horde simply because I DON'T like the Alliance. Sounds dumb? Maybe I can clear it up.
MY VIEWS ON THE RACES: Night Elves: I dislike the Night Elves most of all. They're the preppy T.W.I.N.K's of Warcraft. They've got the 'better than all races, but we'll accept the good-looking and/or useful ones if it fits us' sort of attitude (both on WoW and the other Warcraft games, though they were the best race to play as in the Warcraft games). Dwarves: I've never been partial to Dwarves, mostly because of their facial hair, but I don't dislike them like I do the Night Elves (or pretty much any Elf in general... except the cookie/Santa kinds. Those can live. They're good slaves). Humans: Humans are bland. I'm human, I should know. Why would anyone want to be a human in a fantasy world when you could be a cow-person?!
And lastly: The Gnomes...: Nobody likes the gnomes. E-Except me. I'm the most pro-Horde person I know next to my brother, but I like the gnomes. I'm a closet gnome-fan. The gnomes never really cared about fighting any other races. Instead they focused on building crazy things that would later make them lepers (as well as being small and adorable). They were sort of guilted in to joining the Alliance when they were saved by them and had no place else to go.
Of course, that makes 3 out of 4 races I wouldn't play as. Not looking good for the Alliance so far, but there's more. The Alliance as a whole has adopted the Night Elf 'tude. They believe that things that aren't glamorous and beautiful should bow down to them or be wiped off the face of Azeroth, and things like the Trolls which attacked the Night Elves for invading their holy land should just live with it and find new holy land. How rude indeed!
But the Horde aren't the nicest things to live with either.
Orc: Originally the Horde was only Orcs. I wouldn't want to be an Orc, but having a giant green guy on your team is never bad (unless he's jolly and sells vegetables). The Orcs were never really evil, but were all sold out by one corrupt one of their own, who made a deal with a demon, enslaving his people and making them savage. So you can't blame them for anything bad they did in the past! But I'd still never play an Orc.
Undead: The Undead started out as wayward humans. Generally they were all poor peasants seeking something better, and immortality via undeath must have seemed like a good idea to them at the time, because they sided with the Lich King. They later left his rule to start their own kigdom. Now they're set on dominating all life on Azeroth and making them their slaves. ... OK, so maybe the undead aren't the kindest things ever, but they're still better than the Night Elves! At least they ain't chicken!
Tauren: The Tauren are the most awesomest of awesome to ever exist! They're comparable to Chuck Norris (in Cow form). They're in touch with nature, and believe all races are equal so long as they value the land and other creatures. They, like the gnomes, were sort of guilted into joining the Horde because the Orcs saved them from Centaurs. But... come on, how much cooler than a bi-pedal cow person that can sling guns, wield swords, or cast spells can you get?!
Trolls: Much like the Gnomes, nobody likes the Trolls. Not even me. Sorry trolls, you're lame. Though Rastafarian. But even the accent can't save you from the uncool.
The Horde in general are just misunderstood. Granted some *cough Undead cough* are evil, the others are just trying to make their way on the world and get what they believe is rightfully theirs. So, to me, the Horde is actually less evil than the Alliance. Not that being evil isn't SOMETIMES cool.
WoW (nehehe) that was long! Feel free to selectively read that. Now... Tell me, which do you favor and why, the Horde or the Alliance.
"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."
-Henry David Thoreau, Walden
I'm for the Horde, because they seem more like the underdogs in this kind of thing. Maybe it's the tribal attitude 3/4s of them have which, of course, reminds me of my own Native American heritage (especially the Tauren, who literally live in tipis). The only really "evil" group in the Horde is the Undead, but you can't entirely blame them since, if you play through the Undead areas and listen to everyone's story, apparently losing your sentimentality (among other emotions) is an important side-effect of becoming a rotting corpse.
A lot of my opinion, though, stems from Warcraft III, where in the end the humans are the most villainous race, and the orcs are essentially misunderstood group with a samurai-like code of honor.
It's world of Warcraft. The only massively multiplayer online game worth playing (It is seriously technically better than the competition when it comes to game play dynamics (fun) and working well on the broadest range of computers). It would tearing apart my relationship with my boyfriend - except he's the one who got me playing WOW.
I've been playing on Lothar, with a 39lvl Orc warrior named VonBek (and a lvl 13 undead mage alt named Thanaton). I have a 48lvl Orc Warlock on another account - I hope Blizzard will allow transfer of characters over accounts soon.
If you pay attention to the storyline, the Alliance are pretty ruthless and eager betrayers. The Horde, on the other hand, are actually pretty honourable , except for maybe the undead.
When it comes to actual game play - it seems the wrong people stick to characters that are 'pretty'. The Horde characters can look cool, but not really 'pretty' (the girls fare better - but tend to look a little like butch lesbians on the horde side).
How does this affect game play? There are usually far more Alliance players than Horde players, and the typical Alliance player is more likely to play poorly and act petty and childish in game. The horde is where you go to if you want to play with people who won't 'ninja loot' or act stupid just for the sake of being stupid.
THER IS A BUT... In the next version of WOW, the Horde is getting BLOOD ELVES! Blood elves are... pretty. Soon there will be blood elves EVERYWHERE! And overall they will be played with the immaturity and incompetance of a usual Alliance character....
Horde is getting Blood Elves! Nya Nya Nya Nya!
(the chick at Stonetalon who asks you to kill cenarian deer people is a Blood Elf).
Blood Elves, from the description I read, are going to almost be overpowered, an 'easy' race for the horde - I guess to balance the Alliances 'easy' palladin.
Blood elves can 'siphon magic' from other people - to rebuild their mana. Bloof elf warriors do the same thing to build up rage. Blood elf rogues - energy.
Currently I play a warrior and my first few attacks have to be generic as I have to build up rage. Were I a blood elf I could enter the battle with a full bar of rage every time.
Doesn't seem balanced to me. But we'll see, they're not released yet.
...I haven't played WoW yet, but I've been thinking of... this is scaring me off a little. I only like the one race in Horde, while I do tend to lean toward the Elf/human side of things otherwise. (I'm a big witch fan, and all of the better witches were human. Even the WWotW* was half.) On the other hand, the Alliance doesn't really sound all that appealing... now I'm not sure if I'll get the game or not.
Should you play world of warcraft? It's addicting. The game is designed to be something you can play only occasionally, and still progress - but it's compelling. It can be a huge time waster.
It does cost $15/month and is a much better experience with broadband, the game costs $50. So it's not cheap.
Is the game good? Yes. It's very very good.
Do you want to play very goody goody? I reccomend Gnomes, Dwarves and Tauren.
Do you want to kick ass? I reccomend Night Elf, Orc and Tauren.
Do you want to be Wicked? I reccomend human, undead, Troll
Want to be pretty? Be female. Female Trolls are likely the cutest on the horde side, maybe the Tauren female, but she looks odd to me. There are too many night elves 'cause they're pretty. Soon blood elves will be on the horde side, prettier than night elves maybe (you can see night elves are related to trolls).
Night Elves are more like trolls - very tall, a little awkward and with giant ears.
Blood elf models are more classically like elves, pale skin, scaled much shorter, with modest ears.
The Blood Elf story is a little dark. They with the Horde 'cause the Undead Queen once had been their queen. And all of them are junkies, addicted to magic. In earlier Warcraft - a human betrayed the Blood Elves and tried to kill them all.
That is a general complaint with WOW - not enough variety with the character models. And it gets very - me and my twin - later at 60 when characters get complete class sets of armor/weapons from large scale instances.
"Puff" Said: They're the same base with different colored skins painted on, they can't possibly be prettier! They're the same! Except pinker!
Wait wait, you don't like PINK???
I never said that! I like pink! One of my favorite shirts is pink! I said they were pinker. It's not a 'less than, equal to' equation, it's just 'equal to'. With Pink.
Have you ever seen a close-up of a Troll females face? Not cute at all; the orcs at least have something closer to cute. The Undead would have the most attractive potential, horde-side, if not for the large chunks of their body missing.
"Inkmonkey" Said: Have you ever seen a close-up of a Troll females face? Not cute at all; the orcs at least have something closer to cute. The Undead would have the most attractive potential, horde-side, if not for the large chunks of their body missing.
I have seen troll girls up close that looked good, but not all the character models are the same.
The orc females are VERY hot - but I think they'd appeal more to lesbians than str8 men.
LOL for some reason, this reminds me oddly of morrowwind what with all the unusual characters you get to meet in the game. or even play as!
I must confess that I'm a HUGE fan of Elves most of the time, but I'm not sure if I even like the Elves as described in the world of warcraft, they do sound like assholes. ^^;;
whenever I played as an Elf, I didn't act childish or act stupid. I also didn't pick the race just because it was "pretty". in fact, in morrowwind a large majority of the elves can be *gasp* ugly! unless you download mods where you change up the game graphics to give all the races an more astethic appeal.
Of course morrowwind for the pc currently isn't mulitiplayer (how I wish it was), although I heard that there's actually a mod for that.
however, I do play a lot of morrpgs, and I always tend to go for Elves every time if I can.
And when I roleplay as an elf character, I tend not to act like I'm better than everyone else or something silly like that. I tend to play the role I'm comfortable as, as an character that supports the whole team by backing them up. I also go for Magic-user classes, so that I can stand by and cast spells for the team while they get up close and pyshical.
and when I roleplay the part of my character, I've been told that I sound like an vulcan sometimes..
"But sire, commiting such an act is not logical! The logical step would be to take precatuations first, so that we can escape provided something goes wrong despite the plan."
Although I don't always play as an elf. I tend to gravative towards classes that doesn't always have to depend on pyshical force all the time, an class that can get evasive and hard to hit.
I must confess I've never played war of warcraft. But if I had to.. then I'd play an nightelf or even a blood elf. what can I say? Habits die hard!
If I was to play an nightelf, I'd be one of the *gasp!* few who didn't act like total assholes. ^^
although being an blood elf does sound much more cooler... being able to leech off your enemy's strengths and all that.
I guess it's mainly due to the fact that being part of an nearly immortal race appeals to me. I'd love to live for more than thousands of years and still look as if I hadn't aged a day.
I'm on hitatus while I redo one of my webcomics. Be sure to check it out when I'n done!
"Aurora Moon" Said: I guess it's mainly due to the fact that being part of an nearly immortal race appeals to me. I'd love to live for more than thousands of years and still look as if I hadn't aged a day.
The Night Elves gave up their immortality. Now they age and die just like humans. HA! TAKE THAT, NIGHT ELVES! YOU GET OLD AND SHRIVELY!