I asked Blizzard about WoW Interfaction Guilds following World of Warcraft Dragonflight and while the devs remained silent, I was pretty sure we would see them implemented alongside WoW Dragonflight patch 10.1. Following the announcement, I asked production manager Pat Dawson and lead quest designer Maria Hamilton whether or not the MMO’s split gameplay takes away the “war” from “Warcraft,” a sentiment I saw float on the internet for a while. .
You see, the Horde and Alliance have been feuding since the dawn of Azeroth itself. Prior to WoW Shadowlands patch 9.2.5, players could only loot, farm, and hang out with members of the same faction; wandering into an Alliance farming area almost always resulted in certain death for Horde members, and vice versa.
With the introduction of Interfaction instances in Eternity’s End, the player base has been split in two. While some are happy to raid with Alliance players because it means playing with friends, others are strongly opposed to the idea, saying it taints the very soul of multiplayer gameplay.
It is important that you You do not have to participate in factional forums. It’s all opt-in and opt-out, including the guild interfaces that will come with Dragonflight 10.1.
I posed this specific question to Dawson and Hamilton: Are cross-faction instances removing ‘war’ from ‘Warcraft’, leading to a resounding nod? “One of the fundamental concepts of World of Warcraft is this conflict between the Alliance and the Horde, and that remains true,” Dawson told – Game News.
“You can enter and fight as a Horde team and as an Alliance team in Battlegrounds and PvP. How you want to take advantage of this conflict; you can still do it. This is something we don’t plan to change or remove in any way.
“But we also know that as times have changed in the history of World of Warcraft, as well as in the world itself, it’s nice to be able to enjoy a bigger community, to play with more people and take on greater challenges as a team independently of which faction you may have chosen,” he continues.
“The idea here is to give opportunities to people who want a bigger community and want to play with their friends, but in Warsong Gulch you’re going to do Alliance vs. Horde. We want to serve both communities who are interested in doing activities different.
“For me, my character may hate the opposing faction and want to fight them and kill them, but as a player, I want to play my brother,” Hamilton interjects. “As a player, I want the opportunity to play with my friends, and that’s my choice.
“If my guild is open to inviting players from the opposite faction, then we will. I can do it now, we can do mythos, but that’s just the next step, I don’t think that will change anything with the Horde and Alliance hating each other.” “You can’t enter the capital without getting killed!” It’s still there!
“It’s a convenience for players, and it’s a convenience for those who have invested time and energy in the characters they love,” he concludes, noting that “players who want to maintain this sense of competition do not have to invite faction opponent.”
I completely understand Maria’s feelings. As someone who has been playing WoW for a long time, introducing it to my partner was made more difficult by the fact that he initially wanted to play Alliance. However, like me, he took a look at the faction balance (or lack thereof) on the servers and quickly left the Alliance for the Horde. When cross-faction instances came along, I was playing a character that I didn’t like that much, and I wasn’t exactly thrilled about it. Create a new character? Sure, but that’s not always a viable option – upgrading and equipping takes time.
If the new interfaction guilds have made you want to dive back into Azeroth, be sure to check out our WoW Dragonflight. review to know what to expect. We also have a WoW Dragonflight tier list to help you choose the best class and spec for you.