Alliance and Horde Faction Change Service

[Air]

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=18031079410&sid=1

[blizzard]We wanted to give everyone a very early heads-up that, in response to player requests, we're developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. There's still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we're pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it.

As with all of the features and services we offer, we intend to incorporate the faction-change service in a way that won't disrupt the gameplay experience on the realms, and there will be some rules involved with when and how the service can be used. The number of variables involved increases the complexity of implementing this service, but we plan to take the time needed to ensure that it lives up to expectations before officially rolling it out. We'll go into much more detail on all of this here at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com as development progresses. In the meantime, we wanted to let you know that because this type of functionality requires extensive internal testing well in advance of release, you may be seeing bits and pieces of the service in the test builds we use for the public test realms moving forward. [/blizzard]

[Shadowwolf]

I want to be the same race tho =/

I want my Blood Elf to stay a Blood Elf and my Troll to stay a Troll =(

[Apolla]

  :)Imma play my shaman, Imma play my shaman, Imma play my shaman

No, I'm not happy at all.

[Gutboy]

Aww, we need some 'double-agents' to stay Horde and help us with event quests! 

GB

[Air]

Classic Wow manual eludes to the ability of having faction defections eventually.  If blizz wanted to make it easy on themselves this would be a good way to go about it.  And they could create lore that would support a defection from Horde to Alliance and vice versa.

[Tony]

I am absolutely floored by this...

[gossamer]

I'm not liking this at all... . So many things can go wrong in my eyes, will be Tons of NINJAS! just for starters possibly a horde spy... atm ally has horde outnumbered im not sure on exacts but that will change, and im afraid mass ally will go horde.  Could be alot of new guilds that come over/form up that dont like ally still on ally side! and we get to hear it... can already think of some of the names that they will use for guilds....  I just think this is a Horrible idea probably one of the worst in long time.  if anyone knows me ingame they know I hate horde witha  pasion one of the main reasons I still play this game is because there is 2 sides   


    Please everyone put up some pros/cons for me please.  Besides I have 1 or more toons that I can make ally:P

    Goss

[Haderach]

I dont see why you should just all out hate one side, I mean you look at both sides, you find guilds of the same style, family, casual, hardcore, its people playing the game, and like air said, they have alluded too adding this is game before. all this really means for me is that I dont need to reroll my warlock. I can transfer the 72 UD I have and make him alliance.

[fiere redfern]

If you think about it, the change will also make roleplayers a helluva lot happier, just considering the storylines that can come out of leveling a horde toon and transferring its allegiance to the alliance side (or vice versa). This is obviously an undertaking that will hold a heck of a lot of weight, and players most likely will be unable to transfer more than one toon for a set period of time; though that's only my assumption.

The Horde are not inherently evil, and neither are the Alliance inherently good, and the change will make the blurring of that line even more obvious. I'm kind of looking forward to it, frankly. Must be the roleplayer in me >.>

[Grendeel]

My only conern would be the populaton base of servers.   I see many many complaints of a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio which many find very frustrating to play on.  If all those people complaining about it decide to join the "majority" it could make these ratios much much worse.

As long as blizz addresses this before transfers are allowed, then it should be ok.  If they dont then this could end up being a horrible idea.   I could see ratios going to 5:1 or even 10:1 if not monitored.

[Gutboy]

"Transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm" sounds to me like the character's race would/could be changed, so there wouldn't suddenly be a bunch of Taurens in IF. I think that would be the least disruptive way of accomplishing what people are apparently asking for - the ability to swap over a leveled char to play with friends. As for H/A ratios, this could indeed tip over servers that are already imbalanced, unless Blizz puts limits on it.

GB

[Tony]

Quick Q and A update for those of you with questions

[blizzard]Quote from: Nethaera (Source)
We wanted to give everyone a very early heads-up that, in response to player requests, we're developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. There's still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we're pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it.

As with all of the features and services we offer, we intend to incorporate the faction-change service in a way that won't disrupt the gameplay experience on the realms, and there will be some rules involved with when and how the service can be used. The number of variables involved increases the complexity of implementing this service, but we plan to take the time needed to ensure that it lives up to expectations before officially rolling it out. We'll go into much more detail on all of this here at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com as development progresses. In the meantime, we wanted to let you know that because this type of functionality requires extensive internal testing well in advance of release, you may be seeing bits and pieces of the service in the test builds we use for the public test realms moving forward.

Updated 7/1
Due to the many questions that have come up with the announcement of this new service, we wanted to take the time to answer the ones we can at this point in time.

Q. Will we be able to switch between the races on our own faction?
A. No. Players will only be able to switch to a race of the opposite faction.

Q. Will I be able to choose the race on the opposite faction that I want to change to?
A. Yes, but you will only be able to switch to a race that has your class type available to it. So if you play a human paladin, you'd only be able to change to a blood elf paladin.

Q. How much will it cost?
A. We do not have further information on this at this point in time.

Q. Will I be able to switch back to my original faction but a different race?
A. No. You will only be able to switch back to your originally chosen race.

Q. How will the switch between reputation, gear, mounts, etc be handled?
A. We'll have more details for you at a later point in time, though we plan to keep these as close to a reflection of the other faction as much as possible.

Q. How often can you change your faction?
A. We do not have any information to share on this at this point in time, however we will have restrictions on the frequency by which players can change their faction.

Q. How will this affect the balance of Horde and Alliance on the realms?
A. We are taking great care in how we implement this new service in order to maintain balance between the factions on the realms but do not have any further details to share. [/blizzard]