http://www.wowfiction.net/art/hordewantsyou.jpg

Uncle Grim says join the Horde, earn your honor!

Pssh, I tried to join the Horde, I even asked a local guard for directions. She looked at me funny, yelled out "KEK" and proceeded to bash my skull.

Besides, War Harnesses just aren't my thing.

*roars*

been there, done that.

and i lost honor for burning down the org orphanage....

"It was in self-defence!"

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Q u o t e:
been there, done that.

and i lost honor for burning down the org orphanage....

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That's just because you are wierd.

And by join the Horde, I certainly don't mean roll a Blood Elf.

Okay I am in Grim


::roar:: ::cough hack wheeze::

Am I doing it right?

*flips his hair*

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Q u o t e:
Am I doing it right?

*flips his hair*

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*hissssssssssssssssssss

Whether you like it or not, sir, the Blood Elves ARE members of the Horde now.

Mari, I shouldn't have to preface this with a disclaimer about the fondness I hold for you, and how I wouldn't wish the Alliance on you for the world, so I won't. The fact is, though, Blood Elves represent something of a problem to horde players on RP servers, particularly long-toothed old salts like myself.

Horde RP has always been a wily beast, difficult to get a hold of. The principal reason is one of population. The natural inclination among role players is often to try and live out a fantasy one holds, to become an idealized version of oneself or one's fantasy heroes. Even where a player is inclined to do something unusual and play a workaday or mundane character, the tendency is still to choose a race one identifies with, traditionally humans or Night Elves. So there weren't a lot of horde RPers. In fact, on RP servers, there just haven't been a lot of horde players. When populations tend to balance out, it's usually because of a large number of people who just aren't interested in RP of any sort (I want to say raiders here, but obviously lots of RPers raid, and lots of raiders RP).

But the horde coped. The horde, as a whole, tend to be reflect their names. Quarrelsome and churlish barbarians. Brutal orcs, spiritual tauren, and tribal trolls. The introduction of undead in the eleventh hour of pre-beta came as quite a shock to many RPers and lore-junkies, but this was sort've worked around as it gave us an interesting flair and diversity the alliance lacked, and the internal tension made for good stories.

The trouble is, the Forsaken, historically, have made up the majority of the Horde on RP servers. Forsaken first, then Tauren, with trolls and orcs usually neck-and-neck (often, though, Orcs, the race who founded the horde, who lead it in the form of Thrall, are ironically the smallest minority in the horde).

Okay, though, we learned to work with that as well. Sure, any horde plotline that came along would feature a cast that was 50% living impaired, but we were still the horde. We were still ugly, and our ways still harsh.

Then, along came the blood elves. Oi vey.

The blood elves didn't just come, they came in droves. New players picked them. Old players, from horde and alliance, rerolled as them. On new servers, they make up over half the population. On middling servers like ours they quickly became the dominant voice in RP, raiding, and general politics. They brought a shiny, pretty city, anime hair, and fairy-tale promises.

In a game such as, say, Everquest, where strict faction lines don't exist, and every race can be viewed within the context of its place in the world, such an addition might not even give one pause. But for Warcraft, where there are very clear-cut lines between the stories of the horde and alliance, the perception, and I'll even say the experience, of the introduction of blood elves is one of a watering down of that which made the horde appealing. It seems like the majority of the horde storylines I'm aware of feature blood elves as the central characters. For a great while, the only place to find RPers milling about was Silvermoon.

In short, yes, Blood Elves are a horde race. But rolling a blood elf isn't joining the horde. It's creating a character with the central motifs and visual characteristics of the alliance who can talk with your horde friends (or other alliance-turned-horde characters).

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Q u o t e:
Mari, I shouldn't have to preface this with a disclaimer about the fondness I hold for you, and how I wouldn't wish the Alliance on you for the world, so I won't. The fact is, though, Blood Elves represent something of a problem to horde players on RP servers, particularly long-toothed old salts like myself.

Horde RP has always been a wily beast, difficult to get a hold of. The principal reason is one of population. The natural inclination among role players is often to try and live out a fantasy one holds, to become an idealized version of oneself or one's fantasy heroes. Even where a player is inclined to do something unusual and play a workaday or mundane character, the tendency is still to choose a race one identifies with, traditionally humans or Night Elves. So there weren't a lot of horde RPers. In fact, on RP servers, there just haven't been a lot of horde players. When populations tend to balance out, it's usually because of a large number of people who just aren't interested in RP of any sort (I want to say raiders here, but obviously lots of RPers raid, and lots of raiders RP).

But the horde coped. The horde, as a whole, tend to be reflect their names. Quarrelsome and churlish barbarians. Brutal orcs, spiritual tauren, and tribal trolls. The introduction of undead in the eleventh hour of pre-beta came as quite a shock to many RPers and lore-junkies, but this was sort've worked around as it gave us an interesting flair and diversity the alliance lacked, and the internal tension made for good stories.

The trouble is, the Forsaken, historically, have made up the majority of the Horde on RP servers. Forsaken first, then Tauren, with trolls and orcs usually neck-and-neck (often, though, Orcs, the race who founded the horde, who lead it in the form of Thrall, are ironically the smallest minority in the horde).

Okay, though, we learned to work with that as well. Sure, any horde plotline that came along would feature a cast that was 50% living impaired, but we were still the horde. We were still ugly, and our ways still harsh.

Then, along came the blood elves. Oi vey.

The blood elves didn't just come, they came in droves. New players picked them. Old players, from horde and alliance, rerolled as them. On new servers, they make up over half the population. On middling servers like ours they quickly became the dominant voice in RP, raiding, and general politics. They brought a shiny, pretty city, anime hair, and fairy-tale promises.

In a game such as, say, Everquest, where strict faction lines don't exist, and every race can be viewed within the context of its place in the world, such an addition might not even give one pause. But for Warcraft, where there are very clear-cut lines between the stories of the horde and alliance, the perception, and I'll even say the experience, of the introduction of blood elves is one of a watering down of that which made the horde appealing. It seems like the majority of the horde storylines I'm aware of feature blood elves as the central characters. For a great while, the only place to find RPers milling about was Silvermoon.

In short, yes, Blood Elves are a horde race. But rolling a blood elf isn't joining the horde. It's creating a character with the central motifs and visual characteristics of the alliance who can talk with your horde friends (or other alliance-turned-horde characters).

---

I could not have said it better.

Yes, Marsh always did have a way with words.

/e shrugs and grins lazily as she watches her sister crawl under a rock.

Pardon me, but I rolled a Sin'Dorei to be of the Horde.

FOR THE MOTHER#%$*ING HORDE. >.<

In all seriousness there is even really good storyline for when the Blood Elves get to prove there worth to the Horde. I got to carry a severed head to all the major cities, finally Org. It was an honorable day.

Blood Elves may be 'easier to identify with' but they are still hated by the Alliance, still hated by their own cousins, still fighting for survival. They are Horde.

Marsh's post is true in the general, but not in the specific.

People who RP *at all* on their Blood Elves tend to be good RP'ers. If they're hard to find, it's more because they are drowned in the flood of non-RPers - those Hordies who prefer jumping around in their underwear and treating FlagRSP like some sort of miniature MySpace page.


Mind you, Blood Elf storylines do tend to have a rather Barbiesque edge to them much of the time, lots of "Secretly a PRINCESS!" and happy /unhappy /arranged /accidental marriages bursting out all over. While most old-school Horde RPers tend to sneer at such RP, romantic plotlines have their place in the world. There's a reason Romance Novels outsell all other fiction markets combined, and it's not, sadly, because they're well-written. Much of the population is attracted to soap-opera style human drama, and we should be unsurprised to see it in the Blood Elf Milieu.

Just be aware that it isn't everyone's cup of tea and move on.

Um, is this the part where I get to say, ROAR!?!?

RAWR!!!

<----Is secretly a princess who is a triple agent SPY entangled in a web of the Young and the Restless. OMG.

That was me j/k, to all those who take things seriously.

I honestly havent encountered anyone who was 'secretly a princess'...........

Um. Hi. Im a Paladin. Me tank. Me Horde. grr.

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Q u o t e:
I honestly havent encountered anyone who was 'secretly a princess'...........

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I have. They're mostly male 'toons.




...I'm not here to judge.