The Myth Of The Horde
I've been playing WoW for 8 or 9 months now. After a few false starts I settled on Stormscale (PvP) and I've made it to 60 on a paladin, and into my 40s on a rogue (plus lower levels on a variety of other classes). I love Diablo II, and I played WoW about the same way: alone. Alone seemed to be the best way to play Alliance. Many of the Alliance I met left me wondering how these people managed to feed themselves without stabbing their eyes out with the handle of their fork, much less how they could use a keyboard. Battlegrounds could have been fun, but the Alliance battle plan always seemed to be "everyone run around at random and don't help each other" and was followed up (after the inevitable loss) by a massive round of finger pointing. Contested Zones were sometimes painful since packs of organized Horde stalked the land and I could LFG for hours without finding anyone who wanted to group for quests or defense. Thankfully, being a paladin meant that I was too hard to kill and horde left me alone a lot.
On the side I had a few characters on Silver Hand (RP). Since I could have Horde and Alliance on Silver Hand, I ran both. I never got anything up very high, but I had lot more fun. The average person I met was more intelligent than a doorknob, and friendly to boot.
One day on Stormscale, however, I was stealthing past the Bloodsail Buccanners in STV with a low-40s rogue. A Tauren warrior on an Epic mount decided to take time out of his busy day to dismount and cast Death By Peasant on me. That was it for me with Stormscale. The paladin was 60 and the dynamics of grouping at level 60 were painful and my alts were tired of being killed. I had also completely lost interest in the paladin because of what the level 60s were like. People should, by that point, realize that paladins cannot stealth. BoK, BoM, BoS, sure, make you some level 45 water: no. Off-tank a minor boss while the rest of the group kills the real boss, I have a shield, I'll try, be the main healer for a living Stratholme run: no. How can someone have made it to 60 without having noticed what classes can and can not do?
So that was it for Stormscale for me. I was just too pissed off. I opted for Elune (PvE) because it had higher population that Silver Hand. I made a rogue since I'd been enjoying my rogue on Stormscale. On Elune I especailly enjoyed levelling up without the danger of 3-5 level 60 JUICE jumping my level 20 ass in Menethli Harbor, and it stayed good after that. I could turn in quests at Nessingwary, I could stand around in Gadgetzan and not die, life was grand. The Alliance weren't as bad as on Stormscale, but they still weren't the cream like I had seen on Silver Hand. The Horde still won BG, and IF general chat still made me want to cry, but I wasn't getting ganked.
Then someone I know started playing WoW and he went Horde on Khaz Modan (PvE). I was bored of my rogue on Elune, so I went with him. I made myself a troll warrior. My highest level warrior had been level 12. Over the weekend I got up level 16. I admit I had a lot of expectations about playing Horde. For months I'd heard the things people say: Horde players are more mature, Horde players are more organized, Horde players are more friendly.
LIES! THEY ARE ALL LIES!
Ragefire Chasm is, apparantly, an almost unbeatable instance. Not because it is hard, but because the average Horde player makes a doorknob look pretty smart. Most of the groups I've been in comprised people who didn't, or couldn't, talk. Of the two groups that did talk, one was led by an arrogant hunter who just wanted to show off and didn't let anyone else do anything and expected us to wait behind him while he cleared the dungeon for us. He didn't know that monsters respawned, and it took him so long to do anything because he kept controlling his pet to jump into the lava that the monsters started to respawn on top of us. The other chatty ragefire chasm group was apparantly a pack of 10-12 year olds who wanted to talk about how old they were and then play hide and seek in Ratchet without finishing ragefire.
All in all, I'd have to rate Horde and Alliance to be on perfectly equal grounds. Which makes sense. Deep down, the same player base is behind each side. Each side accuses the other of the same dishonorable PvP tactics, each side does the same dishonorable PvP tactits to the other, and neither side seems to be able to spell the words "you" or "anyone".
On the side I had a few characters on Silver Hand (RP). Since I could have Horde and Alliance on Silver Hand, I ran both. I never got anything up very high, but I had lot more fun. The average person I met was more intelligent than a doorknob, and friendly to boot.
One day on Stormscale, however, I was stealthing past the Bloodsail Buccanners in STV with a low-40s rogue. A Tauren warrior on an Epic mount decided to take time out of his busy day to dismount and cast Death By Peasant on me. That was it for me with Stormscale. The paladin was 60 and the dynamics of grouping at level 60 were painful and my alts were tired of being killed. I had also completely lost interest in the paladin because of what the level 60s were like. People should, by that point, realize that paladins cannot stealth. BoK, BoM, BoS, sure, make you some level 45 water: no. Off-tank a minor boss while the rest of the group kills the real boss, I have a shield, I'll try, be the main healer for a living Stratholme run: no. How can someone have made it to 60 without having noticed what classes can and can not do?
So that was it for Stormscale for me. I was just too pissed off. I opted for Elune (PvE) because it had higher population that Silver Hand. I made a rogue since I'd been enjoying my rogue on Stormscale. On Elune I especailly enjoyed levelling up without the danger of 3-5 level 60 JUICE jumping my level 20 ass in Menethli Harbor, and it stayed good after that. I could turn in quests at Nessingwary, I could stand around in Gadgetzan and not die, life was grand. The Alliance weren't as bad as on Stormscale, but they still weren't the cream like I had seen on Silver Hand. The Horde still won BG, and IF general chat still made me want to cry, but I wasn't getting ganked.
Then someone I know started playing WoW and he went Horde on Khaz Modan (PvE). I was bored of my rogue on Elune, so I went with him. I made myself a troll warrior. My highest level warrior had been level 12. Over the weekend I got up level 16. I admit I had a lot of expectations about playing Horde. For months I'd heard the things people say: Horde players are more mature, Horde players are more organized, Horde players are more friendly.
LIES! THEY ARE ALL LIES!
Ragefire Chasm is, apparantly, an almost unbeatable instance. Not because it is hard, but because the average Horde player makes a doorknob look pretty smart. Most of the groups I've been in comprised people who didn't, or couldn't, talk. Of the two groups that did talk, one was led by an arrogant hunter who just wanted to show off and didn't let anyone else do anything and expected us to wait behind him while he cleared the dungeon for us. He didn't know that monsters respawned, and it took him so long to do anything because he kept controlling his pet to jump into the lava that the monsters started to respawn on top of us. The other chatty ragefire chasm group was apparantly a pack of 10-12 year olds who wanted to talk about how old they were and then play hide and seek in Ratchet without finishing ragefire.
All in all, I'd have to rate Horde and Alliance to be on perfectly equal grounds. Which makes sense. Deep down, the same player base is behind each side. Each side accuses the other of the same dishonorable PvP tactics, each side does the same dishonorable PvP tactits to the other, and neither side seems to be able to spell the words "you" or "anyone".