The Daily Grind: Greener grass
by Lesley Smith 
Jul 5th 2009 at 8:00AM
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Aion, Culture, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, Lore, The Daily Grind, Races
The grass really is greener on the other side of the fence. The quests are new, as is the lore and while the actual objectives are often similar it's like seeing an MMO with a new pair of eyes. Indeed I think it could totally change how you enjoy a particular MMO and how you play it. When it comes to WoW specifically, this is even more the case now that Blizzard have revealed their plans to allow you to change your faction. So, come on readers, have you leveled a toon in (insert your chosen MMO here), got them geared up and then decided to see things from the other side? Did you switch because you wanted a change? Was it the lore? Better quests? A chance to do something different? If you were like me, would you consider jumping ship and re-rolling during your next bout of burn out? Speak up, constant readers, and drop your comments in the box.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
wolfsterne said on 8:13AM 7-05-2009
I just can't see how anyone can go back to WoW after playing Aion....I mean it's like eating a hotdog, having someone serve you a Delmonico steak and asking for the dog back.
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mdavis said on 8:39PM 7-05-2009
I've been playing Aion this weekend and I'm not impressed. In fact I think it is pretty horrible but I also hated Lineage 2 and Aion just seems like Lineage 3.0 to me.
Verit said on 2:47AM 7-06-2009
I guess count me among them - there really wasn't anything I found in Aion to be all that spectacular. The quests show a hideous lack of imagination, and flight is really pretty awful with its clumsy controls, visblocks everywhere and cooldown timer (to which all aion fanbois say potions and wing upgrades - yes I know about them),
Which is a shame as flight could have been the one cool thing that set this game apart from WoW.
I predict Aion will be a niche game here in the US, and that Blizzard has nothing to worry about.
Bryan said on 8:27AM 7-05-2009
Aion is a so so game to me. WoW gives a ton more options when it comes to starting areas, classes, lands, etc. Not that I play WoW anymore, I've gravitated to games with more depth like EQ2. Anyway...
To answer the article, I'm really surprised at people who don't play both sides in games like WoW. You are "paying" to play you might as well get all the bang for your buck. I personally like to see EVERY aspect of a game I play. So, I have a human mage sitting at 80, an orc hunter at 70, and an orc Death Knight at 80. I also have a 70 Dranei Warrior. Needless to say I've tried all races and classes. Which is probably why I'm burnt out on WoW for the time being and why I harp on it right now for not growing that depth I've found in EQ2 and other games.
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TonyMcS said on 8:29AM 7-05-2009
Shamefully, I once left the path least travelled by and rolled a dwarf priest. He's been stuck at level 60 in deserted Shattrath all these years and I'm so glad to know he's finally going to be metamorphed into a Troll or Blood Elf or Undead. Good and Evil in WoW really only exists for 12 yr old human warriors ;-) The lore shows good and bad on both sides. OK maybe I was evil when I was klling all those woman and children as a death knight, but I'm better now, trust me.
Yes, it was fun to see the story from the other faction's perspective, but I still prefer the Horde. Has anyone considered that there might be a lot of gnomes who are desperate to change their initial bad choice? ;-)
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Sibe said on 9:28AM 7-05-2009
Past 60 it isn't worth trying both sides (esp TBC where both sides are EXACT mirrors of each other). While I have heard Allience get a special viewing of the Lich King early in the WOTLK, overall it wouldn't matter considering the times Lick King spams you saying how you are in his plans and that he will have his revenge (ya, I'm insulting the whole, "feeling closer to the big bad guy of the game" thing, when I actually saw Illidan yelling at me I was impressed and was liek WTF I PISSED ILLIDAN AFTER ALL MY HARD WORK, but having Lich King is most areas/dungeons yell at me just for doing something minor kinda gets bland and meh).
But yer, I'm the type to try different alts on both sides when I have spare time.
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max said on 9:33AM 7-05-2009
I can't stand most of the horde races, except for blood elves (i know, i know...) and forsaken, because zombies are awesome. Tauren was pretty neat, lore wise, to start except for one thing that kept me from getting out of the starter zone: Huge cows don't move very fast and Mulgore is a HUGE zone. That's not a good combination when you're trying to roll a hunter and get to your pet.
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aurickle said on 10:09AM 7-05-2009
Tauren move EXACTLY as fast as any other race..They just feel slower because they're bigger and the camera is higher up from the ground. Trolls also feel slow, but it's only subjective. Try a gnome and you'll see the world seem to zip by.
Horde is better in (vanilla) WoW in general for the simple reason that Blizzard worked on Alliance first. In fact, Elwynn Forest was the first zone that was completed, with the result being that it had the least diversity of stuff to do. The devs only had a few quest mechanics to play with at that point. By the time they got to Horde, the tools were much more varied and polished. The results are obvious. Horde really is the most fun to play. You also go much longer in Horde zones before reaching Contested, which on a PvP server means more time without getting ganked by bored level 80's.
I was excited by the idea of the faction change service until I realized that they're going to change your race in the process. Lame. The lore allows for races to cross factions. In fact, look at the number of quest givers you find during your career who are from the other faction. It would have been so much cooler if you could do a quest line (like EQ2's Betrayal quests) to change faction. The way Blizzard is doing it just strikes me as yet another money grab -- from the most commercially successful MMO developer in history. Go figure.
max said on 10:26AM 7-05-2009
I didn't know that about Elwyn. It is and probably always will be my favorite zone, though. Go figure lol.
Jess said on 10:11AM 7-05-2009
I generally put a lot of research into a faction before I play it and am pretty damned sure about it once I'm on my way playing. I played Albion exclusively in DAoC and have only ever played on the side of the Free Peoples in LOTRO. Yes, this means I miss out on some content, but I enjoy the sinthetic sense of loyalty towards a specific MMO faction too much.
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Vrain said on 10:15AM 7-05-2009
I'm doing pretty much the same thing. I played Alliance for a while with some friends, leveled a Night Elf Rogue to 70 and a few others into their 30s while playing every Alliance starting zone, but hadn't gone past level 10 on the Horde side. I got bored a couple years ago and quit but came back to join some other friends who are on the Horde side. My Orc Shaman is up to 30 now and, while it might be the time away from WoW or the fact the quests are new, it feels like a new game to me.
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Kulzar said on 6:21PM 7-12-2009
My first character was a troll hunter, got him to level 60. Then I played a human mage, which I would consider my main I guess, up to level 80. I also have a tauren Shaman (I love Taurens!), level 70. Oh, I was leveling a draenei shaman before I left WoW (temporarily) to level 65. I love the Horde for the races and the lore, they are just too cool. However, I have to stick with Alliance because I just LOVE playing my human mage (and draenei shaman) and my guild is quite awesome.
As for my favourite starting zones, I think I have four. Durotar and Elwynn forest for nostalgia. Mulgore because it is really beautiful and relaxing. Dun Morogh is also nice because of the mountains and the snow.
Since I already have my share of high level characters on both factions, I won’t be using the faction change option. And I can't wait to have time again to get back in WoW. ><
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Graill said on 11:34AM 7-05-2009
Last time i checked WOW had close to 9 million gold farmer subscribers, and thats in peril now. Also bots for one thing or another. Demographicaly speaking along with some small stereotyping, people that play WOW have low moral and ethical standards, no common sense, and willpower so low that they could not perma delete a WOW toon if they were told to. The news is ripe with examples, to be honest, people playing WOW have no standards at all, except when it comes to the color purple and numbers, oh and macros, without macros simple isnt simple enough.
The grass isnt greener on the otherside, it never has been, the landlord is using green spraypaint on that brown yard to get you to try anything to stay or at least continue to suckle the sour milk that is WOW by giving you sugar packets to sweeten a game that has been sitting out in the sun to long.
Occasionally someone will have an epiphany, or a cloud of realization will remove the WOW fog and on that day bad people rejoin the human race and the genepool.
Leave WOW, the human race depends on it........
>(adjusts the collectors edition of WOW keeping his computer desk level)<
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Gemski said on 12:44PM 7-05-2009
You talk about WoW losing 9 million gold farmers as if someone would be upset. Even if that number were accurate, which it isn't. They would still have more subscribers than any other MMO.
You complain about every MMO here. Since its all you do, it has just become noise with nothing of value.
Swap out WoW with EQ and I remember similar sad rants back in the day.
Oh and on topic. I vote Tauren for *worst* starting zone among all races in WoW. I've played both sides till 60, alliance was definitely smoother experience.
Wjowski said on 2:28AM 7-06-2009
And can you tell the jury where Blizzard touched you...?
moya said on 12:06PM 7-05-2009
switched from alliance (since release) to horde fairly recently...and imo, there are definitely quests that make you feel like a dick, especially up in northrend. its tempered with an array of "good" quests, but for the most part i was given the impression that the ratio of "dicks" vs "nobles" was higher than the alliance side. *shrug*...still fun tho. and i did enjoy the tauren starting area the second most (after ne's)...very mellow.
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Killadelphia said on 12:09PM 7-05-2009
WoW has a big advantage over Aion in this area. In WoW each of the starter areas has a completely different look and set of quests. In Aion yes there is a somewhat different look to the starter areas as far as the color palette, but the quests you do and the enemies that you encounter are almost identical. The zones are even laid out in the same way. There is an area with 2-3 quests to do and then you make your way to the first quest hub, directly after the quest hub there is a pond in both starter areas. This pond is populated with the exact same mobs, maybe there is a different name on them, but the models, and levels of the mobs are exactly the same. So in my opinion Aion has failed in this respect especially considering that that WoW produces more variety in each of it's 10 races than Aion produces between 2.
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JGaltTK said on 2:49PM 7-05-2009
Watch out Kill (great name btw, I live in Killadelphia); you've made an unfavorable comparison of Aion to WoW, you will soon be swarmed by the by the Aion secret police for committing such a heinous thought crime :)
Mallika said on 8:25AM 7-06-2009
Yeah, because WoW doesn't have its own band of merry fanbois? Because
when you get even slightly critical or say that something isn't
perfect in WoW, none of those people come out of the woodwork
slavering and wanting to practically strangle you?
Afea said on 3:43PM 7-05-2009
I don't see why anyone would call the horde evil. I played an alliance paladin for nearly 5 years before switching to horde. Honestly the horde is LESS EVIL than the alliance. The alliance is a group of arrogant self righteous bigots. The horde races are made up of races that banded together for survival. Thrall is an honorable and just leader. He isn't some savage beat with a heart full of hate and vengeance.
I will say in my personal opinion that the quests for the horde are more interesting. I am now a proud member of the horde. The alliance can burn. FOR THE HORDE!
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