I'm always meaning to do these, but somehow forget. But today it showed up in my Dashboard so here I am.

When I sat down to brainstorm for this post I thought I was against Faction Changes. I felt as though they would unbalance the servers and in a way, eliminate any distinction between the Horde and the Alliance. Upon closer examination, I discovered these feelings to be based upon old stereotypes of Alliance vs. Horde players.

I found several positive impacts of Faction Changes. As a former high level raider, I am aware of the recruiting problems that accompany running a successful raiding guild. Faction Changes will open up a whole new player base for recruitment. This is great for upper level guilds searching for replacements or new members.

From a player perspective, we become emotionally invested in our main characters. My very first character was a NE Druid in Beta named Jadetalon. When WoW released I created an identical character named Relevart because I was used to how that character looked. I got the original Rel to 60 and found myself trying to break into a raiding guild on a server that only had two options. Eventually some a group of us re-rolled horde side on a brand new server so we could establish a raiding guild and gather the best players on the server in one guild. How much simpler would it have been to take my character with max trade skills and many tier 1 and 2 pieces and transfer over to the new server and new faction? I had several items that I would have liked to retain on the new Rel. I spent days, weeks even, farming for a Dark Whelpling on the original Rel and I had to do it all over again on the new Rel. Faction Changes would allow me to keep the character I put so much work into.

Along the same line as retaining character specific items/achievements is re-leveling a different character to max level again. Sure, heirlooms have made this easier. But honestly, leveling a character is a grind. It's a grind that many people, myself included, dislike immensely. Faction Changes eliminate the need to grind levels or gear that had been previously acquired.

I am trying to remain neutral on the following topic, but frankly, given previous statements by Blizz, I am struggling to do so. Faction Changes give Blizzard yet another way to generate revenue. In fact, Blizzard reversed an earlier stated decision to deny Faction Changes. Andrew from Of Teeth and Claws wrote a little blurb about companies caving to player desires. I think this is a prime example. You could always switch factions! It just required a lot of work and dedication. Now, you pay Blizzard and voila! You are leveled, geared, and on the opposite faction! It feels very similar to powerleveling services. I think next in line would be the ability to buy gold from Blizzard since not all players can dedicate tons of time to dailies or crafting or farming of any kind. Naturally, this is speculation and likely a hyperbole, but I can't help but feel that Blizzard is spoon-feeding the player base whatever flavor-of-the-month demand might be circulating. I see this as a sign that Blizzard is only interested in tiding us (the player base) over until the next new MMO (non-WoW).

It's very tough to put a moral judgement on Faction Changes. I think that they offer players valid benefits that, due to the character specific nature of some aspects of the game, are needed. I also feel that it would not be a far stretch of the imagination to find a way to exploit the Faction Changes. The best players can now become mercenaries, hopping from server to server and faction to faction in order to collect titles. Only time will tell if Faction Changes will be a boon to WoW or a burden for the static player base.