Once you roll horde you never get bored.
Once you roll troll you never re-roll.
Cute little phrases, to anyone who plays World of Warcraft - and that seems to be about everyone these days. But this particular week they are phrases that are on the minds and lips of at least 12 million people across our planet. Yes friends, as we all know by now, Activision/Blizzard has announced that their new “faction change service” has gone live.
Just astonishing -
Astonishing at least in this regard - for what must be the first time, the company that is famous for the phrase “It's ready when it's ready” applied it to a situation where “ready” meant in a few weeks. What will not be astonishing is the influx of blogs predicting that, as a result, one faction or another will become a shadow of its former self - an empty husk. Like a group of retroactive Elijahs there are no doubt many players who have had their forum posts prepared since the news came out, ready to use entropy to justify their position (should they ultimately prove right) - or as Paul Barnet so aptly put it on a recent No Prisoners, No Mercy show:
“I TOLD YOU THE SUN WOULD FINALLY EXPLODE”
Some of the players will surely be waiting in the wings screaming “It's too expensive”. Yet, I recall a phrase utter by Activision's head honcho, Bobby Kotick, when he said of the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 release, “if it was left to me I would raise the prices even further.” Now this just might cause a massive migration to the horde side that would make it seem like Thrall is walking the streets of Ogrimar handing out free gold. Then again it might not. One thing is certain, however, and that is $30.00 is not too expensive - many players, myself included, would have paid twice that and still considered it a deal.
One other thing that does not surprise me is the timing of the whole announcement. It came just in time to players who have strayed “back to the fold” - players who have strayed to Champions Online, Fallen Earth or Aion. Is it a bit cutthroat? Perhaps so. Is it good business? Oh you bet it is.
I certainly have been waiting awhile to play the soon-to-be-released Aion. However, I have been waiting A LOT longer to be able to turn my dwarf paladin into a “valley elf” paladin. Blood elves may not be trolls (which would have been my first choice) but at least they are horde. After all…
One you roll horde you never get bored. Now if you will excuse me, my dwarf paladin has to go practice saying, “Like for sure” in preparation for the big move later today.
See you online (in WoW)
- Julie Whitefeather |
RSS - Blog/Articles