As some of you may know, with the World of Warcraft expansion The Burning Crusdade, there are some pretty shifty changes and additions. There are two new playable races, and two previously side specific classes are having their side restrictions removed.
For starters, I'm excited about having new playable races; but I have a lingering resentment for Blizzards choices on the two. While Blood Elves seem cool conceptually, they look a lot like Night Elves with thinner eyebrows, and they fit the 'pretty' category and look much closer to what you would expect to see in the Alliance. The Draenei essentially look like blue demons, and somehow mutated from what look more like swamp monsters.
They don't really fit the 'pretty' category and really look like they should be part of the Horde, punting gnomes instead of hugging them.
Golden armor aside, which looks like a monster?
In general, there are far more Alliance players than there are Horde, by at least a 2 to 1 ratio on most servers; and there are more Night Elves than any other race. It's mostly accepted that the player balance is this way because of the character model appearance and/or a storyline that's a little easier to relate to or sympathize with.
Paladins, initially an Alliance only 'holy knight' (Wuss-Bubble) will be playable by the new Horde race, the Blood Elves. Shamans, initially a Horde only class with an 'intense connection to nature' (...FROSTSHOCK!) will be playable by the new Alliance race, the Draenei.
I was talking with someone a couple of nights ago about the purpose behind removing the barrier between the only two side specific classes and found there was something I wasn't taking into account. Apparently there are more Alliance guilds that frequently visit the deeper parts of the high end instances; I can't say I know this to be fact, but they were saying the reason for this is Paladins. Since Shaman buffs are based in their totems, which can be easily destroyed, they provide less benefit overall thus requiring better teamwork and skill to perform similar tasks by the Horde. The cross alignment allowance of the Shaman and Paladin may have been intended to benefit Horde in high end instancing.
This, coming from an avid Horde fan is disappointing. I know people that have vowed to never play WoW again because of this change. One of the main parts of playing the Horde is knowing that you're outnumbered, fighting uphill, against a group that has a pansy-invincibility shield and more people. I don't want it to be easier on us, especially when the 'fix' goes against a good storyline; the struggle is the entertainment. Although for PvP, fighting along side some twelve year old Alliance kid that decided to make a Blood Elf (Legolas5531) will probably make things more difficult.
With that being said, I will still buy the expansion and play the crap out of it.