- World of Warcraft director Ion Hazzikostas spoke about cross-faction raids
- According to him, that is now “a bit more on the radar” and is something the team is considering
- Hazzikostas believes that such an approach will solve some of the game’s cooperative problems caused by the disparity in faction populations
World of Warcraft may finally be getting cross-faction raids, according to the game’s director himself.
Prospects of Cross-Faction Instances
World of Warcraft may finally be adding cross-faction raids that allow players from both the Alliance and the Horde to play together. The news was implied by none other than Ion Hazzikostas – the game’s director himself.
Fans have long asked for cross-faction instances. Although the war between the Alliance and the Horde has been one of the main focal points of World of Warcraft, there have been a lot of instances where the two have banded together. The attack of Icecrown Citadel and the siege of Orgrimmar are perfect examples of times when the two factions had to overcome their differences in order to stop a greater threat. Yet, the players from the two factions never got to play together.
With the whole reality itself being threatened in Shadowlands and faction leaders working together to foil the Jailer’s plans, it seems a perfect opportunity to once again reopen the discussion about cross-faction instances. WoW director Hazzikostas seems to agree, according to his interview with GamesBeat.
“I’d say that it is a bit more on the radar, yes. That’s one of those areas where, a lot of things to solve, a lot of things to figure out to make it happen,” Hazzikostas said.
The director pointed out that considering Thrall and Jaina’s closeness and how cooperative they are in the whole operation, it seems logical for players to be able to do the same thing.
Cross-Faction Instances May Solve Cooperative Issues
According to Hazzikostas, allowing players to cooperate may solve faction imbalance. He mentioned as an example that there are not many high-end Alliance guilds in North America or Horde guilds in Oceania. Allowing more high-level players to cooperate will help those from an underpopulated faction find teammates for endgame instances more easily.
Hazzikostas pondered whether cross-faction instances would solve some of the game’s problems back in September when he spoke about how cooperation might be difficult for some people, especially if there is a shortage of skilled players in one faction.
Cross-faction PVE isn’t set in stone yet so players shouldn’t get their hopes up. However, there are currently more prospects for that happening than there ever were. It will be exciting to see if and when cross-faction instances make their way into the game.
It definitely seems logical to have a cross-faction instance in Shadowlands but it is unknown if the team will manage to implement it so quickly.
We are entering speculation grounds here, but perhaps there could be an expansion that has a “truce” theme to it and allows factions to visit each other’s cities? This way players who are dedicated to one of the factions will finally get to experience the part of Azeroth they’ve never seen. Moreover, such an approach can easily be limited to a single expansion which doesn’t tie the developers’ hands and doesn’t rule out a future war between the Alliance and the Horde.
In any case, cross-faction content of any sort will be big news if and when it happens. Not only will it solve some of the cooperative issues but it will perhaps bring back some of the old players to the game.
