The Real Horde vs. Alliance Conflict

In a recent interview with Eurogamer, senior software engineer Darren Williams reminded us once again that, "The conflict of this expansion is brought by the players, the two factions: Horde and Alliance".  The animosity and hatred between the two factions is shown very well in the opening quests for both Horde and Alliance in the Jade Forest.  As you progress further into the Jade Forest, you really get a sense for how the conflict between the two factions is bringing conflict to the land itself, climaxing in the face-off that destroys the Jade Serpent monument and unleashes Sha, the embodiement of emotion.

Bruised and bandaged, and still arguing with each other.

I think the quests do an amazing job telling the Horde vs. Alliance story, and I think it is great to bring the war back to Warcraft.  Unfortunately the conflict between the factions is hitting me a little personally.  While the story itself is asking us, "how do you put aside your faction conflict and clean up the mess you made by hating each other so much?", real life is asking me "how do you put aside the Draenei you love so much to play Horde with your friends?"  Not quite as serious, but a tough job either way.

I only have a handful a friends who play WoW.  Our Canadian buddy probably doesn't care which side we play on.  His main from Wrath is currently parked in Pretty Fly for a Draenei, as he had transfered to Alliance to raid back then.  A few of my other friends do play Alliance, but they are on another server.  But the two people Dey and I play with the most just refuse to budge!  I have tried to be a good Alliance ambassador, I even convinced them after much whining to roll Draenei.  They didn't make it much past lvl 30.  I seem to be the only Draenei enthusiast in my crowd.  To be fair, Dey has an 85 Draenei priest, but he isn't as into her as his 6 85's Horde-side.

I guess the answer to my question is to just suck it up!  I love my Blood Elves, I would never abandon them permanently.  Besides, I'm pretty sentimental about Lid.  It was just much easier during the pre-expansion lull to play every character I wanted to play.  All of my 85's (3 Blood Elves, and 3 Draenei) were geared from Dragon Soul LFR.  Both hunters had full PVP sets.  Lid and Draynee both exalted with Tol Barad!

And there in lies the real heart of the matter.  While there wasn't a whole lot do, picking who to play or what to do was simple and breezy.  I'm pretty overwhelmed by the amount of new things to do.  While I'm totally stoked about Pandaria, part of me longs for the relaxing days of taking Fly Draenei shots in Stormwind.  Also, my friends weren't really playing then, and Dey was off trying whatever was the MMO of the week.  So, I made do without them.  Now they want to pick what to do?  How rude!  But it's not really.  I'm grateful to have people who want to play this crazy game with me, so just for now:

FOR THE HORDE!

Good thing Garrosh doesn't know that I am looking forward everyday to my Double Agent Achievement :P