The last issue of Games and Culture was dedicated to World of Warcraft, and there was some discussion of what kind of players chose to play as the Horde and which select the much prettier Alliance characters. The general consensus was the noobs and girls play as the Tolkienesque avatars of the Alliance, allured by the familiar good-guy rhetoric of elves and such, while hard-core gamers with experience are attracted to the monsterous orcs and trolls of the Horde. I was pleased by this originally because the first time around I played on the Horde. However, when I signed up after xmas on my own account, I was encouraged by friends to join them on their servers as Alliance members.The difference in my experiences was striking. I figured my loneliness grinding away at the lower levels as a troll was symptomatic of being below level 10. As a night elf, I was quickly surprised by how much nicer and more social Alliance players are. I have grouped multiple times, spontaneously united with players to defeat a non-quest monster, and just generally chatted pleasantly. Businesslike calls for groups, trades, and tips were equally balanced by joking around and playful emotes. I am guessing that part of being a hard-core gamer is that all that sociality gets in the way of leveling efficiently and is only really desired when necessary for play.
Someone should do a study. Anyhoo, I know many of my untalkative readers are WoW players. Any comments on Alliance-Horde differences?
