Irritable LOTR Syndrome and WoW

[5. WorldDefense] The Crossroads is Under Attack!

[5. WorldDefense] Tarren Mills is Under Attack!

If you were a Horde player on Elune and joined the WorldDefense channel, those two lines or some other variations would be spamming you more often then not. It seems that the Alliance on the server have nothing better to do than to pick on the mid-level Horde towns. One thing you need to about Elune is that it has an Alliance to Horde ratio of 4.5 : 1, the second worst of all realms with Uldum having the highest (5.5 : 1). The Alliance enjoy nothing better than to sail across the sea from Strangethorn Vale and harass an isolated outpost in the Barrens. My beef is that it is really not hard to get access to the Crossroads: hope on a Boat and head west with impunity. I could go on about Blizzard favouring the Alliance all day but that's not what I am trying to get at here.

Now I am sure you guys are saying that there are servers where Horde outnumbers Alliance. True enough, I'll even go even further and give you some examples: Stormreaver, Boulderfist, Bloodscalp, Sargeras, Tichondrius, Illidans and Mal'ganis. The last 3 even have 50% more Horde than Alliance. However, if you look closer you'll see that ALL the servers I have listed are PvP. Seems to me that more Horde players enjoy the true PvP experience whereas the Alliance prefer the safety of PvE serveres (*cough* wussy n00bs *cough*). Looking at the overall picture on all the North American servers, there are 50% more Alliance than Horde.

Now for the big question: So why then are there 50% more Alliance players throughout the world? You probably won't agree with me, but this is my article/rant/complaint. My reasoning is the Lord of the Rings Syndrome. Let me explain. All of us have seen the entire trilogy at least once. Thus, at some level, we see Alliance as mirrioring the "good" factions of Middle Earth (really not hard to see the connection) . The courageous and noble humans, the graceful and fair elves, and the stout and comedic dwarves, these good guy archetypes appeal to us. Of course they do, they are the protagonists, fighting evil and saving the world, what's not to love. Alas, this means that the natural inclination is to associate to Horde with the forces of Sauron. They both have Orcs and Trolls and are the less-visually appealing of the two facitons. So it's not hard to see why so many are easily drawn in to fantasy that is living the LOTR life through WoW. We innately want to be associately with forces of good and defeat the bad guys. News flash: the Horde is not evil, they are a victims of circumstance as we find out in WC3. So to all you Alliance-loving folk: get over your holier-than-thou attitude and prepare for the lag fest as you all try to crowd in to Battlegrounds. I'd like to good in to more detail but I hear a certain MMORPG calling me

Morale of the Story: Play World of Warcraft, Join the Horde! Loktar! For the Horde! -- write for MathNews

Squee of the Forsaken Legion (soon to be Nastrand)