Monday, July 6, 2009

Faction Transfer and Character Identity

Note: I am neither on an RP server, nor have I ever played on one. However, like many long-time druid mains, I am attached to who my characters are.

Ever since the announcement that faction transfers would be available, I have felt myself backed into a corner. I have two druids: my feral is my first character, and alliance; my second is my resto main now and is horde. I have longed to be able to play my feral druid with my horde friends, and often wished that she could just flag herself "Cenarion Circle" and thus raid with the horde guild.

Faction Transfers will, in a twisted way, give me the opportunity to have feral-Kae join my horde guild.

The price? She'll be a moocow.

No more slim elven features. No more blue hair. No more panther form. No more Shadowmeld. No more flippy-jumps. No more "Justicar" title, nor "Commander." No more saber mounts, no more war pony that I ground both pvp and Stormwind rep for 6 months to earn in vanilla WoW. No more glowy silver eyes. No more facial tattoos. No more elf.

She'd be a cow.

Would she still be Kae? I have played her for 4 years now; I have written little stories about her... she is thoroughly ingrained in my mind as an elf. I can't help but feel a bit of awkwardness towards the idea of changing her race. I'd be able to chat in guild-chat, run instances with my guildies, and more easily run their alts through instances if I switched her to horde, but... can I get over the loss of her identity to do so?

I'm not sure, yet.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have given this topic some thought myself. I have a warlock and a hunter on the alliance. The warlock is camped in Howling Fjord, but I've not started Northrend with her to date.

I also created another little BE warlock on the horde so that I could have one on the horde.

So...when the transfers come around what should I do? When I made my human warlock, I gave her my hair color and style, and she really was a little piece of "me". But I don't have many friens on the alliance anymore, and what I seek when I am overthere is solitude. So, what do I gain if I make my level 70 human warlock a level 70 BE warlock? The opportunity to play her socially. What do I loose? My solitude.

I'm not really sure if I want to give that up.

I definately feel your dilemia here, Kae. Even if its for different reasons =)

Perhaps it's time for a "pros" and "cons" list?! I wish you luck in weighing this out and making a decision that you are pleased with!

Kae said...

The pros and cons will be different for everyone, certainly. Some people can easily drag their character over from one side or the other, as the character itself has little identity... or an identity than no longer wish to play (such as in the case of a failed RP character). It's an opportunity for a fresh start, in such cases, and sometimes will provide the side benefit of a more preferable racial ability (draenei auras, perhaps, or weapon skills).

The pros must outweigh the cons (and the likely high price of the genetic recombobulation from the Blizzard Billing end) in order for the decision to be made for a faction transfer. Many of the small details haven't been finalized yet (mounts, reps, etc), but I think most people don't need them in order to make their decision.

Personally, I'm in no rush to make my own decision, but it is certainly gnawing away in the back of my mind :)