There's a recent WoW Insider article talking about the new face of the Alliance we'll be seeing in Mists. The gist of it is basically that the Alliance (presumably galvanized by the Pearl-Harbor-like invasion of Theramore) is finally ready to kick Horde ass.
Just to get everything straight - the Alliance has, since the Wrathgate (which I would consider the real beginning of the renewed Alliance/Horde conflict, and I don't think I'd get much argument,) been on the defensive and losing ground. Far worse, from the point of view of a player, is that you do not, at any time, get to participate in a resounding victory against the Horde (ok, maybe you do against the Shatterspear Trolls in Darkshore, but again, they aren't really the Horde.) While Horde players can beat back the Stormpike Guard in Hillsbrad, kick the Night Elves out of Azshara, and bomb the ever-loving crap out of a civilian druid school (admittedly, one could argue that Krom'gar was acting as a renegade, but would you even know that if Garrosh hadn't shown up - after the damage was done, mind you - and given his little speech?) Alliance players sometimes see the aftermath of battles (Camp Taurajo is the only victory that comes to mind, and it's clear that this was an utter clusterfuck) but any time they're fighting Horde in the current game, they're either losing or it is a stalemate.
While I do not know exactly how it will go down, I've come to understand that the basic progression of the Battle of Theramore will go thusly: the Horde comes in and does a sneak attack (which is why the Alliance heroes are not there to meet them) and is ultimately able to conquer the place, but at great cost. After the battle is over, or at least mostly over, the Alliance gets there and aids Jaina in evacuating the survivors. As I understand it, her Mage Tower will teleport away (it'd be cool to see that place hovering above Stormwind, Dalaran-style) and the Alliance gets a Dunkirk-style retreat.
This actually characterizes a lot of the Cataclysm-era Horde/Alliance conflicts, but we get the sense that this is, truly, and at long last, the final straw.
So now, in the battle for Pandaria, the Alliance gets to come in, guns-a-blazing. Before we get too excited, I should note that A: the Alliance quests are broken for me, so I haven't actually been able to do anything than stand on the Skyfire and make rude gestures to the Horde forces below, and B: the Horde gets a fairly mirror-imaged version of these quests at the north end of the zone.
However, there are slight differences. The Alliance manages to shoot down Nazgrim's airship almost immediately, whereas I believe (and I could be wrong) that the Skyfire remains intact. There's also just a general sense that the Horde forces are less well-prepared and somewhat scattered for this new environment, whereas the Alliance forces are for the most part intact.
Not huge, but the Alliance needs to take its victories where it can get it.
The point is this: making the Alliance chumps who always get beaten by the Horde is not just bad for Alliance players - it's also bad for Horde players. When I first started playing, I really liked the Horde because it was cool to see Orcs, Trolls, and Undead as good guys. But when the Horde is beating the crap out of the Alliance and never getting any sort of comeuppance, it's no longer fun. You want your enemy to be a real threat to you, or else you feel like a dumb bully.
Of course, we know where this is all going. The final raid of Mists is going to be the dethroning of Garrosh Hellscream. My hope is that this will restore balance between the factions. They don't necessarily need to get along, but the way I see it, regardless of which side unseats him (and depending on which side you're playing, there will be two versions of that event) the Horde and Alliance will have been brought to the same level.
If the Alliance beats him, they will have demonstrated themselves as a serious military force that can pull off an amazing feat. The Horde will have to regroup to become more defensive if their enemy can strike within the very capital city. If the Horde beats him, it means a gigantic political restructuring - pitting the Garrosh loyalists against the heroic rebels, and they'll need to handle their internal problems before they try to grab more land from the Alliance.
When you have players on both side of the conflict (or many, like me, who straddle it) you really need to keep the story balanced as much as the mechanics. Here's to the hope that Mists will achieve this.
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