I reject the Horde and Alliance as defined by World of Warcraft and instead prefer Warcraft 3 where the Alliance was effectively ruined, the New Horde referred only to the relatively small group of orc, troll and tauren refugees led by Thrall, the Old Horde referred to certain groups of orcs that still worshipped demons, the night elves and Forsaken were independent nations, and Theramore, Kul'Tiras and Gilneas were the only remaining human kingdoms.
There's a lot of problems with the way Blizzard changed the factions from Warcraft 3 to World of Warcraft. First of all, they had to retcon the Horde to be much larger than was shown in Warcraft. In Warcraft, the (new) Horde consisted of five or six boats worth of orcs, and one half-dead tribe each of tauren and trolls. The Horde would have needed centuries worth of development and expansion before they could contend with the magic, technology and population commanded by the native Azerothian races. It's barely believable that the Horde as presented in Warcraft 3 could have survived against the centaur or the quillboar, much less the night elves or the (old) Alliance.
Second, Blizzard had to say the southern Eastern Kingdoms (which were razed during the first two Warcraft games) were reclaimed and rebuilt in a ridiculously short amount of time, so that the humans could have capital cities there since Theramore, Kul'Tiras and Gilneas were all unsuitable as capital cities. At the beginning of World of Warcraft, Stormwind City is portrayed as old enough to have an "old town" district, but that makes no sense because Stormwind couldn't even have been resettled more than like ten or fifteen years before the start of WoW, and that's to say nothing of the architecture and fortifications found there which are all clearly meant to be much older than that.
Third, it's really not believable that the night elves would want to join the Alliance or that the Forsaken would be accepted into the Horde, especially with the campy and over-the-top way the Forsaken are portrayed in-game. Fourth, night elven culture and lifestyles were retconned to be much simpler and more human-like than they were presented in Warcraft so that night elves would fit better into the Alliance. Fifth, World of Warcraft's faction system eventually led to the blood elves joining the Horde, which may have even more unbelievable than when the Forsaken joined.
Sixth, Jaina was robbed of her importance as the leader of the newly-made principal human nation, Theramore. In Warcraft, all the human kingdoms except Gilneas and Kul'Tiras fell, the Alliance was effectively defeated, and Theramore was built up as humanity's new start after we had just saved the literal world. When Blizzard had the old human kingdoms and old Alliance pop back up like nothing happened, Theramore (and by extension Jaina) became relatively unimportant, which was not at all the intention of the Warcraft games.
I could go on all day, but I think those are the things that bother me most about the "new" (well, it was new in 2004!) faction system.
When I play WoW, my choice of faction depends on which expansion I'm playing, but I generally lean Alliance. In classic and TBC I like the Alliance and Horde equally, although there's an argument that the Horde is a little better in TBC because the blood elf content is better than the draenei content. After TBC I think the Horde's story and thematic started to fall apart, to the point that it doesn't even make sense how the Horde still exists in the current expansion.
There's a lot of problems with the way Blizzard changed the factions from Warcraft 3 to World of Warcraft. First of all, they had to retcon the Horde to be much larger than was shown in Warcraft. In Warcraft, the (new) Horde consisted of five or six boats worth of orcs, and one half-dead tribe each of tauren and trolls. The Horde would have needed centuries worth of development and expansion before they could contend with the magic, technology and population commanded by the native Azerothian races. It's barely believable that the Horde as presented in Warcraft 3 could have survived against the centaur or the quillboar, much less the night elves or the (old) Alliance.
Second, Blizzard had to say the southern Eastern Kingdoms (which were razed during the first two Warcraft games) were reclaimed and rebuilt in a ridiculously short amount of time, so that the humans could have capital cities there since Theramore, Kul'Tiras and Gilneas were all unsuitable as capital cities. At the beginning of World of Warcraft, Stormwind City is portrayed as old enough to have an "old town" district, but that makes no sense because Stormwind couldn't even have been resettled more than like ten or fifteen years before the start of WoW, and that's to say nothing of the architecture and fortifications found there which are all clearly meant to be much older than that.
Third, it's really not believable that the night elves would want to join the Alliance or that the Forsaken would be accepted into the Horde, especially with the campy and over-the-top way the Forsaken are portrayed in-game. Fourth, night elven culture and lifestyles were retconned to be much simpler and more human-like than they were presented in Warcraft so that night elves would fit better into the Alliance. Fifth, World of Warcraft's faction system eventually led to the blood elves joining the Horde, which may have even more unbelievable than when the Forsaken joined.
Sixth, Jaina was robbed of her importance as the leader of the newly-made principal human nation, Theramore. In Warcraft, all the human kingdoms except Gilneas and Kul'Tiras fell, the Alliance was effectively defeated, and Theramore was built up as humanity's new start after we had just saved the literal world. When Blizzard had the old human kingdoms and old Alliance pop back up like nothing happened, Theramore (and by extension Jaina) became relatively unimportant, which was not at all the intention of the Warcraft games.
I could go on all day, but I think those are the things that bother me most about the "new" (well, it was new in 2004!) faction system.
When I play WoW, my choice of faction depends on which expansion I'm playing, but I generally lean Alliance. In classic and TBC I like the Alliance and Horde equally, although there's an argument that the Horde is a little better in TBC because the blood elf content is better than the draenei content. After TBC I think the Horde's story and thematic started to fall apart, to the point that it doesn't even make sense how the Horde still exists in the current expansion.
