World of Warcraft 's WoTLK Classic Gold Game Director Talks Challenges Of Enabling Cross-Faction Play

World of Warcraft has always been defined by one simple question: Horde or Alliance? The faction split has shaped the game since its first launch with Horde as well as Alliance players not able to join together to play raids, dungeons and other game-related content.

However, that could not always be the case. In a Twitter discussion about WoW's upcoming 9.1.5 patch director of games Ion Hazzikostas discussed the importance of the way that the narrative plays into gameplay. However, he explained that "story factors alone" can't be the sole reason for "frustrating gameplay mechanics." Patch 9.1.5 will allow players to make changes to their Covenants without penalty as previously Blizzard previously seemed reluctant to allow earlier due to the story's motives.

In the current Shadowlands story , as of patch 9.1 in the current story, the various Covenants that comprise the Shadowlands have largely converged in order to join forces and fight with the Jailer. Hazzikostas says that provides an excuse for narrative freedom in the game, which means players will in the near future be able to switch between the different Covenants.

But when it comes down to the split among Horde and Alliance the solution isn't quite as straightforward as Hazzikostas clarifies. Hazzikostas calls the issue of the faction barrier to be a "major problem" and one that the WoW team recognizes it has to buy WOW WoTLK Classic Gold fix.