Fate of Theramore

I am slow getting the news sometimes.  I don’t read the big WoW news sites like I used to, they are blocked at work and at home, I’d rather spend that time playing the game.

So though it’s been in the news for some time now, I just found out that in MoP the Alliance city of Theramore will be captured by the Horde which will fuel the Horde vs. Alliance war again.  Apparently, the appearance of Deathwing was too much of a distraction for the Alliance leaders to be aware that they lost Southshore to the Horde in that expansion.

The loss of Theramore however, seems far more detrimental to me.  The only Alliance city you can portal to that isn’t on an island in Northern Kalimdor, Theramore was a nice waypoint for the Alliance to get to and from Kalimdor easily, the boat there was nice too.  This was good for those that aren’t level 85 and can’t port to Mt. Hyjal or Uldum.  Blizzard’s decision to have the Horde capture Theramore is a bold move.  My gut reaction is…”What is the Alliance going to capture?”  I was kinda pissed that though there’s supposed to be this war that will be triggered, where are my toons?  Why isn’t Elgar running off to help save Theramore??

Then the idea hit me… instead of just Blizzard deciding the fate of Theramore, it would be awesome if the players could decide the fate.  After patch 5.0 rolls out, Theramore should be a daily quest hub, that month before MoP is released should be the time of final decision of the fate of Theramore.  Make it a daily quest hub for Alliance and Horde players where the Horde are on the assault and the Alliance on the defense…make PvP quests as well.  Basically, make it feel like the setting of the war and make the outcome variable.

If through the number of daily quests completed the Horde and Alliance could shift the battle, right up to release date, that would really give a feel of war.  Which ever faction completed the most daily quests (or some other point system) by the time the release for MoP would happen they would gain or keep Theramore in the expansion.  This would be a per server outcome.  Either way, the war would escalate feelings leaving into MoP and the difference per server would be if Theramore belonged to Horde or Alliance.

I know people will say well if the population leans heavy one way or the other that will be the outcome, well, so be it.  There will be some that easily keep or gain Theramore and there will be servers where it is very close.  This type of event helps build server community as well.  There could even be a special event boss to kill a commander on the other side, they would drop loot that would be big upgrades easy in the last month (think of the elemental invasions).  This would really give the server a feel of battle.  In the end, Blizzard ends up with two different maps for Dustwallow Marsh that are implemented on a per server basis, but it would give a really awesome feeling when you went there, knowing you earned to keep/gain that city!

This also helps with one of the issues that WoW struggles, and that is a dynamic world that you feel part of.  There haven’t really been world events like this that seemed to change the world.  Even when we didn’t defeat the elementals in say IF during the elemental invasion, there really wasn’t much of a consequence.  Something like this changes the game, but not on such a large-scale that it disrupts too much game play.

I know Blizzard doesn’t have a plan for such an event, but to me, it would feel far more real if I at least had a chance to try to defend Theramore before it’s just lost overnight to the Horde.