by Daniel Coffman

Created on: September 08, 2008

Should a third faction, one that is Neutral, be introduced to the World of Warcraft MMORPG? I believe it would greatly improve the game, and draw in an even larger audience.

First off, for anyone unfamiliar with World of Warcraft, or MMORPGs in general, here's a quick overview. MMORPG stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. In the same vein as Dungeons and Dragons, Vampire: the Masquerade, and similar tabletop RPGs (Role-Playing Games), players of MMORPGs create and play characters in a simulated virtual world. Generally, these worlds are filled with creatures and enemies to fight and quests to accomplish, both of which reward your character, or "Toon", with money, items and experience.

In World of Warcraft, known as WoW to its fans, you choose to be a member of one of two opposing factions: the Alliance, a Feudalistic group consisting of Humans, Night Elves, Gnomes, Dwarves and Dranei; or the Horde, a more barbaric conclave of Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, Undead and Blood Elves. Although the Horde is represented as barbaric and the Alliance as orderly, neither side is necessarily pure good or evil.

Being a member of one faction automatically makes one the mortal enemy to member of the opposing faction. This means that guards and other NPCs (Non-Player Characters) of the Horde will attack an Alliance player, and vice versa. Each race has it's own home city and smaller satellite towns, as well as numerous camps and outposts throughout the virtual world of Azeroth. With a few notable exceptions any camp, outpost or town is considered to be faction-controlled. This means that no Orc can enter or even approach the Human city of Stormwind.

A few cities are Neutral, however, and these can be freely visited by members of any race or faction. These areas are generally run by one of the Neutral races, mainly the crafty Goblins. One may also find non-faction specific vendors of all races in these areas, allowing a Gnome to perform quests for a Tauren NPC, and an Undead to buy and sell to a Night Elf vendor. One aspect of the game are Trade skills, special trainings every player can choose such as Tailoring, Cooking, Blacksmithing, Mining, etc. These Trade skills have to be learned and expanded at the appropriate trainer.

One aspect of play in WoW is the PvP environment. PvP stands for Player vs. Player, and allows member of opposing factions to attack one another. Members of the sane faction are also able to challenge one another to "Duels", one-on-one battles marked

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