Sanya Thomas continues a look into the demographics behind all of you World of Warcraft players — last time around, we examined gender and how players measured up in the Bartle test (and crashed their servers — sorry about that), and this time, it’s all about the Horde and the Alliance, and why and when players choose a faction. No surprises until the very end — the majority of players in game (though I swear it’s become less of a majority since the game’s launch a few years ago) choose Alliance, whether it’s because of a “human bias,” or just because they’ve usually been the heroes, and gamers tend to play with their friends.
But things get more interesting when you start putting classes and gender into the mix. Women are pushing the average on Alliance side (men even out around 58/42, but women prefer to “grab their sword and fight the Horde” at 65/35). And when you compare the classes to faction choice, as above, then the stats really start showing signs of life:clearly, women prefer Alliance Druids (and when you look at the Druid forms, there’s no question why). You can see the Alliance/Horde separation in the Hunters (that’s all those Night Elves), and you can see the gender separation again in the Priests. And the Warriors probably have the weirdest stats: Men play more Warriors overall, but the gender gap is even wider on the Horde side. While there are some women playing Horde Warriors out there (I know an Orc played by a female that will tank anything you can throw at her), Horde Warriors are much more likely to be men.
Very interesting. Keep in mind, as last time, that these gender numbers aren’t character genders — they’re self-identified on the gamerDNA site, so we can be reasonably certain that we’re looking at an (at least slightly) realistic stack of data here. There’s probably lots more data to be explored, too — it would be interesting to see what Blizzard knows about their players that we don’t. What class, for example, logs in the most on any given week?
If they make yet another sequel to everyone’s favorite modern-day dinosaur movie, Jurassic Park, we at WoW Insider feel that the film would best be served by being shot entirely in World of Warcraft. The Devilsaur, of course, would have a starring role. And did we mention the zombies? Yes, such a cinematic jewel would, by necessity, feature zombies. We had a screenplay half-finished when this screenshot from Cinate of Sasquatch Vanguard on Azgalor arrived, showing us that our Jurassic Zombie concept had already been done, and better than we could have ever imagined it. In the meantime, our search for fame and glory continues. Raiders of the Lost Zombie, perhaps?
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Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers’ Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.
Raids after 3.0.2 are far less difficult than they once were. My server has pick-up groups forming for everything up to and including Black Temple. Seeing content these days isn’t so much about being in the right guild as it is being online at the right time. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many high-end raiders are looking more closely at which guilds to join, choosing them more for who their members are than what tier they’re farming.
This week, one officer is wondering whether or not to relax his application standards for a few well-geared players who want to join. Is it worth the risk?
Scott,
I’m the GM of a casual to, what I like to call, medium core (that really sounds way to much like mediocre) raiding guild. Before the last patch we had Kara on farm as well as Gruul’s and Mags. We were farming the first 2 bosses of ZA and Void Reaver in TK. Many of us want to begin serious raiding when WotLK hits in a few weeks but we don’t quite have the numbers for consistent 25 man raids now.
I was hanging out grinding up inscription on my druid when I got a bunch of whispers from different people asking for guild invites and information.
Oxhorn’s got a new series of movies out which he’s posted under the name BMD over at WeGame.com. His latest flick is the third episode in the Dynamic Action Team series, called Fitting In. It’s a bit of a hybrid movie for us to show here at WoW Moviewatch, since its premise revolves around three characters from Team Fortress 2 who try to find their way around our beloved World of Warcraft, but we love the nearly seemless blending of the two games.
Episode 3 follows the team’s attempt to fit in with guilds and arena teams. Let’s just say their social skills come with a 3-day waiting period and their classes are definitelyOP. I’d absolutely want these guys on my side against the zombie scourge, but I’m not so sure I’d want to pal around with them. I like to see Oxhorn playing with the medium’s possibilities; moviewatchers can only benefit as he continues to stretch his talents.
You don’t need to know anything about Team Fortress 2 to enjoy this film, much like you didn’t need to know about any version of The Sims to enjoy Releasing the Beast. It’s a great way to poke fun at WoW’s foibles while at the same time winking at us with some inside jokes.
It’s a good thing the zombies are going away now, isn’t it? For the past few days, I noticed — or rather my money-making wife noticed — that the undead throng was badly tanking Azerothian commerce. The reason is that a lot of players’ bankers and Auction House entrepreneurs are low-level alts that succumbed easily to the plague and random zombie attacks. When a Level 65 city guard turned into a zombie, it would naturally aggro the low-level bank mules and auction house regulars, killing them instantly. It didn’t help that most players-turned-minions-of-the-Scourge usually targeted the Banks and Auction Houses for infection. Actually, we even recommended it as the best course of action as a (not so) mindless ghoul.
When the disease grew potent enough to transform anyone it infected within a minute, it became practically impossible to accomplish anything. Specially not with Argent Healers calling for a hasty retreat. Entire cities — or key areas of cities — were quickly transformed into ghoulish carnivals and it was simply too bothersome to do any business. As a result, players couldn’t put anything up on the Auction House nor could anyone buy anything, either, slowing commerce to a crawl. My wife’s daily Auction House profits of upwards 500 Gold dwindled down to nary a copper with her alt being unable to collect from the mailbox, move stuff from the bank, or scan the Auction House, as she died istantly to roving zombies.
What’s next in store for us? Did Blizzard really cave in to the demands of players who felt that the World Event disrupted their normal routine too much? Or is there something more devious waiting in the wings? I know my wife was so upset by being unable to conduct her business that she decided to hold off from logging in at least until the event died down. Now that the zombie infestation seems to be under control, perhaps business will pick up again. Or maybe not, depending on what Blizzard has prepared for Azeroth. One thing’s for sure, these Dawn of the Dead-type events certainly take a bite out of the economy.
Men are from the Horde, women are from the Alliance originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
