This topic of the week is one that worried many players before the release of the Burning Crusade. It is a fact that many players rolled one faction or the other based on

A)the overall "look" of the races or
B) the availability of one class with a specific faction.

However, with the Burning Crusade, the developers seemed to try to even the playing field for both sides. They put a "freak"-type race on the Alliance side, allowing them to make the previously-Horde-only shaman class. And they put a "pretty" race on the Horde side, allowing them to become the previously-Alliance-only paladin class. Many players felt that this would disrupt the population balance more than even it out, while others felt that this was just the thing needed to bring up a lagging faction population.

Have too many people jumped ship? Is the availability of playing a shaman on the Alliance side, or the idea of playing a "pretty" race among the Horde too much? Have too many players rolled the new races and upset the population of races on each faction? Have the changes brought balance to server populations between factions? The Burning Crusade has been out for over a month now, what do you think?

My View

Personally, I think this is really not too much of an issue. The availability to play draenei or blood elf (shaman or paladin) did not do much to upset or balance server population issues in my view.

I seem to be in the minority, because I thought from the beginning that allowing horde paladins and alliance shaman (shamen?) was a good idea. I felt that people who wanted to play a specific class should not be inhibited by the faction that they choose. I also felt that Blizzard tied the decision into the lore in a very convincing way. If anything, I think that balance of class population will eventually come about due to this decision.

When it comes to the races themselves, I do not think that the addition of the two upset or balanced the population between alliance and horde. Rather, it seems to me that the population remains about the same.

However, I think that in the future, the races within the horde faction specifically will be affected. While many people may be drawn to playing the original horde races, I believe that a vast majority of the new players that are coming into WoW post-BC will be rolling Blood Elves. This will cause the blood elf population to exceed that of the other horde races. While it really doesn't disrupt anything, it won't be unusual to find most parties made entirely of (or have a majority of) blood elves, much like the problem the alliance has with the night elves currently. A majority of MMORPG players are fantasy fans and elves have always held a fascination that other races cannot compete with.

I think that all of the original races, on both factions, have many good points and it would disappoint me to see them neglected and unused due to the excitement of the two new races. I don't think it's a problem at this point (too many people have invested a lot of time into their toons that are made up of the original races to quit them now), however, as this new crop of players get their blood elves and draenei leveled up, it may be an issue we will face in the future.

Enough with what I think, now it's your turn.

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