World of Warcraft cross-faction guilds are something of an unfulfilled dream for many players of the venerable MMORPG. It’s not uncommon to find out a new friend plays WoW, only to be told that they’re kicking back in Orgrimmar while you’re shooting the breeze in Stormwind.
Shadowlands went some way to address this, adding in cross-faction grouping which allowed once sworn enemies to party up for PvE content. Unfortunately this has limitations, and doesn’t work for Dungeon/Raid Finder, or for guilds. Thankfully for those who want to give Peacecraft a chance, Blizzard are working on this, according to WoW game director Ion Hazzikostas.
“It’s something we want to do”, the WoW dev says in an interview with twitch streamer Maximum. “I would like us to do it before the next expansion, but it’s in the hands of a lot of engineering problem solving”.
WoW’s introduction of cross-faction grouping is still somewhat bug riddled, so it’s unsurprising that guilds are presenting a technical challenge. Groups have occasionally found party/raid chat, as well as whispers, fail to deliver to cross-party members. Hazzikostas adds, “These changes are pulling on a thread in code and systems that have been built to work a certain way for 20 years”, but introducing cross-faction guilds “may be easier than we expected, we’ll see”.
There are concerns about opening cross-faction communication entirely, however. Ion explains that “the thing we want to make sure of is that there’s some opt-in connection, you’re not just getting a whisper from a random cross-faction person that ganked you”. For WoW purists, that’s good news at least. Along with the ability to restrict premade group finder parties to single-faction only, it will at least be possible for people who want to keep the war in Warcraft to ignore the changes entirely.
In the full interview Ion also addresses the state of Season 4, simultaneous difficulty releases, and idea of ‘required’ classes for raids, and you can find it on Maximum’s twitch channel. For more of the latest news on future expansions, check out our article on the WoW Dragonflight Demon Hunter talent trees. Otherwise, rejoice with our rundown of the various nerfs coming to Return to Karazhan in a recent WoW Shadowlands hotfix, especially if you’re struggling with Season 4 so far.