WOW to enable faction-swapping

Blizzard has announced the development of a faction-swapping mechanic for World of Warcraft, which will allow Horde and Alliance forces on the same server to swap sides.

"We wanted to give everyone a very early heads-up that, in response to player requests, we're developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance," Blizzard Poster Nethaera writes on the official forum (pointed to by 1UP).

"There's still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm.

"Players who ended up creating and levelling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we're pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it," adds Nethaera.

Players will have to become an existing race of the opposing faction, then. How this will work is unclear - the point seems to be that Gnome Rogues or Magi shouldn't expect to carry that career into Tauren hooves, or something. It's unlikely class will be changeable, too.

There's no mention of a premium charge, yet server transfers, name, physical appearance and gender changes are all existing, paid-for services.

"As with all of the features and services we offer, we intend to incorporate the faction-change service in a way that won't disrupt the gameplay experience on the realms, and there will be some rules involved with when and how the service can be used," explains Nethaera.

"The number of variables involved increases the complexity of implementing this service, but we plan to take the time needed to ensure that it lives up to expectations before officially rolling it out.

The post is clear that the service is a long way away, although testers may see related features appear on the test servers.