Hi all,
The following is a rough outline of some of the ideas I have pondered upon - actually ever since I got familiar with Ascension a little over a year ago.
----- Classless WoW -----
When I first joined Ascension's Classless WoW, one of the primary positive points was that it was exactly that - classless. I didn't have to choose a pre-set class which "locked" my possibilities of gameplay until I would create a new character with another class.
----- Raceless WoW -----
In continuation of the above, I however still had to choose a race. For the choice of race, I really liked the look of a one, however, knowing that this race - in terms of how I wanted to play the character - had worse racial benefits and abilities than other races, I was reluctant.
This made me think of the possibilities of a "raceless" version of WoW in the sense of the racials being reworked, chooseable, or provided in some other way. In his way, no player would feel "forced" into playing a race they don't like the look or gameplay of (because honestly, this 'feel' of one's character is MAJOR factor on the gameplay of an RPG) only due to their racials being superior to other race's.
----- Factionless WoW -----
The idea of a "raceless" WoW (in the sense of racial abilities not being a factor) made me think one step further; could there be a possibility in which not only classes or races would be defining for the choice of one's character, but that factions also played a smaller role?
If the choice of race relies upon which faction the race is, wouldn't a system in which a player - horde or alliance - could choose their faction, open up the world for people to actually create whichever character they would actually want to play the most?
I'm not necessarily suggesting an elimination of factions, despite the fact that these are already kind of absolete in BGs and PvE. Factions are a huge part of WoW, and still is in the sense of lore and open world PvP. However, one could wonder, why horde and alliance fight side by side in both BGs and PvE, however a horde player - despite maybe even being hostile with the horde faction as a hole - may never to enter an alliance city without the NPCs being hostile. This also despite the character, maybe being born under the faction of the horde, have grown apart from the horde as a hole and instead have grown fond of the alliance. Maybe one's best friends online have proven to be of the opposing faction, thus dooming one to never being able to sociale with them in one of the major cities. Shouldn't there be room for acceptance and inclusiveness based upon one's action rather than of which faction one was born within (a bit too cringe? Hopefully you get my point.)?
A suggestion could be that one may choose which faction to fight for. Another suggestion could be that one, born under the "naturally chosen" faction, may - e.g. through their actions - be accepted by the opposing faction (maybe always with the natural consequence of being made hostile with the "natural" faction). This also speaks well with the current possibilities of being an outlaw - couldn't an "outlaw" of the horde be an ally of the alliance?
-- Outro --
I personally believe that there are some beautiful ideas in the above mentioned suggestions. I would however like to discuss any points in this regard - so feel free to share your thought and ideas.