Balance of Power

More WoW musings - yes that's pretty all I've been playing lately but maybe that's the secret of Blizzard's success: Release a game that's so addictive, it subsequently murders the competition.

One thing that I find impressive is that the world set in WoW, Azeroth, has it's own history. It may be one that's long and complex but what I like about it, is that it incorporates the events from the previous games in the Warcraft series. And the continued use of Wow means the history of Azeroth is continually being expanded upon. And just as long as Blizzard keeps pumping out updates and the occasional major shake-up (as evidenced with Cataclysm) it would be interesting to see what Azeroth would look like in, say, 2022 (now there's a scary thought.....)

But what I find interesting is that the history of Azeroth has just been a series of some prat rumbling across the planet and taking over. So what are the chances of it happening again?
Most likely never: The Horde and the Alliance both seem to be locked in an eternal stalemate and these two forces seem more alike then they'd like to admit. Indeed, it's been noted that for every arrogant/xenophobic Alliance member there's a condescending/vicious Horde member. Furthermore the Alliance is a once glorious organization now collapsed into factions who don't see eye to eye whilst the Horde may be a gathering of victims but that doesn't make the races involved friends.
Considering Blizzard's favoritism towards the Horde, one would expect that would give them the edge to storm in and demolish the Alliance. And in a way that may set the ground for an interesting shake-up: The Alliance gets trashed in a severe manner that their power is reduced and they must get a counter attack going. But with the Alliance power reduced, the remnants must rely on the challenge of guerrilla warfare to get some ground back.
Okay that sounds like a dumb scenario.....

Ultimately though, the eternal stalemate is pretty much all WoW needs - because if one side destroys the other then really you've got not much of a game left...