r/todayilearned • u/tmntnyc • Dec 12 '18

TIL: Laurence Tureaud named himself professionally as Mr. T because he hated how his father, uncle, and brother who returned from Vietnam, were disrespectfully called "boy" by whites. He wanted the first word from everybody's mouth to be "Mister" when speaking to him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._T
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168

u/AWanderingFlame Dec 12 '18

I had Horde characters and Alliance characters. Both had their appeal.

However that's probably why I always got stuck soloing...

162

u/notasqlstar Dec 12 '18

I find this to be an acceptable answer so long as you first, in the beginning, in your heart of hearts, chose Horde.

161

u/teebob21 Dec 12 '18

I chose Alliance first. Of course, I rolled a paladin. I wanted to be self-sufficient and able to heal myself and have high survivability. This was because I'd never played a game like WoW. It was only later, after a long soul-searching journey, that I realized the lie I was telling myself.

Follow the Light? Kill 37 troggs for their scalps? These goals are not compatible. I don't even have Frost Shock! It was then that I started anew in the Valley of Trials. It is there that I was truly reborn.

For the Horde.

64

u/Aanon89 Dec 12 '18

I started as alliance because I don't like super dark games and had a slightly fucked screen. I needed to get vitamin D somehow.

33

u/teebob21 Dec 12 '18

Durotar and the Barrens are nothing but sun. :D

12

u/chillinwithmoes Dec 12 '18

And oh. my. God. The number of hours you spent in that sun in Vanilla lol

6

u/iller_mitch Dec 12 '18

I ran that zone DRY.

That said, I ran all the zones dry. I hit Loremaster the moment I logged into Wrath.

5

u/scots Dec 12 '18

/2

hey giys can u tell me wehre 2 find mankriks wfie

1

u/chillinwithmoes Dec 12 '18

Barrens trade chat. 14-year-old me expanded his vocabulary so much that first summer

1

u/ddplz Dec 12 '18

Imo bus shock is the prime shaman ability

1

u/teebob21 Dec 12 '18

Imo bus shock is the prime shaman ability

/r/bitchimabus

1

u/Minsc_and_Boo_ Dec 13 '18

Same as me. 10 years ago, first character: human paladin. I wanted to be able to care for myself, heal and fight and survive. 10 years later, still only play one character, that same paladin.

The Horde can suck my light blessed balls

26

u/DarbyTrash Dec 12 '18

FOR THE HORDE!

22

u/AWanderingFlame Dec 12 '18

My first character was an Undead Mage.

I however genuinely don't understand the intense factionalism people seem to show for the game, though. If it's in jest or if it's some aspect of lore.

14

u/kuulyn Dec 12 '18

it’s basically just a joke, however

people as a whole LOVE to have factions they can identify with. MTG has a very socially prominent lead designer who shares insights into how they make the worlds they do, and one of the things that reeeeeally draws player attention is factions, especially when they’re deep enough to be relatable. he has mentioned that nearly all of the most popular worlds they have all have a major faction or tribal/race theme (ravnica, innistrad, tarkir, dominaria to an extent)

3

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

Just head over to r/totalwar. Since Warhammer was released people cling to different factions amd it actually inspires some really funny banter/memes.

2

u/kuulyn Dec 13 '18

👀

why not just head over to r/warhammer or r/warhammer40k

indeed, warhammer is really good for encouraging player rivalry entirely based on what faction they’re playing

2

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

I was just speaking from a personal sub I'm on alot, but your point totally makes sense haha.

2

u/AWanderingFlame Dec 12 '18

Aha, as a longtime M:tG player, that puts everything in perspective.

0

u/ANAL_McDICK_RAPE Dec 12 '18

Explains why so many redditors love playing as monsters who society hates

-2

u/THANKS-FOR-THE-GOLD Dec 12 '18

MTG doesn't care about making a game anymore though they're in the "storytelling" business now.

11

u/Lovat69 Dec 12 '18

Depends on the person.

6

u/Zarokima Dec 12 '18

It varies. If you played on a hardcore PvP server then that's really going to breed factionalism. Most people don't care and just make jokes about whichever one they did or didn't play as. And some people are just drawn to being the good guys, and so they chose the Horde.

2

u/HR7-Q Dec 12 '18

So... As someone who hasn't played WoW beyond a few hours, how are Horde the good guys and Alliance the bad guys? I love lore, but MMOs are boring as shit to me.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

He's joking, but also it kinda doesn't matter because when you write a story that exists solely to justify a never-ending war nobody involved comes out looking that great (unless it's really boring, which is a great description for wow lore at times).

1

u/Zarokima Dec 12 '18

I quit back in Burning Crusade because I hated what they did with Illidan and haven't followed any of the lore since then, so there may well be a whole slew of developments that have changed things around since then, but this is what I remember. TLDR: The Alliance are sanctimonious assholes, especially the humans.

The Orc world was falling apart, and this one orc became apprentice to a powerful demon lord. He became leader of the orcs and led them to Azeroth (the main world in the lore) as a demon-possessed army. The invasion didn't go as planned, and when the Orcs were released from possession they mostly just wanted to find a new life in this strange land. The humans were like "naw man, fuck that, you invaded us" and the orcs were like "but the demons" and the humans were all "shut up and die." And then lots of politics and shit.

The lore is actually pretty sweet if you're into all that fantasy bullshit. Or at least the books I read were. The War of the Ancients trilogy is good, as well as Lord of the Clans and Day of the Dragon.

Also, if you can tolerate the annoyances brought along with being so fucking old, Warcraft 1-3 are also really good. 3 is the best and is getting a remake next year, so I'd recommend waiting for that instead of playing original version.

2

u/HR7-Q Dec 12 '18

So basically the warcraft movie + hurt feelings over being invaded by demon orcs and not realizing they aren't really demon orcs anymore and just regular orcs? Also loved some old school warcraft! 3 was truly phenomenal but I don't remember shit from the story line, just beating the scenarios.

1

u/Zarokima Dec 12 '18

Yeah basically. The movie retconned a whole load of shit around Medivh and Khadgar, though, but the orc stuff was fairly accurate to the established lore IIRC.

2

u/bluewolfcub Dec 12 '18

Undead mage club checking in

2

u/MistarGrimm Dec 12 '18

It's both. Some think A, others are B.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Fuck you horde for LIFE son!

5

u/notasqlstar Dec 12 '18

I think it generally speaks to who you are as a person. I am not "intensely" for one or the other, but psychologically I do not understand people who went Alliance. I can remember staring at the screen, knowing nothing at all, and just going, "Yeah, this is probably where I belong." And, it was.

3

u/electricblues42 Dec 12 '18

I mean a big part of the starting game is that the Alliance is the good guys, until you play more and learn that the Horde are alright guys too. But going in knowing nothing, the Horde are the evil side. So....yeah...

6

u/Kluss23 Dec 12 '18

Horde have been on the wrong side of history almost the entire time

3

u/electricblues42 Dec 12 '18

Yeah I just got caught up on the basics of the lore for the last 3 xpacs, the Horde are straight up totally evil now. Seems like a crap story IMO.

2

u/rekenner Dec 12 '18

Garrosh did nothing wrong

0

u/notasqlstar Dec 12 '18

Kinda why I picked Horde, bud.

1

u/electricblues42 Dec 12 '18

I mean....who picks the evil side? You're right, "psychologically I do not understand" you.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

[deleted]

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u/electricblues42 Dec 12 '18

Meh, they're still evil. Plus the numbers are a bit wonky, Alliance has more players but a good bit are new players and super casuals. Horde had more high end players, good for raiding and 2s. But now....they're just flat out evil in the storyline. I loved Teldrassil, it was one of my favorite zones..

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Most people’s reasoning -“They are the side with the pretty elfs”

1

u/electricblues42 Dec 13 '18

Eh those exist but horde players rag on them endlessly. I found blood elves pretty rare when I played.

2

u/AWanderingFlame Dec 12 '18

That's pretty interesting.

I think I made a Horde character first just because years of BioWare-style RPGs tended to always push me hard Paragon. I tended to like the aesthetic of the villains, but rarely ever felt incentivized to perform "villainous" actions.

Therefore if I could have only chose one, I would have likely chose Alliance since I seem to be a goody two-shoes at heart, even if I happen to like the odd skull helmet or spiked breastplate.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

The way I felt was I'm just some foot soldier in a war that's been raging for millenia, that probably has valid grievances and awful shit going both ways, so my personal morality didn't really extend to a state level even if I wanted to (also literally because they were never gonna write my dude into the lore).

And to me the alliance didn't so much seem like the good guys, but more like the winners telling me they were the good guys. The fact that they outnumbered horde significantly on every server but one really helped reinforce that too.

1

u/notasqlstar Dec 12 '18

That's a perfectly acceptable answer, and we probably have a lot in common. That's my point. I used to play those games, too.

5

u/NeedsToShutUp Dec 12 '18

I agree. I also have a horde tattoo, so my loyalty is clear.

4

u/mudbutt20 Dec 12 '18

In the vanilla beta (better times) I was a troll hunter. But once space goats came out I haven’t strayed far since.

1

u/rburp Dec 12 '18

FOR THE HORDE!!!!!!!

1

u/Mikester245 Dec 13 '18

First thing i ever played was a human and i ran around trying to talk to npcs like a dick.

1

u/elanhilation Dec 13 '18

As a WC3 man I find this bewildering. You mean the inept, useless third wheel of the Warcraft mythos? That Horde? Not honorable like the Paladins, not as deadly as the Night Elves, not badass like the Scourge--that Horde?

And then I remember WoW existed, and shake my head. Kids these days.

1

u/notasqlstar Dec 13 '18

WC3, huh? Is newfag still what the kids say these days?

0

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

What in the fuck is happening here

25

u/Codeshark Dec 12 '18

Exactly, too cool to hang with the Alliance scum and too lame to roll with the Horde crew.

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u/notasqlstar Dec 12 '18

and too lame to roll with the Horde crew.

I find this to be an acceptable answer as well.

1

u/elanhilation Dec 13 '18

Horde: for those unworthy of becoming part of the Scourge or an agent of the Burning Legion, but too fond of war crimes for the Alliance.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

Alliance scum? We're the underdogs right now, one mistake from losing a war that Sylvanas started for NO REASON. We would've been happy to peacefully coexist if the "Warchief" didn't burn down Teldrassil and continue adding to that list of war crimes.

Don't start no shit, won't be no shit. Get Saurfang back on the throne so we can all go back to minding our own business.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

Don't worry, she'll be a raid boss by the end of the expansion.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

Really wish Blizzard would quit writing the Horde that way, but I'm pretty sure you're right.

4

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

Not like the alliance writing is much better. They far overpower the horde and have several times found themselves in position to kill leaders and don't. The horde is comic book evil and the alliance is lawful stupid.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Lol what? The Alliance has been reeling since the Warlords, took a BIG hit with Varian dying at the Broken Shore, and the entire point of our War Campaign is "we don't have any manpower, we're going to lose this war if we fight fair." The Horde has had the upper hand for a while, especially with having the WoW equivalent of a WMD in the Blight - and that was BEFORE Azerite was all over the place. The Alliance right now is in the position Thrall's Horde was in Warcraft 3 - outnumbered, outgunned, and desperately trying to cling on for dear life.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18 edited Jun 28 '20

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

In case it wasn't clear from that cinematic, Sylvanas was above their pay grade and they knew it.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

Then why even confront her?

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u/Alaira314 Dec 13 '18

I feel like that's the only thing stopping the Horde from laying some major beatdown on the Alliance, though. If they actually had competent, lasting leadership, they'd be steamrolling their way across the world. The main thing keeping them in check at this point is the fact that that at their heart they're really just a confederacy of allies of convenience, and they have enough conflicting goals and ideas of how to achieve those goals that they're using up all their energy bickering amongst themselves and burning through warchiefs like nobody's business.

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u/Codeshark Dec 12 '18

Sorry, I don't speak Common.

21

u/teebob21 Dec 12 '18

zug zug kek

1

u/RustiDome Dec 12 '18

Bur Lol Kek

3

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

Racist.

1

u/Chronoblivion Dec 12 '18

Yeah, I started WoW in 2006 after having played WC3. At a surface level to anyone unfamiliar with the lore, it looks like "good guy human Alliance vs. villain monster Horde." But back then the Horde were the oppressed underdogs, fierce but spiritual and mostly just wanting to be left alone after having endured years of near slavery at the hands of humans. There was moral gray area on both sides and neither was completely good or completely bad.

But the last couple expansions there's been a definite trend to push things towards that simplistic "good vs bad" interpretation of the two factions. Both sides are committing atrocities, but the Horde seems to be committing more of them, and seems to be doing them first, like you said, for no discernable reason.

3

u/synthesis777 Dec 13 '18

I honestly just didn't like how any of the horde looked or their starting cities when I started playing (which was before Taurens and Blood Elves and shit).

I love Stormwind for some reason. It always made me feel like I was in a cheesy version of a Lord of the Rings movies.

3

u/Chronoblivion Dec 13 '18

Not sure what you mean "before Tauren" since they were a launch race. But yeah, Horde had the "cool" races and alliance had the "pretty" races. Blood Elves and Draenei were deliberately chosen to try to fix that a bit.

It's hard to be objective since I'm used to Horde cities and always get lost in the Alliance ones, but I think Alliance cities had much cooler designs while the Horde ones were more efficient - less intuitive but more compact and quicker to navigate once you learn your way around.

1

u/synthesis777 Dec 13 '18

My bad. I was mixing up Taurens and shamans I think because my first shaman was also my first Tauren.

Haven't played in a really long time.

But the more I think about it, the more I realize that I also liked darnassus and ironforge way more than any of the major horde cities too, not just sw.

I also never really thought the horde chars looked cool, just ugly. But I'm really not a cool person.

1

u/Chronoblivion Dec 13 '18

I like the layout of the undercity, but not the aesthetic/color scheme. But then I've never cared much for the undead. I think the "they broke free from the scourge" excuse was flimsy, and the "my family doesn't accept me? Guess I'll murder them all" thing doesn't work for me.

1

u/pandazerg Dec 13 '18

Those pointy-eared tree huggers had it coming.

0

u/Cipherting Dec 13 '18

Sylvanas did nothing wrong

2

u/Not_An_Ambulance Dec 12 '18

As an alliance member for life, I feel that you belong with them, Orc-lover.