Tomorrow, Blizzard will enable same-faction battlegrounds in World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic, in an effort to better balance queue times. In the original TBC, players queuing up for battlegrounds could only face off against members of the opposing faction, which was a significant limitation. Horde would only ever fight against Alliance members and vice versa as a result of this arrangement. While TBC Classic has retained that feature thus far, the vast disparity in queue times between Horde and Alliance players has proven to be a source of contention. On the Alliance side, players can queue up for any battleground and be in the middle of a game almost immediately. However, for Horde players, queue times have steadily increased to the point where most BGs now have a wait time of an hour or more. The large disparity in queue times between the two factions can be attributed to the large number of players queuing on each side. Following widespread frustration among Horde players at not being able to participate in the game, Blizzard has decided to experiment with a potential fix. Beginning tomorrow, Blizzard will make it possible for the Battlegrounds matchmaker to pair players from the same faction against one another.World of Warcraft: Classic - The Burning Crusade!
While Blizzard's official post today states that it will prioritize pitting players against members of the opposing faction, it does not state that it will force a large number of Horde players to wait for a small number of Alliance players.
According to Blizzard, if a match against an opposing faction cannot be made quickly, you will be matched against a team from your own faction.“As is customary, rewards such as Honor and Reputation will be given out as well.” This change will apply to the Warsong Gulch, Eye of the Storm, and Arathi Basin queues, as well as other areas. In order to accommodate the large number of faction-specific NPCs involved, Alterac Valley queues will continue to be the only battleground where Horde vs. Alliance combat is required. For the time being, this modification is only a test. After this weekend's same-faction testing, Blizzard will restore queues to their original state and "analyze what happened" as a result of the weekend's testing. It is likely, however, that the same-faction queuing system will become a permanent fixture within a short period of time, assuming everything goes smoothly.
