Faience's Adventures in Outland: It's the end of the world as we know it...
by Elizabeth Harper 
Jan 11th 2007 at 11:45PM
...and after my dozenth death, I'm not so sure that I feel fine. Sure, it started out all fun and games with Tyren's announcement on the forums that there might be some "cool events" on the beta realms this evening. But cool, I wonder, for whom? Certainly not for the poor denizens of the now ravaged Shattrath City -- the Outland's only major city. On the beta realm Hellfire, CMs Ordinn and Tseric orchestrated the destruction of this fine city, throwing wave after wave of bosses at the city's populace.
Want to see what happens when the game's most dangerous monsters converge on a single city center? Well, read on to find out.
On initial approach to the city's gates, I found the city to be a smoking ruin, its gates guarded by less than friendly infernals. (He's a little hard to see, but trust me, he's there, hiding in that green glow.)
The tunnel entrances to the lower levels of the city seemed to be unguarded, from the outside -- but within the city more infernals lurked. These Draenei guards kept a close watch on the city's outer gates, but certainly failed to warn me of what I would find inside...!
Fortunately for those wishing to jump into the fighting, Shattrath is arranged on two levels -- and the lower level is below ground level. I leapt into the lower city, making sure to stay clear of those infernals (whom I learned, over the course of the evening, could easily one shot me). I headed towards the Terrace of Light at the heart of the city, dodging flaming rubble and navigating through dense clouds of red smoke. With care, I dodged additional guards to land in the city's heart, only to be dismayed by the sight of death that awaited me.
Highlord Kruul stood amongst a massive pile of skeletons and corpses, hacking away at any players within range. Few withstood his wrath -- not to mention his varied minions. (Including everyone's favorite elite, the Son of Argul.) By the time Kruul was defeated, hundreds of skeletons littered the terrace. While waiting for my "Mark of Death" to wear off (a fun debuff everyone received on dying to Kruul or his pals which seemed to cause you to die instantly if you entered combat with it on), I decided to say hello to Kruul's corpse. He certainly wouldn't have let me get this close before -- the guy probably has something against Gnomes.
Players crowded around Tseric ("Tsericc") to wish him a friendly hello and request mad epix.
But there was no end in sight -- we were soon treated to a visit from Emeriss and Lethon.
Emeriss held the Terrace of Light while Lethon guarded one of the bridges to the city's center.
And now? Emeriss and Lethon continue to stalk the outer parts of the city, while a pair of Pit Commanders (72 elites) keep guard over the Terrace of Light.
After hours of domination over Shattrath City, this invasion shows no signs of being repelled -- and one has to wonder, will Shattrath ever be quite the same?
Read more about Faience's adventures in Outland.
Filed under: Expansions, The Burning Crusade
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
gooberguy Jan 12th 2007 12:03AM
that
is
so
cool.
i wish it happened for real.
maybe hire world event GM's.
now wouldnt that be a fun job
Kyle Jan 12th 2007 12:23AM
heh, was pretty fun.
Did you go to Southshore? Huge thing there, Eyonix as an Arakkoa, 5 Jainas (who gave off an insane spirit buff, nice not having to drink or rest), Thrall, Doomwalkers. And then a raid on Stormwind.
Fun!
Revovisions Jan 12th 2007 2:31AM
(As stated from Gooberguy)
I've been thinking about that as well as i play MMO's and become too used to unreactive AI's and NPC's. Asheron's Call stands out in my mind for suprising the player by patching in huge bosses that attack player cities but all in all after you play awhile you know how the game will react. By hiring certain people to control high-world avatars they could essentially do anything they want, keeping players on edge and also provide depth w/o the pains of programming it. This is a truly awesome idea. Actually having a real-life person controlling important npc's add more depth to the game than i can even imagine. I hope someday there are MMO's like that. Anyone else wanna express their ideas on this?
douh! Jan 12th 2007 11:12PM
that is the most fun and cool thing ive seen to go on in WOW,why cant normal wow have fun stuff too?
It feels like a routine already.
Alarius Jan 12th 2007 3:08AM
Amazing, I wish I had been in beta to experience this.
Qix Jan 12th 2007 11:34AM
I remember the same kind of things happening in my favorite MUD. Problem with WoW is, there are 3 million servers. Makes doing anythign like that exponentily problematic....
Brim Jan 12th 2007 4:05AM
Cannot be done. Why?
Kill healers, simple as that.
No human player would ever think:
"OMG that warrior used Sunder Armor on me! INFIDEL! FEEL THE WRATH OF JEREMY!!!"
And continues to beat on the warrior for the next ten minutes...
Bartholemues Jan 12th 2007 5:10AM
GM controlled events can and have been done in other games, just not much in WoW to my knowledge. They did it in EQ, not all the time but enough that everyone who played the game for a while got to experience at least one if they wanted. It's also been done in AC and I'm sure other games as well. Yes, when it's a single boss mob the GM is controlling, tanking and tactics in general become obsolete as the GM can't be aggroed so it usually becomes a big zerg-fest where one of the participants randomly gets the kill. But it's not all about uber gear, it's about the fun and excitment of participating in something unique and interesting.
Aaron Jan 12th 2007 5:29AM
Heh, reminds me of the Scourge Invasion that wrapped up the first Beta.
Unkle Jan 12th 2007 9:01AM
Anarchy Online did GM controlled events from time to time.
It was always a lot of fun, and pretty funny when the GM would vanish because their connection dropped.
groucho Jan 13th 2007 2:46AM
@6: It does not have to be either a fully AI or a fully GM-controlable mob. It could retain characteristics of the normal mob i.e. aggro accumulation though sunder armor etc. that the GM puppet master would have to live with, but with the GM being able to dictate broad strategy and tactics. The best of both worlds. I call it the "UltimatePvP" (take note world: royalties are due if you use the term :-) )
RollsMyEyes Jan 12th 2007 9:57AM
I, for one, am tired of all these pre-expansion "events." What's the big deal? So Blizzard sents in bosses to wipe SW; or have some of their lackeys control bosses and destroy some city; whoopee!
I wasn't there when they opened the gates to AQ nor will I be there when the Dark Portal opens -- frankly, WoW is just for entertainment and I think I have better things to do than to be one of the mice that's led around by Blizzard's many pied pipers.
Just let me know when I can play the game again -- that is, when the bugs are fixed, the mods are up-to-date, and the servers stop crashing from the onslaughter of fanboys logging in to "experience" the expansion.
Tad Jan 12th 2007 9:57AM
I remember hearing a lot about The Matrix MMO having a ton of GM interaction and GM run events. They even had a large storyline develop which resulted in Morpheus biting the dust.
I'm not saying WoW has to kill off Thrall for good, but just not be afraid to provide some more special and dynamic content.
Kahja Jan 12th 2007 10:37AM
@10 You seem pretty desperate for your "entertainment", maybe you should go do these other things instead of talking about how you want to play your game on WoW Insider?
Crooth Jan 12th 2007 7:03PM
At some point in Everquest's history, there was a build of the client that would let you control a monster rather than your character. I can't remember if it was just for a special event or all the time, but that feature was dropped after a bit and never returned.
Note this was different than the Play as a Monster feature they introduced later.
But wouldn't that be an amazing twist on WoW? It shouldn't be allowed with boss mobs - the comments about not being able to control aggro is a good one, and we don't want people making the boss fight a pushover out of sympathy or collusion. But with non-Elites it would be cool. You might also get a better sense of a creatures abilities and its weaknesses - I suspect we'd find monsters somewhat frustrating as even 2 even-con mobs lose out to most players.
Samidare Jan 12th 2007 6:05PM
I wish I could have been there for it. And yes, for #10...(for the first time i will ever use the expression) QQ less please. For someone who is so tired of it...you still wait for the game.
Anyways. I was in the first beta when they destroyed Org and anything that set foot in the crossroads. I am sure the alliance cities got trashed as well. But it was a fitting end to the beta. Everyone around had a lot of fun even though we where getting one shotted by giant infernals over and over.
I wish they could do more events like that. Even if it was just every now and then. Even if it wasn't on the scale of wiping out everyone in sight. In everquest there where gms who would show up with mini-quest and events that people could do. My favorite was of course the arena fights. Last man standing. Winner got some item and some money, and was announced to everyone on the server.
Would make the game a bit more insteresting imo.