What really happened to the boat crews
by Michael Gray 
Jun 16th 2008 at 8:00PM
The boats that ferry us across Azeroth are near and dear to everyone. It could be our inner pirate, eager to plunder the lubbers and scallywag some seaports. Certainly, everyone knows the tale of Captain Placeholder. The Azeroth Triangle has stolen other victims, though -- the ship's crews have been missing, hinted at returning, and then still missing.
In a series of pithy moments last week, Nethaera and Eyonix revealed the sad fate of the fearless crews. It wasn't, as Neth originally claimed, workplace safety hazards that caused the vendors to go AWOL. According to Eyonix, the sight of so many poledancing Blood Elves harrowed the seamen such that they were forced to plunge to icy depths and ultimately drown. Captain Placeholder, Eyonix jokes, is the human form of Deathwing.
I don't care if Eyonix disclaims two or three times that it was a joke -- for me, this is now lore and canon. Captain Placeholder is Deathwing, and I don't care what anyone else has to say about it. Clearly, he killed the boat crews to protect that secret. I fear for the fate of Eyonix for letting this spoiler into the public eye.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Humor, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dightkuz Jun 16th 2008 8:22PM
I actually don't give a sh*t of where the crew is, hardly even noticed them anyway. Which is why I don't understand the whole discussion that has been going on about this "lost" crew, or maybe I'm confusing them with some other crew. Maybe the crew on the Alliance boats were more appreciated than the Goblins on the Zeps.
my2cents Jun 16th 2008 8:36PM
There was a vendor with food, water, reagents, etc. But the thing I liked the most was the presence of guards, to make ganking a little less likely =)
PimpyMicPimp Jun 17th 2008 2:42AM
Fun.
Look it up.
Also,
Having a soul.
Sirg Jun 17th 2008 5:22AM
Crews made sense, the empty boats are dull and it looks like WoW is still in a beta phase.
I don't care about the vendors, but they should bring back the NPCs, minus the vendors. They were fun, and I say it's a must have.
@1 prolly you're the type of player that plays wow only to raid or arena, and wow is to you like any other shooter.
Aichon Jun 16th 2008 8:59PM
While I didn't care about the crew, I DID care about those vending machines on the zeps. Restocking reagents whenever you hopped on a zeppelin was great.
Starbeast Jun 16th 2008 9:33PM
My thing was I just loved having them around. No ghost pirates for me!! I didn't care about the vendors or the Guards, I just loved the RP.
Starlin Jun 16th 2008 9:36PM
It's like Blink. It's too complex to fix for the benefit it would give. Which is too bad. The ambience was really nice.
I'm sure they'll have this all fixed in WoW 2... right?
Fauche Jun 16th 2008 9:39PM
"Captain Placeholder, Eyonix jokes, is the human form of Deathwing.
I don't care if Eyonix disclaims two or three times that it was a joke -- for me, this is now lore and canon. Captain Placeholder is Deathwing, and I don't care what anyone else has to say about it. "
Oh man, that is brilliant. I would love to see that.
G Jun 16th 2008 9:54PM
Strippers inhibited seamen? That's different.
Karpax Jun 17th 2008 3:38AM
It were probably the male belf strippers that caused them to jump...
For the Guild! Jun 16th 2008 11:49PM
Huh, that would explain it...
See my main is a druid, and waaay, back when I was still leveling him I went swimming around BootyBay when I first got there.
I had been a bit dissapointed that there was practically nothing in the water...
When all of a sudden, a loud splashing sound came from behind me, and it totally freaked me out. Here I am thinking "Oh crap its a huge fishmonster thats gonna eat me!"
I turn around ready to fight to the bitter end, and I see its a goblin...
I was very confused, and stuck around for a while, and the next time the boat passed by, more goblins fell out of it!
I was such a confused little newbie that day...
(Thus the comment from the Blues, about the crew plunging to the depths of the water to drown themselves. I saw them do it!! Cool...)
Ametrine Jun 17th 2008 4:40AM
Holy crap, are you for serious?!
Cookie McWeaksauce Jun 17th 2008 8:21AM
I've had the same experience in Durotar. They just fell down to the ground, stood there for a sec, then despawed. That by itself certainly isn't a good enough reason to completely remove them from the game, but maybe that was putting some sort of stress on the servers, somehow. Still, I really liked having those guys there, just for the ambiance. And the vendors weren't too shabby either. Wish they'd fix it.
Vendrill Jun 17th 2008 1:20AM
Bring back the crew! They were great!
Daryl Jun 17th 2008 8:01AM
once the boat disappeared from under me dropping me into the sea after leaving Menathil.
Lucky I wasn't far enough to fatigue.
I don't know what happened to the other passengers.
nemu Jun 17th 2008 2:55AM
The lament of Captain Placeholder ^.^ You cannot mention Captain P. and not link to this ^.^
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_wzlrB9d9s&fmt=18
TobiasX Jun 17th 2008 4:32AM
Well, they never did say where Deathwing went...
/hail Captain Placeholder!
Camaris Jun 17th 2008 6:49AM
I do wonder what *actually* caused them to disappear. It must've been quite serious if they actually were deleted from the game.. did they cause crashes? Or did they present some kind of strange exploit?
Zumwalah Jun 17th 2008 9:43AM
The vendors were removed because they sold a few items in limited supply, but every time the changed zones, it reset their inventory.. so it wasnt as Limited as it should have been.. atleast this was my undertanding of why
evankimori Jun 17th 2008 2:23PM
The reason they removed them as well was because they took junk like any other vendor. And as you can guess: a few silly people sold their gear and epics to the vendor as junk. And when the vehicle zoned: it would reset the inventory completely, including the buyback tab.
And since your buyback tab is stored as long as you were online: the reset meant NO other vendor would be able to sell you back the items you just sold as junk. They couldn't think up a method of how to store the item code so that it wouldn't reset every zoning.
And obviously: the "QQ I WANT MY ITEM BACK. I SOLD MY EPIC/BLUE/GREEN BY ACCIDENT!!" outweighed the "Good idea. I like these NPCs" and they removed them altogether. Last time I heard anything on this, Eyeonix said they were still trying the thresh out the coding and storage of item code for these NPC's as a separate entity or at least sync with normal standstill vendors to stop the problem.