Zombies in Azeroth: A night of terror
by Mike Schramm 
Oct 22nd 2008 at 10:50PM
There is a slowly growing chaos on the realms right now -- in the far reaches of Outland and even Azeroth, things are as normal, but slowly a plague creeps across the land. Westfall has fallen on many servers, and even our greatest leaders have become infected themselves, and the hordes continue to grow and lurch in search of living flesh.
Below you can see the sights of tonight's Zombie invasion. Someone has put some curious infested crates in Booty Bay, and as a result, Azeroth's population, NPCs and players alike, are slowly becoming something even worse than dead. If you've got some great screenshots of tonight's festivities, send them in to our tip line -- we'll be adding to this gallery of the zombie world event in the days to come... assuming we live that long.
Below you can see the sights of tonight's Zombie invasion. Someone has put some curious infested crates in Booty Bay, and as a result, Azeroth's population, NPCs and players alike, are slowly becoming something even worse than dead. If you've got some great screenshots of tonight's festivities, send them in to our tip line -- we'll be adding to this gallery of the zombie world event in the days to come... assuming we live that long.
Thanks to all the folks who sent us pictures for the gallery above: Chuck, Southpaw of I Hate This Guild, Moopie of Jaedenar, Vipermagi, Royastrasz of The Scarlet March on Maelstrom, Clayton, Matt, Bewbsies, Uther Kruger, Salacia of Firetree, Ambassador Miy, Rawlok, Destiny's Hand, Death by Cupcake on Twisting Nether, Grink from Whisperwind, Aelei, E Gray, Trevor Brader, Paul Astley, Itsnoteasy of Hyjal, Reinyan of Alea Iacta Est on Earthen Ring, Roger Burton, Darkslide of EU Wildhammer, Reign of Honor, Thesian on EU Eonar, Wobble, Moogoogaipan.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Events, Fan stuff, Blizzard, NPCs, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Gleb 70 Draka [A] Oct 22nd 2008 10:55PM
Very fun night :) Especially in SW Keep
leelya Oct 23rd 2008 12:56AM
Just found a neat bug, make a macro to equip / unequip your weapon, when you unequip your weapon ou get heald to full health!! Have fun spreading the plague :P
Enaress Oct 23rd 2008 3:23AM
@leelya
How? /unequip and /remove dont work.
Alex P Oct 23rd 2008 4:21AM
To equip / unequip your weapon, this seems to work:
/run PickupInventoryItem(16) PutItemInBackpack()
/equip Heaven's Light
(Heaven's Light is my current weapon, so just switch that for your main weapons name - there's probably better code than that, but I'm a macro noob, and that works!)
AlexW573 Oct 22nd 2008 10:59PM
If it hasn't been mentioned yet, Horde & Alliance can communicate if they are both zombies, since any zombie can understand & speak in Zombie.
Milk Oct 22nd 2008 10:58PM
As a zombie u can also take a portal in shat to a city from the opposite faction. Spread the disease people.
Ice Oct 23rd 2008 3:39PM
I tried that. I cant log in now. Thanks if I get banned for this :) Or theres so much lag I cant go..sigh
Nightshifter Oct 22nd 2008 11:06PM
Heads up, it's is not cool to grief the zombies, let people have fun. Some people on my realm have put on their jerk outfits and started ruining the fun for many.
Arkkis Oct 22nd 2008 11:23PM
Ya it was a huge pain trying to get a raid together when our own fellow Horde members were killing us constantly. Eventually we all ran away and infected all of crossroads.
Hamma Oct 22nd 2008 11:43PM
As a Paladin I spent the entire night defending against the invasion. Remember, it's a world event and there are multiple sides to it. Calling it griefing is a bit much ;)
james Oct 23rd 2008 12:16AM
Just a thought. There were two Paladins in Goldshire on my server (Thaurissan) who would not respond to any tells from anybody. People who normally try to give grief often like to gloat about it.
My Point is, I get the feeling "Some" may be employees of Blizzard Roleplaying it so it seems like it is "Good vs Evil".
Plus also to keep the initial Stem of Zombies to a minimum so as not to ruin the rest of the World event.
futurebiblehero Oct 23rd 2008 12:40AM
In regards to some of the "griefing" with roleplay servers, I think there's been a bit of miscommunication. For players to turn a blind eye to this would be ludicrous, but there has indeed been a lot of douchebaggery going on (who would have guessed). On my server, an RP one mind you, a handful of pallies set up shop and virtually wrecked the entire effort. Not a single emote, not a "for the light!", just quiet, unresponsive griefing.
I'd be surprised if a passer-by seen a single zombie, which really defeated the purpose of the entire event.
MisterMoose Oct 23rd 2008 12:56AM
Yes, because you couldn't possibly rp someone that hardly talks.
And it is ludicrous to claim it is griefing to remove disease from someone when that same person is quite likely going to go after the auctioneers, bankers, or a quest npc. The zombie-players are griefing on a much larger level, just like a level 70 horde attacking Westfall.
By the way, it seems healing is level dependent. A level 40 can't remove the disease of a 70 for instance, and it also almost always requires multiple casts (my level 68 Shaman had to spam his remove disease effect to get it to work).
futurebiblehero Oct 23rd 2008 1:09AM
Even the worst roleplayers of "silent" characters acknowledge other people roleplaying with them.
I'm so tired of people defending bad behavior by further loosening their definition of RP to some truly absurd lengths. Pwnurface wasn't named that because his mother sneezed while filling out the birth certificate. Just man up and say you're having fun being a jerk.
MisterMoose Oct 23rd 2008 1:20AM
Using RPing as an excuse to grief Auctioneers and Bankers isn't any better (and in fact it is arguably worse).
Anyhow, at the point where someone is saying "don't cure me" or "why'd you cure me" they've already broken rping convention, because even if they were playing someone evil, an evil person wouldn't broadcast that he was evil (and he'd be locked up if he did). Not responding to such comments is perfectly acceptable.
Now should they be talking on a RP server? Sure they should, but it is hardly a big problem if they don't respond to people who complain about being cured. In the grand scheme of things, not talking on an RP server is a relatively minor offense. It is acceptable behavior, if only just. It's certainly a lot better than non-rp talk.
If people want to mess around with being a zombie (and the roleplaying issues thereof), then they should have the sense to find a relatively secure spot to do this in. Going right by people who's basic obligation is to cure you and expecting them to do nothing is ridiculous.
futurebiblehero Oct 23rd 2008 1:42AM
And that takes it full-circle to my first post. If you are a Paladin is your obligation to cleanse the plague. Hell, I wouldn't be opposed to seeing a guy dressed up as a farmer running out and trying to hit the zombies with a shovel. That'd be a beautiful sight. I'd take screenshots.
There has been a basic miscommunication going on between the two groups because of griefers (on both sides no doubt) in their midsts. People are combative to being cleansed because there are -some- players that are stepping beyond the friendly boundaries of roleplaying into harassment. A zombie making a beeline for the auctioneers? Same thing. You can try to justify it all you want, but arguing "RP!" is a really dishonest argument in that scenario.
For every person out there "defending the women and children of Stormwind", there's a Paladin named Holynuttz getting off on wasting everyone's time. As I said before, Holynuttz? Probably not terribly interested in roleplaying (until he learns it's an easy refuge, at least).
MisterMoose Oct 23rd 2008 2:00AM
Getting infected is like flagging yourself (on a non-pvp server). You have accepted the risks of getting cleansed or immediately killed upon becoming an undead. Nobody has to justify cleansing you, and any "wrongness" to cleansing is very minor (just like killing someone whom has chosen to flag themselves).
You can certainly claim a person isn't RPing it enough on an RP server, just like you can claim when someone ganks you on a non-pvp rp server they didn't rp enough. That doesn't mean what they did was wrong or even mean. The plague, like flagging is a something you have chosen to get/do, and as such you've given up the right to complain about someone bothering you over this activity.
RPing is a completely separate issue from this. Almost anything someone does on an RP server can potentially not be RP'd enough, but that doesn't mean the underlying activity was wrong. You can quest without RPing, even help others without RPing. Neither of those activities is wrong in and of itself, but the like of RPing might be bad form (or considered a wrong in and of itself, separate from the activity the person was engaged in).
In short, if you infect yourself, don't complain about getting cleansed, and even if the person who cleansed you wasn't rping enough (or at all), that doesn't make the cleanse itself a wrong action. You may complain that people aren't RPing enough all you want, but don't try to paint whatever they are doing as wrong just because they didn't rp enough while doing it (unless the activity was inherently an rp activity, but that is not the case here, because cleansing is more akin to a pvp activity than an rp one).
futurebiblehero Oct 23rd 2008 2:24AM
It's wonderful that you just justified people killing off your bankers and auctioneers to prove me wrong by paring things down to pseudo-philosophical nonsense. Nice job, Camus.
Now, write something with citations to show everyone how you didn't contradict yourself and how you weren't miffed when people did that to you, but were knowingly staring into the abyss. Make a PDF of it. Go to Kinkos, make slides. Being right is evidently of great importance to you.
MisterMoose Oct 23rd 2008 2:31AM
Pot, meet kettle.
I'm not the one that resorts to namecalling when he finds himself on the losing end of an argument. For what it is worth, I admit I erred in trying to justify the behavior as ok rp-wise, because that's not really the fundamental issues with cleansing people (and it wasn't a particularly good argument).
I do stand by my position that infecting yourself is like flagging yourself. If you can explain how flagging isn't analogous, I'd be perfectly willing to change my mind. I am not, however, interested in exchanging insults or snide remarks, so if that's all you have left, then I bid you good day.
Zurkka Oct 23rd 2008 5:23PM
I will change my human warrior name to ASH and shoot at zombies with a gun and yell "THIS IS MY BOOMSTICK!" and "DAMN NECRONOMICON!" using only normal cloths (pants and a shirt) i just need a chainsaw to rp this well =P maybe the argent dudes should hand in some, now that would be fun