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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreaking down Blizzard's world event so far
by Mike Schramm 
Oct 29th 2008 at 9:00AM
Blizzard, as we've said already, has really outdone themselves with this latest world event. It's been so fun and so innovative that players are wondering just why the rest of the game hasn't been this good so far (even though, of course, it's been superb anyway). The zombie invasion really gave players of MMOs everything they've wanted since this genre first came into being -- a growing, changing world populated not by mindless AI characters stuck in static patterns, but actual, creeping story and chaos. For all of the anti-zombie whining, this world event has been MMO gameplay at, I'd say, the best it's ever been.And while I was waiting until the event completely ended to do a final analysis, Colin Brennan over at Massively isn't waiting -- he's got a good analysis up over there about the zombie event and just why it was so brilliant. He describes how the world event not only gave players a terrific reason to hate Arthas enough to go to Northrend and want to fight him, but how the gameplay design of the event (when you are killed by a zombie, you become one) was tuned towards fueling the story and the immersion. As he says, the best way to fight the plague was to embrace the fact it was in the game, whether you were a zombie or a cleansing Paladin.
There's lots more to dissect with this world event, including how Blizzard brilliantly invoked something that had happened by accident -- the Corrupted Blood plague -- and incorporated it into the game itself, and how the various zombie abilities were aimed directly at gameplay only possible in an MMO, from the AoE healing to the shrinking plague incubation time. I'll go so far as to say it expanded the boundary of what an MMO can do -- Blizzard let zombies loose on the populace not by hiring GMs to run around on every server, but by giving power to the players. But again -- there'll be time for analysis later, once we've discovered ingame just exactly what's going on here and how it all ties to Arthas. Colin's analysis is a good start, though -- Blizzard really outdid themselves with, even considering the complaints, one of the best world events ever seen in an MMO.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Events, Fan stuff, Blizzard, Quests, Lore
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 6)
pb Oct 29th 2008 9:45AM
oh, and one of the best things to come from this, I camped the goldspammer level 1s until they stopped rezzing, they even tried to hide, I eventually found them and shared my zombie love.
Hudders Oct 29th 2008 9:46AM
It's terrible that people who speak out against the world event are labelled as "whiners" who don't know how to have fun.
Yes, this was a fun event, but griefers ruined it for some people. I despair for people who can't even see that side of the argument.
Rosa Oct 29th 2008 9:55AM
It's not that we can't see it, yeah, there WERE some people who took a little too much pleasure in just trying to bug people.
What matters is that for everyone who was trying to ruin someone's day, there were 10 people who genuinely just liked being/fighting zombies.
Everyone experienced the same thing. It's just easier to respect the people who let it roll off their backs, laughed, and joined in, than it is to respect the people who got tchy and let it GET to them.
If person A puts off their annoyance, shrugs, and decides to be a sport, why should person B who was too uptight to do that get pat on the back?
Dranaerys Oct 29th 2008 9:48AM
I'll never forget flying into Org last Sunday and finding my flightmaster was a zombie that instantly took a swipe at me and infected me. I'll never forget the streets in chaos as hordes of zombies and guards battled each other, corpses litering the streets, and being unable to use either AH, Banks, being cleansed by total strangers who helped fight the invasion. The sense of chaos, of utterl lack of control, of being unable to use basic services like flight masters and AH jsut drove home the feeling of INVASION all the better, and yes, it was a bit annoying but hell, it was awesome, and tis something nobody has done as well on any other MMO.
For a few days, I felt part of a living, breathing world, and everyone, even horde and allies on PVP severs, came together to defend neutral towns like Ara 52 against the zombies.
I'll never undertand the whiners, this is the best event WOW has seen, but I guess people will always find a reason to moan and QQ.
Karine Oct 31st 2008 6:24PM
"I'll never undertand the whiners, this is the best event WOW has seen, but I guess people will always find a reason to moan and QQ."
What is there to understand? What's fun for you is not fun for other people. You are aware that they're as entitled to saying they didn't like it, as you are to say you loved it, right?
Also, when it comes to professing things like "this is the best event WoW has seen" please share what exactly you think entitles you to pass your personal opinion as fact.
rocketscientist Oct 29th 2008 9:49AM
I wouldn't say they've outdone themselves. The server was *exactly* this laggy at launch. So really, they've just gotten back to their roots.
norkblack Oct 29th 2008 9:49AM
I'm not new to WoW (I've 5 level 70s) but I was starting to level on a new PvE realm with a friend new to the game as the zombie event began. For the first day it was terrible, as high levels were infesting the newbie areas and killing all the low level players, vendors and quest givers. It wasn't a great introduction to the game for first timers at all - they should have put a block on zombification on the starter zones so new players could at least start to play the game as normal. You may be bored with WoW, burned out or whatever, so this was a fun event for you, but how much 'fun' would you have had if you were being constantly one-shotted in a starter zone when you started to play?
GormanGhaste Oct 29th 2008 9:50AM
"the gameplay design of the event (when you are killed by a zombie, you become one) was tuned towards fueling the story and the immersion"
Actually, the gameplay completely disrupted any immersion in the event--we're supposed to want to fight Arthas, not run around going "tee hee, I'm a zombie!". Based on how many players responded to the event, I expect Azeroth to welcome Arthas with open arms.
It would have been much creepier, I think, if infection had been totally random, and player zombies were under the control of the wow AI.
Stag Oct 29th 2008 9:53AM
"It would have been much creepier, I think, if infection had been totally random, and player zombies were under the control of the wow AI."
Imagine the tears if that had been the case...
Rosa Oct 29th 2008 9:57AM
Actually, from someone who LOVED the zombie invasion, I do agree here. The Scourge is a terrifying thing and the sort of B-Movie gloves it was handled with did bug me a little.
I WOULD have liked to have seen more creepy, less lols, but it wasn't a deal breaker by any means.
Lohrdook Oct 29th 2008 9:51AM
On the first night of the Zombie invasion, a bunch of griefers took over the XR and made levelling/questing nearly impossible. Send in the 70-Shaman Griefing Exterminator...I spend a bit of time keeping that area free and clear of infestation. (10 minutes of leeway also helped). As the griefers started complaining that I was killing their joy, I began to realize how much fun I was having, griefing the griefers.
Man on a mission:
Despite the fact they kept lowering the disease timer, if you walked near me with a sickly green glow, you got cleansed whether you wanted it or not. In Thrall's Chamber, I made sure Vol'jin was clean at all times and whenever the Kokrons went rogue, those two took care of business. I used Spirit Wolves and Fire Elemental Totems to handle my dirty work up close while Chain Lightning proved uber effective at range. Strategically dropped searing totems killed the infected roaches, and basically I became a one man cleansing crew.
I did not succumb to being a zombie once. On my Shaman or my Warlock (to be fair, one person did get my timer down to 7 sec before my cure disease totem did it's job).
So there you have it. I had a lot of fun being "that guy" purging the disease from everyone I could find. I told people to take it to Stormwind, Ironforge or Darnassus, but not in my house. Did I get any XP for it? No. Did I have lots of fun. Yes.
And I haven't said that about WoW in a long time. Now that I have my full Blessed Mail set from the Invasion, I'm primed for one last run at the zombies...
Samba-man Oct 29th 2008 10:29AM
I definitely agree with you on how much fun you have had :) I am sure you must have gotten thousands of nasty whispers along your cleansing career no?
I was on the other side, a griefer zombie :) not really infecting lowbies, but managing to infect those high levels or NPC's in orgrimar :) it was so much fun and i did find some "crazy-cleanser" person, the one that cleanse everything and everyone, but then we exchanged whispers and shared the fun in the best possible way.
Me running away from him,
Him cleansing and trying to keep my victims safe from me :)
That was awesome!
szilagyi Oct 29th 2008 11:28AM
And on the flip side, I was a one-man infecting crew, having a blast playing up the bad guys--especially in northern lands. I singlehandedly caused an infection outbreak Sunday morning on Steamwheedle Cartel realm's village under Darnassus that spread to Auberdine, the woods all over Darkshore, Astranaar, the outpost in Stonetalon, AND Nigel's Post. The entire NW of Kalimdor was in an uproar--an equal mix of RP and OOC chatter in Auberdine trying to figure out how to deal with it.
One roach punch in Darn, then I turned on docks below Darnassus. Next thing, I'm on the boat, leaving a good 4-5 zombies tearing up the village. I turned all the boat mariners during the ride, who don't deboard! Everyone climbing aboard got a surprise as the boat pulled in. Then I did the whole of the Auberdine docks, then the inn, and it just spread like wildfire. People hopping the gryphon infected spread it like mad, but after about 2~ hours there were a good 6-8 zombie players leaving total chaos in our wake--at least half of us were zombied out at any time.
Anyone approaching Auberdine (I picked it on purpose as THE major airport/hub essentially for most of Alliance on Kalimdor beside Darn, and for being remote enough that it would be off the radar a while, AND because most people leveling Alliance on Kalimdor go there!) was routinely chased down by 5-10 NPC zombies plus a couple players. The key? All the gnomes and dwarves and elf NPCs--the village has a disproportionate number, all spawning guards.
I think at one point one of the Rescue Pallies that we turned counted at least 25 NPC zombies JUST lurching in the immediate vicinity of the innkeeper's desk.
Total outbreak--it was an in-game Romero moment, and totally totally fun, especially listening to people trying to organize the resistance over General, Yell, and Local Defense. Just like you'd imagine isolated survivors would be over radio, in a real zombie outbreak...
Nadrysta Oct 29th 2008 9:51AM
I absolutely loved this event, simply for the chaos it created. I'm sad the more hectic part is over, and really want the next round to start up.
And as for not being able to level, my Druid alt went from 51 to 54 after respeccing resto. And she only got infected twice. Curse not being able to remove diseases! *fistshake* But it was still fun as heck.
Nadrysta Oct 29th 2008 9:55AM
My bank alt got infected too. That was... sort of hilarious.
Ishtar Oct 29th 2008 9:56AM
I loved this event. I did become a zombie on the first day to have a go at spreading the infection but after that I tried to keep myself as safe as possible. I thought the whole event was very very well done and don't think we have seen the end of it either. I do hope we get another one in the future. Have random outbreaks at times.
I can understand some of the complaints made. I leveled with a friend a couple of early 40s characters and we were in Stranglethorn Vale the whole time. Was fairly safe and only saw problems once when went into Grom'Gol. Booty Bay was fairly safe when we went their.
But then I was going to help boost another friend through Wailing Caverns and found Crossroads a zombie wasteland when I went there. I spent 30-60 mins clearing that place out repeatedly trying to ensure it was safe for her to pick up the quests she needed. I got numerous calls from people wanting me to stop killing them but the way I saw it, I was fighting the scourge and trying to stop the infection. And when I also explained how long the quest givers had been unavailable, they began to understand my actions a little more there too. I got congratulations when I finally succeeded. However, when I noticed NPCs spontaneously becoming infected with no zombies in the area at all (was tracking undead) then I realised that the fight was lost.
It was fun trying to deal with infections in the city. Made trying to do anything vary interesting and I wonder how many other people started getting as paranoid as I was.
My one complaint was people going out of their way to infect you when they could see you were busy with something else. Killing mobs as part of Isle dailies only to have a zombie come up and attack you is pretty damn annoying, especially when the person responsible finds it so funny. Lot of actions like that were happening. But then you get people like that everywhere. Repeatedly killing them when they keep turning soon teaches them the futility of it after a while.
I say Kudos to Blizz and lets see more of this.
TyKell Oct 29th 2008 9:55AM
Welll I have to say that I thought the world event was amazing and I felt more excitement for it than I did when I hit 60, stepped into Outlands for the first time or hit 70.
As far as all the whining went I can't say they made me angry but it did disappoint me that people were unable to just enjoy a unique event for what it was. I'm sure people who wanted to use the AH or level an alt were disrupted but it was only for six day.
One thing I will say, is that even though the event was amazing (I'm not a pvp'r in the slightest but I loved being a zombie as well as killing them) I do think that Blizzard ended the plague pretty badly. It seemed too abrupt and I hope it wasn't due to the complaints.
So here's hoping they have something else up their sleeve because such a well designed event deserves an equally designed conclusion. (Not just us going to Northrend.)
JPN Oct 29th 2008 9:59AM
It was AWESOME. Let the whiners whine, someone will always complain. I really find it hard to believe that people were stopped from doing anything for the duration of the event, I think people are exaggerating.
It's not often that I text my friends to tell them they HAVE to sign on and see what's going on...I won't forget riding into the usually living, breathing Orgrimmar and seeing it littered with skeletons and watching 70s turn into zombies...I'm sad for the people who missed out on this!
Belna Oct 29th 2008 10:03AM
Zombies are gone, but the attack continues.
I was in Tanaris wondering what the skull ment and there was a giant piramide in the air, shooting crystals in the desert. Everywhere were they hit the ground mobs were spawning. Just take a look at this:
http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rwow007webvn2.jpg
Frank Oct 29th 2008 10:03AM
someone pointed out the other day that when you clicked on "agree" on the EULA when you installed WoW, one of the things you agreed to is that "game play may change" -- so, all the people who were upset about this legally have no leg to stand on. i thought the event was indeed *brilliant* for all the reasons stated in the article, and i wanted the event to go on for another couple days. i hope there's more coming before wrath.