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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 4 of 6)
bynde Oct 29th 2008 10:55AM
I agree with Frank.
You knew coming into this game that gameplay could change.
It was the best WE I've witnessed. Yes, it caused some people(including me) some hassle. But, it was suppose to.
I understand that just becasue someone didn't like it, it doesn't mean they're 'whiners'. I get that.
But, it really was fun and I'm sorry that others found it so darn depressing that, as I am told, "many" people cancelled their account. If that's true than that's just too stupid for words.
Anyway, I hope Blizzard does it again, or something similar, quite often.
Doeg Oct 29th 2008 10:23AM
In the end, it was pretty chaotic, and pretty fun. I just joined in and helped clear the zombies and cure the plague when I could. The only time I got turned it was my own carelessness and I just exploded. The only real inconvenience was waiting on a few quest-givers and flight masters (old-world) to respawn (sometimes having to kill the zombies in the area first). It was a pain at times, but hey, sometimes being invaded will get in the way of the daily routine.
The only things that would have made it better:
- Drop the sanctuary for zombies in Shatt - What, is A’dal in cahoots with the Lich King or something?!
- A way to respond to all the in-game whiners with a “Shut up and play” auto-reply to the “Why did you cure me” and “Why did you kill me” tells. Must be intrinsic for zombies to moan about something...
Crypt King Oct 29th 2008 10:23AM
Great idea, poor execution and too many asshole griefers ruined the soup.
I find it humorous of how the people who got griefed on a constant basis, especially on high pop servers, who didn't like it are the ones in the wrong but the people doing it were in the "right," or the jerkwads who I slaughtered to protect the lowbies reported me to GM's because I was ruining their fun.
It also made the halloween town events (you know the limited time event) impossible to do, from assholes killing the matron just to prevent people from getting the quest to killing the lowbies attempting to put out the fires.
Great idea, poor execution and too many assholes ruined the soup.
Hitek Oct 29th 2008 10:26AM
Assholes are part of RL and INgame life get over it and stop QQing
Crypt King Oct 29th 2008 10:32AM
Get fucked Hitek, just because there is assholes in real life doesn't give internet assholes free reign to be douchebags because they find it funny. So you "get over it"
Hitek Oct 29th 2008 10:34AM
Actually it does.
flarkle Oct 29th 2008 10:48AM
I'm actually 50/50 on the zombie thing. My server was bad as far as griefing goes, so in that respect, it was really obnoxious. However, from a storyline standpoint, I get it. It was definitely a good hype builder for the expansion and I understand the appropriateness of it in that respect. It also was appropriate considering the time of year, and zombies mesh well with Halloween.
However, as I said, there was a lot of griefing on my server. It was extremely difficult to find a safe place to do business, be it AH, mail, socializing, or questing/grinding. One major problem is that people seem to think that because it wasn't difficult for them, then it wasn't difficult for anyone, and that is simply not the case. Just because one person had fun, does not mean they should stick their head in the sand and expect everyone to, and if they didn't, they are whining and need to learn how to have fun. One of the best things about a game the size and scope of this one is that there should be room, and outside of this event there is, for people to play how they want to play, and do what they want to do. If they want to raid, they can raid. If they want to solo, they can solo. In theory, if they don't want to be zombies, they shouldn't have to be. Most people's biggest complaint is that that wasn't the case. There was no opting in or opting out. People could find you and turn you no matter what. Especially as the healers started to disappear and the curse time dropped down to a minute.
Lastly, this whole thing about comparing in game to real life is insane. People should stop QQing because there are assholes in real life? In real life there are places to go to avoid assholes, such as our home. There was no such safe haven in this event. People need to stop selectively comparing real life to the game. If we want to compare them, then this event should never have happened, as there are no zombies, there are no spells, there is no magic, and murlocs do not exist. So, if we want to make the game just like real life, we can do that, but then it would be called The Sims.
bynde Oct 29th 2008 10:55AM
If you mean that the 'griefers' were the players who ran around as zombies trying to infect other people...um...yeah...that was the whole point.
Pretty stupid to just have NPC zombies shambling around with no effect on anything. That's the kind of cosmetic nothingness that doesn't do anything.
Buck up. And it happens again go do your bizness in Darnassus.
flarkle Oct 29th 2008 11:14AM
By griefers, I mean the level 70s going around to all of the level 1 starter areas and killing all of the level 1 players as well as the low level quest NPCs and mobs, preventing low levels from accomplishing anything. Um..yeah...that was not the point. If it's a fair fight, with the level 70 zombies fighting level 70 players, I totally get that and don't see a problem with it. But a level 70 attacking level 1's is just stupid and pointless.
As for "bucking up" and going to Darnassus, not everyone knows that that is possible or how to get there. Not to mention on my server, every town was invaded for a good chunk of the day. Not everyone can sit and wait for things to clear or spend all of their time traveling because they have jobs and such and can't play all day.
As I said, the infestation was not that big a deal to me because I have 70s, can port, and can kill most anything that attacks me. It's just that that is not the case for many people, and to assume it is is kinda silly.
szilagyi Oct 29th 2008 11:35AM
They're not griefers if Blizzard intended for them to spread plague.
Or is Blizzard griefers?
Hitek Oct 29th 2008 10:23AM
No problems levelling in the outlands from me, "disturbed" only once and it was actually quite fun to experience the zombie invasion. Generally though my levelling went untouched. So... theres some analysis from a NON-70
slimj091 Oct 29th 2008 12:36PM
"Get fucked Hitek, just because there is assholes in real life doesn't give internet assholes free reign to be douchebags because they find it funny. So you "get over it""
just because people like to sit on a high horse IRL doesn't give internet assholes like you free reign to be douchebags because they think it's their calling in life to be the pessimist.
C wat i did thur?
Syme Oct 29th 2008 10:25AM
Maybe my server was different from most. We have zombie disruptions, of course, but we also had a lot of people who enjoyed *killing* zombies. It worked to keep things from getting too bad, on the Horde side at least. Yes, sometimes important NPCs would be gone, but shortly after that, the zombies would be gone too. It was only the final night that the attacks became so severe that my guild was forced to focus completely on holding Thunder Bluff, and the bluffs were carpeted with zombie corpses. I'm sure there were some extremely frustrating incidents, but with people playing *both* sides of the invasion, I don't think it was as extreme as it seems to have been on other servers.
Geo Lara Oct 29th 2008 10:48AM
I think I some ways the zombie plague went too far, and in some ways not far enough.
It was really annoying to watch so many people getting in touch with their inner griefer. Watching 70's going into the starter zone just to infect lowbies, was uncalled for. To those of you who did it I call you out for being a bully plain and simple.
On the flip side, I also had issues with people for example: who knew ahead of time that Stormwind was completely overrun with zombies yet they still got mad they the auction house folks were infected or dead.
I mean come on, this was a natural disaster! Yet folks were trying to go about there business like nothing was going on, I didn't get that. Its like expecting the 7-Eleven being open during a hurricane.
I actually had fun, because I felt like a survivalist staying away from infected zones and cleansing players who infected in far away places like Area 52.
Where Bliz didn’t go far enough was the aftermath. After a natural disaster there is loss and a sense of devastation. Think of Katrina, and New Orleans. There should have been missing NPC's, shrines to the fallen, bonfires full of zombie corpses, etc.... You should have walked away from this event feeling like you survived *something*. Instead you just got go back to the auction house just like you did couple of days before.
Bliz had the opportunity to really tell a compelling story with this event and really do something that no other MMO has done, instead you got: "Lolz, I zombied you nub stop QQing".
Smurk Oct 29th 2008 10:49AM
Oh sweet, another post about the same stuff with pages of comments saying the same stuff.
Wii Willi Oct 29th 2008 10:50AM
I loved the event and embraced it from a fresh role-playing perspective. With over three years of playing I have 7 lvl 70s and many others between lvl 1 (banks) and 62 I figured I could take this to the next level for my own personal enjoyment. I would do all I could to avoid the plague and help keep back the rising forces of the zombies knowing that some cure, temporary or otherwise, would be discovered within a couple of weeks.
My plan was that if one of my characters were zombified I would play that toon as a brain leech until they had been killed, at which point I would log and move to the next alt.
It really was fun. My 70 hunter and priest managed to survive. Sadly my Paladin fell in the last few hours from merely being overwhelmed where my mage, bless her, was instantly zombified in BB when activating Ice Block waiting for a Paladin to get to the other side of the dock to cleanse. I moved a 70 to run AH transactions from Exodar while my main AHer moved to a quiet village location to juggle the mailbox. Quite an operation and it was so much fun.
Oh and a friend of my wife rolled on the realm and was level 5 when the invasion began. He was lvl 20/21 by the time the cure was found.
Eternauta Oct 29th 2008 10:53AM
The event was great, but some people is plain stupid and ruins other people's fun.
Infecting the other lvl 70's or the NPC's was kinda fun, but I'd never go to valley of trials just to upset the lvl 1 orcs/trolls and laugh at their faces. That kind of things drive new people away from the game, and damn we need some new flesh here! (well... technically pixels, but you guess the point).
Don't blame the event, blame the griefers. Because the event was, imo, excellent.
zombie Oct 29th 2008 10:55AM
@D.O.T.,
You've commented on every single article involving the zombie invasion saying you were griefed and you couldn't turn in your boar snouts or w/e... you're not a carebear, you're a straight up pussy dude, play a different game please
Jamus Oct 29th 2008 10:58AM
I liked the zombies, but yes, I was on a 70 during it.
To get around some of the complaints, if Blizz decides to do a similar event in the future (and damn I hope they do!), maybe they could do something like this...
Have SOME of the towns/cities be under protection of some high level NPC attack squads to create a small safe zone for those wanting to ride out the event. Try to think of Orgrimar's walls head high in undead bodies while Thrall is commanding some catapult brigades or fire squads to defend the city. Or pull in some uppity BE mages to put some ice walls or Dalaran-style shields up around towns. There are quite a few possibilities they could do to show "oh crap, the world is going to hell", but still provide some very very small safe paths for the lower levels.
szilagyi Oct 29th 2008 11:35AM
And I think that the invasion didn't go far enough. I kept hoping/praying for it to go totally sideways at one point, with random quickly spawning packs of plague zombies spawning WITHOUT player intervention in the woods outside cities/villages, and just storming the gate.
Or, even better, some NPCs suddenly picking up the plague with no visible aura. Just--bang, you turn, and have players carry like a 25% chance of "no aura".
Imagine the fun that would have been, if your Auctioneer suddenly turns and bites your face off.