Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 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 5 of 6)
Roq Oct 29th 2008 11:00AM
I didn't really care for this very much tbh and would get frustrated from dead quest givers. But aside from that, I wonder if Blizz considered this at all from a tech stand point. A friend of mine thats not in a fortunate enough position to own a decent spec pc couldn't even get in to the game in a meaningful way while this was going on from all the lag this in the city's. Since this has ended, he's been fine again.
Thecla Oct 29th 2008 11:02AM
"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."
The only thing I wound up "hating" by the end of this event were the obnoxious little griefers who maliciously destroyed vital NPCs in their own factions cities.
Nuttz Oct 29th 2008 11:11AM
So I will have to agree with both sides of this argument. The event is truly amazing to see and play as a 70, or 1-70. And on the other side, if you happen to be questing in the blasted lands and a strike force lands SMACK DAB in the CENTER of where you have to grind for 3 hours, and slays you every time you walk by, it can be frustrating. So now a questing fool has to watch for strike teams and gank fiends that cant resists killing someone more than 10 lvls below them. But as stated, the event is amazing, perhaps some invasion teams that are lower lvl in areas where not so many 70s chill would be a good thing.
Brundle Oct 29th 2008 4:15PM
Even though you may not be on a RP server, this is still a mmoRPG is it not? WoW will now continue to grow, change and develop in new way and no longer be static...can't deal with change? Go play runescape....
Sl0th Oct 29th 2008 11:16AM
The zombie invasion was by far the most fun event I have participated in inside an MMO in many, many years. For all the inconvenience it caused, it was an outstanding event. Best of all, it was pretty much free form. Blizzard tossed in one element, the plague, and let the players decide what to do with it. At the end, on my realm, it was basically a zombie apocalypse in Stormwind. I actually spent fifteen minutes trapped in the inn near the Stormwind bank holding off zombies trying to take out the last healer in the area.
But I think the best moment was my paladin's trip to Tanaris. I was trying to make it there to fight off the invasion (It was the only skull up and running at the time.) Quickest route, or so I thought, would be to fly to Booty Bay, take the boat to Ratchet and fly to Tanaris. So, I made a break through the city, dodging zombies. I made it to the flight master and headed south. As I landed in Booty Bay, and saw it was pretty zombie infested. So I made a break across the docks. I ended up there with three other people waiting for the boat, fighting off a few waves of zombies. I managed to keep the others cleansed and we made it on the boat. When the boat landed in Ratchet, it was equally as zombie filled. Worse, the flight master was dead. So, we spent about the next five to ten minutes fighting off zombies. It was a scene right out of a survival horror game... Well, a survival horror game where the characters were heavily armed with large weapons.
I eventually did make it to Tanaris... Just as the last necropolis vanished. But even though the zombies stopped me from farming some runes, it was a fun little journey. And now that the zombies are gone, I miss them. It was fun while it lasted though. And it ws one of the few examples I can think of in almost any game where a world event actually effected the world.
Peridan Oct 29th 2008 11:26AM
I think much of the QQing could have been taken care of if player levels didn't matter to zombies. If level 70 players could be killed as easily as level 10s and vice versa if level 10 zombies could kill as easily as level 70 zombies this would have turned out differently.
Because it's so easy for 70s to grief 10s the zombie hordes spent most of their time in the lowbie areas where they had easy kills.
To me that was the issue with the event.
Maana Oct 29th 2008 11:31AM
Interesting article, especially the part that says "People who don't agree with my every opinion are stupid, lowbies and whine to much""This game wasn't made for them only me and others who think like I do""Ruining others experiences in game, whether a zombie or not is all part of the fun, it's our goal to be the biggest ass possible!"
daveyp Oct 29th 2008 11:46AM
I think another interesting thing about the whole zombie event is how it acts to give players some experience of playing as a zombie, in preparation to WOTLK when the Death Knight class has a move which resurrects nearby dead players as zombies. I assume the move sets between the two types of zombies are similar, minus the infection.
Blacknimbus Oct 29th 2008 1:38PM
The event basically ran over 4 days...2 of which were impossible to avoid; if you logged on that is. I'm completely baffled by the level of angst over this invasion. I'm a huge carebear and still I can't comprehend the outrage.
1. There was no 'griefing'.
What's that you say? Of course there was....well, no there wasn't. The zombies did exactly what zombies do. The beautiful part of it was that they weren't run by stupid AI, but players. This is exactly what Blizzard wanted and got.
2. There was no PvP.
Wha?! It was forced PvP....or not. It was PvZ...and I say that in all seriousness. Since there were roles to play, it felt a lot more like tag rather than a killing game. Zombies do what zombies do and it's up to the 'heroes' to play their part. There was a completely different flavor to this activity...it felt nothing like PvP to me, even if there were nameplates above the zombies instead of AI tags. Basically it was PvM...similar to how they do it on LotRO.
3. If you didn't play a role in this event, you missed the point.
Seriously. It crested over 2 days....TWO DAYS out of 4 years of the same static, AI driven content. I understand the frustration over not being able to do your 'collect 10 bear butts' quest...that's why I left my PvP server after lvl 40. But that was *every day*....getting ganked in STV 10 times in a row trying to kill tigers didn't make me feel like I was a part of a big event. Hunting zombies or trying to utilize new powers you were given as a zombie did feel like part of a greater narrative. And even if you couldn't get into the storyline, why didn't you work on an alt somewhere away from cities, or work on Timbermaw rep or just do something else for a day or so.
4. You were not inconvenienced in any meaningful way.
Sorry...you weren't. If this had gone on for a couple of weeks or a month, then yes, even I'd be tapping out at that point. I was able to do my AH business, albeit a bit slower than usual, get in a couple of nights attempting Kael, downed the HH 20 more times without seeing a flying broom and work on my alts. You lost nothing substantial in repair money or time. TBC is over...this is the message they were sending you. Your gear is obsolete. Your new dailies are going to pay vastly more than they do now. You lost nothing.
5. If you hated this event with a passion....you might want to reconsider your priorities and your sense of humour.
At no point did you not just sit back and laugh at what was going on? Is there no room in that stringy heart of yours for a little absurdity? At no point did you think about the storyline unfolding, or the fact that we are all about to start a new phase of WoW? Is your passion for this game driven by Auctioneer, raid calendars, leveling your 4th alt or epic drops instead of just fun? And even if that all fell flat for some of you, why this level of anger? It seems a bit out of proportion to what actually happened.
And if you disagree with anything I’ve said, you’re worse than Hitler.
Dunhear Oct 29th 2008 1:47PM
Best last line EVER.
stylez Oct 29th 2008 12:03PM
This story is absolute company man lines from a Blizz employee.
This was not a good event, or even special. I do not hate the Northern King for this, I hate blizz for this. They were unresponsive and turned pve worlds into grief worlds which would get any of use a "time out" of the game for such griefing.
Too bad the pvp world rules at blizz.
I did cancel 2 of my 4 accounts and completely logged off the days this event ran.
William Oct 29th 2008 12:18PM
I've only had a few experiences during this time:
On my 70 priest, before running the Sunwell the other day, I cleansed someone outside of it and got yelled at for ruining their fun.
On my 70 Shaman, I ported into UC and got infected and somehow half dead before I finished the loading screen. I managed to make it into the center area where I turned into a zombie and was promptly killed by the guards. (I was trying to cleanse the disease, heal myself, and run at the same time, but there were too many zombies I guess cuz the disease seemed to only last like 15 seconds or so). Once I was dead, I ran from outside, and caught some major lag in the elevator which crashed WoW. I gave up on getting that character back due to lag and the city being overrun.
On my 58 Bloodelf Mage (right after losing my shammy for a bit) I logged in in Hellfire Peninsula and Thrallmar was overrun as well. I had a group of 10 zombies chasing me out of the city. I couldn't get any quests, and I couldn't get back in to the flight master either. A level 70 alliance rogue with Illidan's pretty green Warglaives ganked me twice and I gave up on trying to play that toon too.
I've leveled a bit on all my lower toons and as long as you stay out of major cities it seems to be ok. I made one foray into TB on my Warrior to train at level 20 and didn't see a single live (are they alive or dead when they are walking around? lol) zombie. Saw some zombie corpses lying around, but no mobile, attacking ones.
I vote that it had MORE affect on my higher level characters than my lower level ones. Just my two cents on the event.
Thediz Oct 29th 2008 12:41PM
I personally think its funny when people think closing accounts especially 2 of the 4 you own is saying something to blizzard. Im mad at Blizzard but only 50% mad?
This event was fun and new for the majority of people.
The event did exactly what it was meant to do create chaos. (I just wish it had a better ending and/or was on longer )
For those who think Blizzard should not do world events and leave everything just the way it was when you logged off the night before just load wow on a private server and guess what, your quest npc's will never die and you can afk wherever you want.
Hagu Oct 29th 2008 5:31PM
huh? If I have been playing on a non-RP PvE server for a year, I expect that when I log in I will not see Stormtroopers or the Starship Enterprise. I expect to see what I think of as PvE WoW.
I understand the 2 of 4. I am canceling at least one account; Blizzard is a business and I am sure will respond much more to lost $ than "oh how neat" blogs.
gridwerk Oct 29th 2008 1:14PM
For what its worth it made Fox News:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,444505,00.html
In hindsight I can see its brilliance- the one true mistake blizz made was to not inform people that it was only a week and not going on till the launch of LK.
I admit I got my Grief-on but I also knew when enough was too much. Thats the thing that failed this was no way to opt out and deny the griefers their sick amusement, kind of a reverse-griefing.
torgun Oct 29th 2008 1:17PM
Not only that, but it's on THE LOGIN SCREEN in the corner.
I thoroughly enjoyed this awesome event, and took part on both sides. I joined groups attempting to spread the plague over *all* of Ironforge, and I was on the other side, using all the anti-undead powers my pally had to keep high traffic areas clean and safe.
What's next? Frost Wyrms, I can only hope.
marcie Oct 29th 2008 1:53PM
"how the gameplay design of the event (when you are killed by a zombie, you become one)"
Nope. You did NOT have to be killed by a zombie to become one - an attack or being exploded on was enough. Had one had to be killed to zombify I imagine the complaints would have been fewer.
adam83 Oct 29th 2008 1:56PM
For those who didn't like the event, it was no worse than servers being down or experiencing lag, but for those who enjoyed it, it was one of the coolest things to happen to wow since particle effects and flying mounts. I am taking a break from WoW until December and I am so bummed I missed out on this event.
Regarding problems experienced by low level players, if they were killed by zombies they could play as a zombie. The game was still accessible to them, just in a different way than normal. It was a world event. "Oh hi Arthas, that group of people over there are the ones opting in to be attacked by the plague, we are playing wow to beg for goldz in IF. What? You don't care that we want you to leave us alone?" It is a freaking video game, the point is to fight enemy combatants in whatever form they appear.
Eisengel Oct 29th 2008 2:06PM
The only problems I saw were:
1. Zombie players were able to attack everyone, however you could not attack Zombies of your faction, and you would flag if you attacked Zombies of the opposite faction. This was, in a word, insane.
2. Lowbies need not log on. Zombies of high-level humanoids retained the Humanoids' stats. There should have been wandering high-level patrols of Crusaders with Plague resistance in lowbie areas, the number of patrols and their strength would be determined by how low the area is. The Dwarf starting area has 5 level 65 elite guards with stealth detect just outside the cave, as well as patrolling guards on the road, and 3 more friendly NPCs close by (as I figured out when trying to explore the area for the Achievement)... and that's just to keep out members of the opposite faction. The lack of response from the Agent Dawn and Crusade was rather... underwhelming and game-breaking for lowbies.
Aubrecia Oct 29th 2008 11:17PM
I attacked zombies of my own faction quite often, actually. It was only in Shatt that this was bugged beyond repair, but you couldn't attack ANYONE there, not even non-faction zombies.