Yeah we definitely need some analysis from someone who hasn't played enough to be near the end of the game. Oh better yet, why not have people who have never played give analysis. That way its not affected by that stupid bias "experience".

Know what? Sometimes things are catered to end game players. Considering Recruit a Friend, reduced Exp requirements, and removal of mount quests etc. I think you all have plenty.

I think you missed the point... this isn't supposed to be "attuned" to level 1 players. This was a world event! In RL if ur weak ur first to fall in a plague... so why would it be different in WoW?

You should feel lucky that you could witness this event as there probably won't be one until a further expansion. Next time it happens you'll be able to tell people that you've been around for at least 1 in the past.

Being disrupted for a few days is such a small price to pay to witness an event like this... I can't wait for the next one!

Talking as someone who levelled up to level and as someone who watched a friend level up to 12 and another level to 15 i can safely say your opinion is bull.

Only once during the peak hours of both the zombie invasion and of players present on a server were any quest givers relevant to leveling from 1-20 dead. We were almost entirely undisturbed. A couple of times one of us at various times would spot a small amount of Zombies in defias areas or similar but part of the fun, quite frankly was avoiding them, which we did, with massive ease.

So non level 70 opinions?
I can name 3 people who leveled in the 1-20 range. 2 people in the 30-40 and 3 people in the 50-60 range who had no complaints whatsoever.

Not only that but i also did some alt levelling myself and everyone in the list above happily, upon occasion got fully involved whilst the event was going on.

better now?

The issue is that the cry cry think of the children! bitching is all completely exaggerated.

I've been levelling two alts during the course of the event, a 50-ish paladin and a 20-ish mage. I got infected one on the mage and took a quick flight to SW to get out of it, and once I had to sit and wait for five minutes while a questgiver in Westfall respawned. Didn't have a single problem on the Paladin except not being able to repair for about 30 seconds at the Bulwark because the AD quartermaster was dead.

I also have a friend who only JUST started playing wow a month and a half ago, he's a baby level 18 shadow priest and he didn't even SEE any zombies, or carnage, in five days of steady play during peak hours until he went to the cities. Never got turned accidentally.

On the endgame notice, I also never experienced any inconvenience on my old main, a level 70 moonkin druid, but I haven't been playing her much because I've been focusing on my alts. My boyfriend, a 70 mage, only got accidentally turned once, outside of Karazhan, and he spends 80% of his wow time idling in AHs playing with the economy. He had his auctioneers die a few times, laughed about it, kited and killed a couple of zombies.

We all play on a PvE server, too, so we're just not "used to" griefing. I hate PvP. I have like 1000 lifelong hks and I've been playing since early spring 06.

Maybe all of these cases were just INCREDIBLY lucky, but I think so much data pretty much cements something as a rule, not an exception. If this event SERIOUSLY disrupted your playing ("you" in general, not "you" in particular), you were either doing something wrong or INCREDIBLY impatient.

For the experienced, there were a lot of ways to avoid zombies if you didn't want to mess around with them. Do other dailies, not Quel'Danas ones. Spend time in TB or SMC/Darn or Exodar when you're doing your city business.

For the inexperienced, maybe this WAS a bad time to start playing, but if you find me someone starting wow yesterday who doesn't have any friends playing who can give him some tips, and I'll give you a cookie.

The negative affect this has bad, both on lowbies and 70s, has been so incredibly exaggerated, to the point of almost being a charicature.

I'd think it were a joke if people didn't actually seem ready to tear their clothes and put ashes on their heads :/

The QQ was completely unnecessary, that's why people have no time for the whiners.

I managed to level my my alt without a hitch during the invasion. The odd setback, but certainly nothing to warrant the full-scale tear tsunami that appeared. Add to this the fact that it was only temporary and that other people obviously really enjoyed it, and I think those crying were really just being very intolerant.

Karazak,

As someone who has three 70s and has cleared BT pre the LOL patch, I'm pretty sure I can safely be classified as in the "end game."

That "experience" and knowledge doesn't preclude me from having empathy for the new players that this event destroyed.

It's why I spent time in the Night Elf starting area obliterating all of the level 70s who were there to zombify the entire zone.

Those level 1s have just as valid as an "opinion" about this event as you do. If they want to talk about which specs are best, then yes, experience matters. As to whether something was fun, then their viewpoint is no less valid than yours.

Zharg, I didn't miss the point. There's a difference in an event not being "attuned" to level 1s. Those level 1s aren't going to be traipsing up to Black Temple because, well, "they are not prepared!"

But to have an event that empowers people to actually destroy the level 1s? Are we saying that they weren't attuned to life?

It’ll be difficult to get anyone’s comment from the side of who were griefed to even stay up on the boards since people either a) delete any posts at the WoW forums that show how negatively the event affected people or b) vote down any comments that show the same here.

Again this comment will most likely be voted down by people because “omg” the article writer was in favour of the event and I pointed it out. It’s fine to like something, but to put a slam at people by using the words “whiners” just takes it to a level that shouldn’t be in an article story. If you can’t take that and vote this comment down because of that, then I’ve made my point. Some people just can’t take any criticism and yet think they can slam others with their own.

I WAS griefed at the event. Everywhere I went, people were killing the NPCs I needed and they were also killing the npcs mobs I needed too. I would go ToT and the innkeeper would be dead. I’d try to get on a FP and the FP guy would be dead. They didn’t stop doing this and they called me a jerk(and a lot worse) for wanting to play the game. So when I took matters into my own hands and got onto my paladin to cleanse, I got called the same thing. (AND a lot more worse than before) So it was okay for the griefers to grief me, but it wasn’t okay to grief them back.

Dunhear,
I can understand your frustration, the game really is quite different lvl 1 - 69 and at lvl 70. The only problem is, the vast majority of players are already at max level. And those that aren't, will be in a short time. There are of course exceptions to that, but the numbers and history prove that the most successful way to improve a long running game like this is to add max level content.

Of course, blizzard isn't completely blind to their low levelers and have added several things over the years for lower levels including the various lower instance bosses for the hallows eve holiday. (if you haven't seen these, google them quick and check em out, they are fun!)

The other piece of information that helped me enjoy this event so much was the fact that it is another chapter in the story that is Warcraft. Do you write the author of your favorite book to complain when you hit chapter 8 and all of the sudden that character you love was maimed or killed? No, (well sometimes you might I guess!) you keep reading. This Zombie event was another chapter, and I loved it, especially since you see real lore changes so rarely in MMOs when they do come, they are that much more significant.

Worst case scenario, if you don't care about the WoW story, or the high level stuff, it was only 6 days, and wasn't permanent. But personally I actually enjoyed getting my fishing interrupted by zombie attacks hehe.

Fed

@ D.O.T.

You are free to kill them and take the criticism for it. They are free to kill you and take criticism for it.

If you got fed up and started killing the Zombies, you win! that's the point, to make you angry.

'Whiners' are people who didn't like being killed BY a zombie, but they are also zombies who didn't like being clensed or killed.

Basically whiners are players who are upset because in an MMO they aren't allowed to play their way.

It's a two way street.

Arthas did it!

No, just no. I leveled a new dwarf hunter alt from 1 to 14 during this event. It was easy to avoid.

"Can we get some "analysis" from someone new to the game who was just getting the hang of it before this "world event" about what this meant?"

here's my analysis................. don't care. they were the sheep to the wolves... or i should say the helpless little kiddies brains to the zombies. either way those new players that stuck it out should come out of it more well-adjusted to this game than the new players (and old players) that ran, and cryed on their mothers apron the second they died.

fact is. you die in this game, and you die a lot no matter how l33t you think you are. either they would have died to a player zombie, or they would have died because they over pulled 20 defias mobs in westfall. atleast when they died by my hands instead of some npc.. someone was having fun :P

EXCELLENT point. I don't know how many times it has to be repeated for the concept to sink in: Not Everyone Is a Bored Veteran Sitting Around at Level 70!

Please, people. There are new players joining every day, and PLENTY of players who've been enjoying themselves for months (or even years) without hitting 70 yet. Try to remember the whole audience, and not just the hardcores? Once in a while, anyway?

Everyone else has brought up the low leveling point, so I'll just say this: Is everyone ignoring that Blizz actually put together a scourge invasion event specifically for lowbies around the capital cities? I know it's not the same thing as the zombies, but you can't argue that BLIZZ HATE NOOBS when they have quests specifically for the lowbies who can't participate in, say, the dual-plagued brain/frozen shade quests.

I got accidentally infected a LOT on the last day of the plague, and with no apparent healer in Org, I also turned a lot. But you know, that was the affect of being in Org. I ran up the flight tower, turned, and waited to die so that when I rezzed, I could get on the FP without hassle. When I risked getting on my bank alt, I found myself surprisingly not in danger, because SMC was completely empty. It was honestly just a matter of knowing where to go and how to avoid the zombies. In the last hours, I WAS running from every zombie I saw -- but it was more of a minor inconvenience than a serious, tooth-gnashing irritation.

And I always find it funny that it's the people with 70s claiming that it's so hard for the lowbies. You're not a lowbie. Why do you keep speaking for them?

Why do some 70s talk for the lowbies?

For me, it's because my wife just started. Yes, brand new player. I bought her the original game and the BC expansion — Battle Chest for the win — and she was really having a good time.

We actually spent a lunch hour talking about specs, pet choices, weapons, stats. When you've been married for more than a decade and together for more than 13 years, it's nice to have something NEW to talk about.

And I watched her get irritated, frustrated and angry with not being able to play.

And it irritated me because it wasn't people getting into the zombie mentality and having fun playing that role. It was just the same D-bags that corpse camped lowbies in the Barrens and were jackasses — now they were just doing it to their own team.

I understand why some people can like the event. It was an awesome idea. But those people who have legitimate complaints and reasons we didn't like it — or think it could have been handled better to not empower the griefers — are not whiners or QQ babies.