Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsAlex Afrasiabi on Cataclysm and the origin of phasing
by Mike Schramm 
Sep 25th 2009 at 11:00AM
And boy are they doing it. As we knew, Desolace and Azshara are getting revamped completely, while Feralas is in for some questing changes and zones like Loch Modan are seeing some "light" modification. Blizzard apparently looked at each zone and determined where it lay on the list of todos: Azshara is becoming the 10-20 Horde zone and so will get reworked extensively, but Silithus, while it may need work, probably won't get more than a few tweaks.
Afrasiabi also talks about the surprising origin of phasing and Blizzard's philosophy. More after the break.
Get this -- phasing, the revolutionary technology that allows Blizzard to make a more transitive MMO than ever, started out as one of those 180,000 bugs. After a programmer came up with a way to fix a bug in Blade's Edge that allowed different people to see different things happening in the world, they later decided to use that bugfix as the foundation for the death knight starting area, largely considered one of the best experiences in the game.
Afrasiabi says that Blizzard does know what they're doing (he specifically says they aren't making it up as they go along, forum trolls take note), but from what he describes, it does seem like the process is very organic -- one idea is had, and then it's used in other places and other ways until they've developed something that seems completely different. Blizzard has been criticized in the past for some of their design ideas (the work they do, just in terms of an art and gameplay sense, does tend to borrow a lot from what's come before it), but Afrasiabi does the right thing in the end: he lets the work talk for itself. Blizzard may have borrowed the MMO form from a lot of different places, but no one can argue that what they've done with it hasn't turned out to be extremely impressive.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Instances, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
snowleopard233 Sep 25th 2009 11:15AM
Surfs up, dudes!
Mike Sep 25th 2009 11:19AM
Actually with the destruction coming to Wetlands and the dam's close proximity to Grim Batol, tossing up Loch Modan by destroying the dam seems like it would have been a good idea.
impurezero Sep 25th 2009 11:22AM
I just hope phasing is utilized in some of the eventual world changes. I don't want to log in on Day 1 and find a broken dam. I want a short questline where I actually get to try and prevent the inevitable, but alas, it proves futile and I get to see the damn dam break. That would be epic to watch.
RogueJedi86 Sep 25th 2009 11:32AM
Well we can't destroy the dam entirely. If the dam breaks, the Loch itself will drain out, which kills the quests that deal with critters and Troggs on the islands in the Loch. But I would like to see something big involving the damn breaking, if only a crack or 2 that makes the Wetlands even wetter. I hope all those Murlocs can swim!
dukrous Sep 25th 2009 11:56AM
I would assume nothing is safe anywhere. As for watching the dam break, something that major might be a launch event, might be a questline...the fact that we don't know and it could be either makes it exciting for me.
DigitalMonitor Sep 25th 2009 1:09PM
The dam breaks because someone abandons this quest:
http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=280
gboyd Sep 25th 2009 11:16AM
This suggests that Phasing began with Warcraft and only started with the Burning Crusades. I thought I had read elsewhere that phasing has existed in Warcraft from the very beginning of the game and was actually used in a few cases differently than how we view it currently (such as why other players vanish when you both take a flight path at the same time and overlap each other). Also, haven't other MMO's made use of phasing since prior to the Burning Crusades?
I'm not putting down the article by this post here, I'm just really interested in all of this and would like a little clarification if possible.
impurezero Sep 25th 2009 11:26AM
I think there were instances of "phasing" for sheer graphical purposes (i.e. rogues being invisible, the corpse run effect), so yeah...it did exist.
It sounds like they're saying that one particular quest fix took it to a much further level, though, which contributed more to the current level of phasing that takes place.
I'm guessing it's the mana cells quest for the Shattered Sun Offensive. That quest is effin' cool and would make just about anyone rethink the potential usefulness of that technology.
Thundrcrackr Sep 25th 2009 11:20AM
I've never been a fan of phasing in WoW. It's great in theory but horrible in practice. It just doesn't make any sense to me that two characters can stand right next to each other in the same spot and see two totally different things. How can they help each other quest? they can't. Not to mention how buggy it is. I'm constantly seeing the old stuff bleed through when i'm doing the Battle Before the Citadel quest in Icecrown. The bugs and other mobs from the earlier phase will show up briefly then disappear again. Its really distracting and immersion breaking. Good idea, bad implementation.
flawless Sep 25th 2009 11:25AM
Blizzard has said they want to help people quest together in the same phase, even if they have progressed seperately.
Falcon6 Sep 25th 2009 11:30AM
Two people in the same spot are, as far as the quest is concerned, not in the same time frame. It's actually a very cool idea to me. It makes it feel like you're actually making an impact in the world.
I was there when people did the Shattered Sun Offensive dailies in order to unlock more dailies. I actually did somewhat feel like I was doing something that affected the world. For my alts pre-phasing, I would never be able to have that small sense of accomplishment.
And if the phasing didn't have bugs and was perfect from the getgo, it would be a programmer's dream. But the fact that it came to be from a bug in TBC, plus the fact that it's relatively new for actual questing in Wrath, makes it a bit more real.
I just think that Cataclysm will do much more with phasing and make it more bug-free.
RogueJedi86 Sep 25th 2009 11:35AM
Well technically those 2 characters aren't at the same spot in time, in terms of storyline progression phasing. You can't see your friend because he's phased ahead of you, but that's because he's in the future, when that area was destroyed or retaken or whatever. It can be inconvenient for unsynced players duoing, but it does make sense in-universe.
Avan Sep 25th 2009 11:49AM
Definitely agree with you on this. It's a great idea, but it really could be done much better.
ragecage Sep 25th 2009 11:56AM
I agree that there are several examples of good and bad implementation. Icecrown has a good mix of these. I think the 'taking' of the Shadowvault for the Ebon Blade is very successful and felt like something was accomplished; same with the Argent Vanguard questline. And I think 'Battle for the Undercity' is a great example of how Blizz has used phasing effectively.
But 'Battle Before the Citadel', you're right, is too buggy and the constant slipping in and out of phased content is a bad experience. Getting aggro from mobs that are supposed to be phased is not fun. I don't know if it is the number of players or the number of separate phased events all stacked in the same part of the map...
Briz9 Sep 25th 2009 12:05PM
I agree that it needs some work. Like I'll fly over the Wrath Gate, and it'll look normal, then as I get closer to it it turns into the flaming-screaming aftermath, and Alexstraza pops up. It would be nice if the phased areas could load at further distances, so we didn't see that sort of sudden change.
Also, I was going to help a friend do some quests in Icecrown, but couldn't because he was in another phase. That was annoying, but I'm not sure how they would fix that.
Thundrcrackr Sep 25th 2009 3:23PM
"Two people in the same spot are, as far as the quest is concerned, not in the same time frame. "
"Well technically those 2 characters aren't at the same spot in time, in terms of storyline progression phasing."
Then I shouldn't even be able to see that player. That's the problem. I go into an area I've phased through already and can see lowbies swinging their swords at thin air. That's bad implementation.
Phasing should only be done when it doesn't involve questing. Like some of the examples already given of when you're dead, stealthed, etc. The only exception i can think of would be the wrath gate, where the only quests i remember were "talk to this or that npc" quests, nothing that involved fighting or anything that anyone would need help with. But even then, the buggyness of it cancels out the "coolness" of it.
If they can make it where it doesn't bug in and out, and in such a way that people can still quest together through it, then that'd be great. I just haven't seen any examples of that yet.
Peter Sep 25th 2009 3:49PM
Well if you can't help them directly, at least reassure them that once they hit 80 they get to swing at THICK air.
busuan Sep 25th 2009 11:34AM
I thought phasing tech started in the Scholomance quest chain, in which you have to equip the trinket to see NPCs.
RogueJedi86 Sep 25th 2009 11:38AM
Of course if we go even further, even death in WoW uses a form of phasing. When you're dead, you can see the ghosts of other players(of the same faction anyways), but when you rez, you can't see the ghosts anymore. Even the sky changes when you die, which is phasing of the skybox.
But you're right, we've had phasing since the original WoW, well before BC.
Cyrus Sep 25th 2009 11:41AM
As someone said just a few comments up, phasing has always been in the game - for the Caer Darrow ghosts, and for the ghosts of dead players, and stealth, and so on. But according to this interview, they first got the idea of using it with quests after applying it to fix a bug in Blade's Edge.