Breakfast Topic: What WoW holidays need to be improved?
by Andrew Ross 
Nov 8th 2011 at 8:00AM
World of Warcraft has a lot of holidays, but some are rather ... bland. Take the Harvest Festival, for example. No, really, take it back in its current form. I did it back when it was first released on several alts, and I don't think I've noticed any real changes since then. Let us do more Peacebloom vs. Ghouls to save the harvest, or let us go to Caverns of Time to meet the fallen ... um, heroes we're celebrating. Give us a new mini-feast perma-item to lay out for the event, similar to the celebration mug that Brewfest almost always got.
What about Day of the Dead? It's got a few fun things in there, but remember when we first heard about it via datamining and thought it was the return of the zombie apocalypse? What if Blizzard actually brought that back, just for a few days a year? I know people who don't play WoW anymore who'd resub just to get in on that.
Hallow's End got a facelift, so which other events should be considered? Is New Year's not new enough? Does Love is in the Air need some more love? Is there not enough "Yarr" in Pirate Day?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
Silvestro Nov 8th 2011 8:08AM
During the Zombie Apocalypse i was unavailable! Bring it back please please!! It would be so totally awesome. I envy everyone of you who got the chance of spreading the plague!
Revrant Nov 8th 2011 8:14AM
I feel the envy overtaking me!
It is a good pain.
MattKrotzer Nov 8th 2011 8:15AM
It was pretty epic. Stormwind was a deathtrap, when my friend's Paladin Cleansing Squad wasn't around. (And after a while, people started asking him to stop, so that they could enjoy spreading the plague.)
I can only imagine the chaos that would ensue now that Stormwind and Orgrimmar are the major hub cities. At least before, it was limited in it's effect due to so many people being in Outland. Now it'd be a pandemic.
Shoikler Nov 8th 2011 8:42AM
Thanks, Matt. Now Madagascar just closed its ports.
TonyKP Nov 8th 2011 8:49AM
The only thing I've hated in this game more than the zombie apocalypse was losing tree form, and it was a close race.
Glaras Nov 8th 2011 9:30AM
You envy the mass of thoughtless griefers who made the game unplayable by a good number of the rest of us? Fantastic. You're another one of *those*.
I don't care how many times it's brought up, and I don't care how much you people talk about that event like it was the greatest thing ever. You're wrong. And I will continue to tell about it in those terms.
Blizz learned something during that event: that you cannot trust a significant portion of the playerbase with the ability to be disruptive to their fellow players, because that portion will abuse the privilege to make the game hell for the rest.
And don't bore me with your insistence that "it was only a couple days", or "that reflected what an invasion would have really been like". Only a drooling moron would suggest that people would actively seek out a plague so they could spread it like wildfire. And I think people would have done differently had that plague not given them a controllable ghoul form, but had instead given them a stacking rez timer. Say starting at 2 minutes and doubling with every death. *Then* you'd have seen a real reaction to an approaching plague-bearer.
MattKrotzer Nov 8th 2011 9:48AM
I dunno. There were some interesting events based around the plague zombies... like the Plague Zombie Marathon, where you tried to see how far you could go before your meter ran out.
vocenoctum Nov 8th 2011 9:57AM
Two big problems with the Outbreak:
1) Shattrath was a safe zone, so you couldn't kill other players. They could zombie you though.
2) There was no timetable stated at any point.
People talk about the fun times they had, but generally those fun times were at the expense of others. If you didn't enjoy your day getting wrecked, they will say you're a spoilsport. It was amusing for a day, but the plague got faster and faster. The people used it as a weapon and if you want to call PvE servers "carebear" fine, but don't bring your pvp and the resulting griefing to them.
People say it didn't last that long, but there was no way to know that during the event. They didn't say anything and since it was a few weeks before Wrath, many felt that the event would run right up until Wrath.
People say that is was terribly popular, while at the same time saying it was cut short because so many people didn't like it.
On my server, the game emptied out that weekend when things got really bad. Shat was a ghost town, the major cities mostly emptied also. Myself I took to the dungeons with renewed vigor and enjoyed myself in spite of the event. Most of my friends left and said they'd be back when it stopped.
Kittens Nov 8th 2011 10:32AM
Seeing the comments above, I don't think there is any 'right' way to judge the event and what people thought of it. Whenever you see discussions about it, it always seems to be divided in people that had their best time ever in WoW, versus the people that absolutely hated it and see it as pure grieving.
I don't think you can call the people that loved the event 'wrong' or 'drooling morons'. Nor could you say that about the people that hated it. People have different things they enjoy or hate in the game, and that is really all there is to it. You simply can't please every one. And whether it was good or bad, it was certainly something that everyone that was there will remember!
I for one thoroughly enjoyed the zombiepocalypse and would indeed count it among the best times in WoW I ever had. But I would certainly not see myself as a griever. When I play on PvP realms, I don't kill lowbies, and I would never go through lengths to camp people or kill quest npcs, I think that kind of attitude is ridiculously douchey. Yet, I did run around as a rabid zombie in the zombie invasion. That doesn't automatically mean I was out to grieve people or that I did; what I did was alternate between fighting the zombies and then joining them with equal enthusiasm when I was turned. The RP guilds on our server were awesome; they organized huge zombie treks over the continents, with big staged battles along the way. Anyone that wanted to join was welcome. Our zombie mobs generally didn't go out to specifically kill loads of useful nps over and over or turn any lowbie. We had strong cleansing squads running around Stormwind like on Matt's realm, and epic battles were fought.
It was fun to see our world in such chaos for once. It was fun to be able to kill your own faction leaders! It was fun to be part of huge raids of either zombies or the ones that fought them, and assume your role as the enemy when you got turned or came back alive! It was just really fun to be out of the normal 'WoW routine' for a few days.
And I am sorry, but I *will* bore you with saying that yes, it was only for a few days, and there was EVERY opportunity for people that didn't want to be part of it to stay out of it.. there were plenty of zones that hardly saw any zombie, as well as major cities that got spared most of the chaos (Exodar, Silvermoon).
Amaxe Nov 8th 2011 11:22AM
I see those who disliked it are getting downranked.
Unfortunately it **was** an unlikeable activity for those who did not want to spread the plague and zombify everyone (when I got infected, I would just jump in the trench in Ironforge and explode myself to avoid spreading infection). There was nothing heroic to do. When Blizz finally added a PvE content, it was basically a rehash of older content and being a mere messenger.
So the problem was for those who hated the forced PvP:
1) There's nothing I want to do with this so I might as well quest.
2) Oh wait, I can't quest because some jerk is plaguing everything in the area I need to quest in.
The griefers of course had their excuses. "I'm just RPing as a zombie!" That's a crock of course. If a person was really RPing, they wouldn't be spamming "Infect me" in trade or cursing people for curing them.
And of course, lore wise there was a huge logic hole.
1) A serum is developed which can restore those cursed with undeath.
2) So why not use it on the Forsaken? Why not deploy it on the battlefield against the Scourge in Northrend?
(Yes they could make an explanation. The problem is they didn't).
I don't doubt some people liked it, but the problem was those of us who disliked it had no way to opt out and had no PvE way to take part in the event.
[I expect I'll be downranked like the others who expressed their dislike]
Tiqu Nov 8th 2011 11:28AM
I found the zombie thing unproductive. I happened to have a couple of friends over that day to see Wow - i was trying to sell them on joining. When they couldn't even keep their character alive for more than 10 seconds, and my lvl 41 character was dying all over the place, they said: "No thanks" and have never ventured to look @ Azeroth since then. Maybe a little self control, like in the starting areas might have been good.
snarkygoldfish Nov 8th 2011 11:42AM
I am one of the people that found the zombie event extremely memorable. Even beyond zombies everywhere -- facing down Valynyr for the first time, stopping the cultists....it was fun. Even stopping the plague.
I hated that the elemental invasion, because of the complaints...seemed to have absolutely no impact on what our toons were doing. Talk about distruptive? Those events made SW/IF and Org/wherever completely unplayable. IF was bugged on my old server for near the whole thing. The bosses we smacked around felt useless and tacked on. There were none of the little perks / memorable items (remember those datamined elemental pets we squee'd over?) like a haunted locket, or vanity gear, or a nifty little bat pet... It was just an annoyance to everyone!
I'm looking forward to the MoP pre-event. Hopefully it strikes a balance between the two events. Though I imagine the shattering of Theramore is going to have a huge part in it.
Jamie Nov 8th 2011 12:05PM
As a paladin during the event, I disliked the fact people griefed me for curing them. I'm a Paladin!!! What do you expect me to do!?!!
Yep, it was just the same kind of obnoxious behaviour we see today all the time in random groups. Random people in general just don't want to get along any more
wow Nov 8th 2011 12:08PM
I found the Zombie deal quite fun, however, I didn't venture into newbie areas or grief other players. I would always /yell I AM A ZOMBIE! AND I AM HERE when entering towns/cities or heavily player occupied zones. So anyone that wanted to be a part of it could or they could avoid me. I know, I was pretty considerate for a flesh eating zombie, but hey, it wasn't everyone's cup of tea.
With that said, I did see a lot of lowbie griefing, etc. There should've been a lot more structure to the event, imo. I noticed things got out of hand real quick, during the event the server I was on at the time was a ghost town at peak times.
Shinanji
Chetti Nov 8th 2011 12:27PM
During the zombie event, I was very new to WoW, I was leveling into the 20s while it was going on. I couldn't really do anything if the zombies were attacking, it was instant death.. or being zombied. It was kind of fun though, I saw it for what it was, some event that was prepping for the next expansion. Sure, the dying part sucked.. being zombied was kind of pointless for someone my level, but I thought would have been a fun thing had I been a player that was at the level cap that had been around through the previous expansion.
I enjoyed the elemental invasion, if only because it was the first pre-expansion event that I got to take part in as a level-capped player. I liked how the event started off slowly and lead up to the shattering of the world. The little earthquakes that were happening, the meetings of the leaders, the cultist activity and the elementals popping up, and finally (if you were lucky.. or unlucky depending on your take of it) deathwing setting zones on fire and instantly killing everyone/everything.
*which, as a side note, I hadn't gotten killed by deathwing until recently and even then I had to run into the flames.When I got the achievement, I walked through some fire that looked like it was just 'zone fire' in the barrens that wouldn't normally kill me. But a couple days ago I was fishing in Uldum and saw the sky change. As a priest, I was levetated in the water, so I had a good view of the sky as deathwing flew in roaring. I took some screenshots quickly because I knew I was going to die. But, I guess hanging out in the water where I was, even though I was pretty close to ramkahan, was out of range. So I ran into the flames to die (and take some screenshots of the burning city).
I don't know what the MoP pre-event is going to be, but I am looking forward to it.
Spider Nov 8th 2011 1:32PM
I loved trying to adventure out in Azeroth...you'd come upon a quest hub, and there would just be this foreboding air...you had no idea if it was safe, or already infected. The feeling of cautiously approaching a town or a hub was pretty damn fun. You'd wait until you saw some guards, or maybe a few other players before deeming it alright, but sometimes as you'd near the area you'd see the guards turned to ghouls...and then someone would see you and start coming for you. It was awesome. xD
RetPallyJil Nov 8th 2011 2:18PM
I still have my macro that calmly informs the citizens that - should they find themselves infected - healers are ready to help them at the flight master.
I dressed up as paladiny as I could and spent hours cleansing people and killing vile Scourge scum. Goodness, did I have fun!
Silversol Nov 8th 2011 9:57PM
While the zombie event was fun, I'm not sure how many of the readers tried leveling a toon, or rolling a new one, during that event. Odds are, your own faction would be griefing you in the lowbie areas.
If you're leveling in the wild and needed to go to a city for training? You most likely would get killed a few times by your own faction.
While I don't think you can compare it to the elemental invasion, it seemed that blizzard took *too many* precautions on keeping your players safe during the elemental invasion.
If the zombie event was run in certain windows as the elemental event was, you could potentially have the best of both worlds.
(not to mention the duel between thrall and garrosh that happened in BC, that was awesome)
Revnah Nov 8th 2011 8:08AM
Children's Week is a long, boring drag, lugging your orphan around everywhere. And of course it has the most uninspired achievement ever conceived, the "School of Hard Knocks" which forces normally peaceful and non-confrontational people (like me) to turn into "me first" grabbing a$$hats for a week, and simultaneously ruins PvP for all those who do battlegrounds to, you know, actually do PvP.
I wouldn't mind a completely reworked Children's Week or better, get rid of it altogether... I sure won't miss it :-)
fhatfreddy Nov 8th 2011 8:20AM
I couldn't agree more about Children's week. The "School of Hard Knocks" requirement is very poorly thought out. It sucks fun out of the game for both PvP-er's and non PvP-er's.