World-event
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Hints of another world event soon
This morning Nethaera, a community manager with Blizzard, posted the following on the general forums: "Perhaps something will be occurring before [the release of Wrath]. I guess it's something we'll have to wait and see."This comes in a response to a question asking if there will be a couple more surprises before Wrath of the Lich King. Of course Neth is being her usual vague self here, not really committing to anything one way or another. But the comment does raise an eyebrow, and the fact that she even decided to respond to the question without a definitive "no" is good enough to speculate that there might be another world event headed our way.
Breakfast Topic: What? That's it?
Three days and counting. There's so much excitement for the newest expansion -- I mean, look at us here at WoW Insider, we're going crazy giving away all sorts of wonderful swag just to celebrate the coming of Wrath (and probably to make up in advance for us not being around while we're busy playing the game. Sorry guys). What's happening inside the game to prepare us for Northrend?Well, at the moment, it looks like... nothing. I mean, there was that phenomenally fun zombie invasion. I know a few of you found it annoying and disruptive, but come on! It was a game-changing event that really shook up Azeroth, even if only for a few days. When the zombie infestation ended earlier than we anticipated anticlimactically, we sort of expected something better to come. Well, it's been about a week now, and there's nothing new. Sure, the scourge invasion's still happening, but after hundreds and hundreds of Necrotic Runes and nothing else to buy, it's really kind of boring.So was that it? An inspired zombie invasion and then nothing? That's kind of like running out of gas nearing the finish line. It's like opening the champagne before the guests arrive. If the zombie invasion had started a few days ago, I think the timing would've been absolutely perfect. Instead, our excitement (and sometimes frustration) got built up, escalating over a few days, then... poof. Nothing. It's like having a great first course of a meal and having the next course arrive so late that we've lost our appetite. How do you guys feel? Did Blizzard blow the timing of the zombie event? What else do they have planned? Whatever it is, they've only got a couple of days to unleash it.
Scourge Invasion comes to a close
As of 3PM PDT (6 PM by WoW Insider's clock) the Scourge are retreating from Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms on most servers, and the Scourge Invasion has come to a close... for now. In each of the capital cities there is still an Argent Dawn Champion handing out their Stamina consumables, as well as Argent Quartermaster so you can spend the last of your Necrotic Runes. The necropoleis, however, are all gone.I fully expect we'll see something else crop up in the next week, not only because Tigole said so, but because it'd be really weird if the final week leading to Northrend is completely barren. There are also things we know are coming but aren't here yet... but those are spoilers, so we won't go into detail.If anything happens, we'll make sure you hear about it, so keep an eye out. I doubt anything will happen this evening, but I've been wrong before.
WoW Insider Show with BRK and BBB live tomorrow
Should be a great show tomorrow on the podcast, as we welcome two terrific WoW bloggers to the table. In one place together for the first (second? third?) time ever, both Daniel "BigRedKitty" Howell (who has his own very popular, very well-done podcast, by the way, if you haven't heard it yet) and John "BigBearButt" Patricelli will be in attendance. And we'll be talking about, as usual, all the biggest stories from the past week in Warcraft, including how the new Kara boss is going (and almost gone), whether Karazhan itself is too easy these days, and that whole class forums megaton yesterday (that turned out to be a dud, more or less). And we'll cover the end of the zombie event, too, and whether or not it worked the way Blizzard planned it to, or if they cut it short early because of all the griefing.The show will air live at 3:30pm Eastern (time zone calculator) over on our Ustream page. Lots of people have had questions about how to get the show lately (and of course, it hasn't helped that our feed is going through some growing pains), but all of your questions should be answered in our last podcast post. And we're working on the quality issues, too -- I can assure you that the recording issue has been fixed, so no more tinny voices this week.But you don't want to wait until the recording anyway -- join us on the Ustream page tomorrow (or just come back to this post -- the stream is embedded after the break), and you can chat with us and other listeners live, as well as vote in polls and participate in a rumored "aftershow" that's been popping up after we're done recording lately. See you tomorrow!
Times Online examines WoW's zombies and the connection to real life
Forget Fox News -- the Times Online has an analysis up of Blizzard's zombies event, and their main point seems to be that you can't compare a plague outbreak in the World of Warcraft to one in real life. Risk is what defines real outbreaks, and since there was really no risk in whether you became a zombie or not, players didn't necessarily act as they would in the real world. Some players even willingly submitted to infection, which of course presumably wouldn't happen with a real widespread fatal disease.But there are parallels to be drawn, and professors say that the zombie plague worked a little closer to real life than Hakkar's corrupted blood did (no coincidence, I'm sure, that the zombie plague was designed to be spread, while the Corrupted Blood was basically a bug). While the plague never did really infect everyone in the world, it did spread pretty quickly -- apparently there's a number you can use to track how quickly a disease spreads, and the zombie plague landed in the arena of a normal outbreak of smallpox (given, of course, that we don't know exactly how fast or how widely it spread).Very interesting. There is still more to say about this plague, I think (and though things have slowed down on the realms, hopefully the event itself isn't completely over). But it is fascinating how Blizzard turned emergent gameplay into an official event, and how they mimicked the real-life qualities of a spreading disease (the more of it around, the more likely you were to pick it up) while still leaving the idea firmly grounded in the in-game lore. Very cool indeed.
FOX news covers WoW's Zombie Invasion
FOX news picked up the story of the big zombie invasion, citing that the plague came to an end on Tuesday. They covered the event as a deliberate contagion that, if left "untreated," would turn you into one of the "flesh-eating zombies." Like our own Mike Schramm, FOX parallels this purposeful in-game disease with the previous accidental "Corrupted Blood" plague. I love it when WoW is in the news. I love it even more when the media's not talking about us being game-addicted fiends smashing the buttons for our Pavlovian treat. While FOX's story isn't exactly ground-breaking info for those of us toiling against the continuing Scourge invasion, it might reach a few of our friends and coworkers and convince them to give WoW a try. Or, this coverage could just be another sign of the impact Blizzard's game is having on the mainstream, while that 11 million subscriber base just keeps growing. And, yup, FOX's article does mention the upcoming Wrath release, so it's certainly possible Blizzard will see a few more players from the coverage. Every time WoW has an event like this which has mainstream interest, there'll be a few more people logging for the first time to see what the buzz is about. And, hey, it certainly lines up with the Holiday theme.
Breaking down Blizzard's world event so far
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.
The best of WoW Insider: October 21-28, 2008
The World of Warcraft was hit this week with something no one expected: zombies! In the lead-up event to the Wrath of the Lich King expansion release next month, someone (probably the Lich King himself, what a jerk) injected a plague into the populace of Azeroth, pitting Alliance and Horde against each other and themselves, as player-controlled zombies ravaged all the old familiar places. It was a sight to see, but not everyone had fun, so yesterday, things stopped abruptly. What next? News WotLK world event going underwayThis is where it all started -- some suspicious crates with plague-laden grain in Booty Bay. Phase 4 of the zombie invasion beginsThis is where it all got nuts, with plague incubation time down to two minutes, and a brand new boss appearing in game, with a whole army of Scourge attacking the world. Zombie invasion reaches phase 5.5The Forsaken works up a cure to the plague, and very soon... The plague is cured, zombies dropping like fliesWe were able to find a worldwide cure for the plague, even as Blizzard claims it's not over. Ezra Chatterton passes awayOutside of the game, some very sad news about a young figure in the World of Warcraft community. Features Tenris Mirkblood strategy guideKarazhan has a new boss, and here's how to take him down. The bosses of the Scourge InvasionDisappointed that you can't participate in the high level shenanigans? There are lowbie bosses all over the world for you to tangle with. Argent Dawn rewards during the Zombie InvasionNew epic loots from an old faction! Hallow's End 2008 guideAnd oh yeah, even while all of this Lich King event stuff is going on, there's still another Halloween holiday happening at the same time. Arcanite Ripper users in World of Warcraft: Guitar HeroRipping on some riffs with an axe, literally.
What to do after the zombie apocalypse
Ah, zombie apocalypse. We hardly knew you. Your sudden departure leaves a lot of us confused, even if Blizzard swears it was all on purpose and according to plan. Regardless, the zombie plague seems to be over for now. We talked last week about how you could roleplay your sudden transformation into the undead brain muncher. Now, let's take a bit to talk about how your survivors are going to be feeling about this mess. Remorse. If you acknowlege that you died, came back as a zombie, died as a zombie, and came back yet again as a humanoid race, then you should probably acknowledge that you did some pretty horrible things. It's one thing to think, "My God, I ate the neighbor's cat," but there's a whole level of horror involved with "My God, I ate the neighbor!"This also supplies that most beloved motivation for roleplayers everywhere -- angst. You can be horrified ("I ate the neighbor!"), angsty ("And I liked it!"), and perhaps even be corrupted ("I'd do it again!"). If the memory of your wanton deeds aren't enough to sustain your remorseful roleplay, you can look to further naughty urges to supply more angst.
Breakfast Topic: Uh, now what?
So the zombie invasion's over, huh? Just like that, the coolest World Event to ever hit Azeroth was gone just as quickly as it arrived. If you didn't log on this past week, you likely missed what was one of the most chaotic and fun times in the game -- players turning into zombies, infected roaches and rats infesting cities, and hordes of Scourge knocking at our city gates. It was unique, creepy, fun, and sometimes even disruptive -- but it was one of the most well-designed events we've ever seen happen to our favorite game. And now it appears to be over.What happened there, exactly? Just when everything was ramping up to a fine crescendo -- with the disease duration shaved down to an apocalyptic one minute and infected rats streaming out of our city sewers -- it suddenly dies out without warning or climax. No big battle. No quests to fight zombies. No conclusive finding of a cure (Grand Apothecary Putress' quest line wasn't quite anywhere near epic...). It just... ended. There were rumors of something going down at 4pm server time, but that hour came and went without so much as a bang and a clatter.What happens now? What do you guys think is in store for Azeroth? Certainly the Lich King won't let things end in such an anti-climactic fashion, right? Arthas, the baddest of all bad guys, must have something else up his cold, icy sleeve, right? What's going to happen next? Armies of Scourge attacking cities, perhaps, or some other impressive, crazy thing. I mean, certainly things won't be status quo all the way until November 13. Or can it?
Zombie invasion phase 5.5 - quests to the faction leaders and Shattrath [Updated x4]
Phase 5.5, as we're calling it right now, has started. This phase is coming about approximately six hours after phase 5 began. There are new quests available from any commoner in a main city. The quest will send you to some folks right outside of A'dal's room, who will then send you to your faction leader. During the time you have this quest, you'll be whispered be a Frozen Shade or Dual-plagued Brain, taunting you to join the forces of the Lich King. We have a listing of what these evil creatures are telling you after the break. It is all very, very evil. And very, very cool. These quests all hint at a cure being found for the plague. Additionally, there are new structures appearing in Shattrath. They are all apparently being commanded by Grand Apothecary Putress (WoWWiki information).The bullet points for this phase are as follows. Time stamped updates are given after the break. A cure for the plague is being worked on. New quests given by "commoners" in the capital cities. Quests lead to Putress and the faction leaders. Grand Apothecary Putress appears as a level 80 elite NPC in Shattrath. Putress has some interesting idle conversation while in Shattrath. The Night Elf faction leader hints at a new World Tree upon quest completion. A Frozen Shade or a Dual-plagued Brain will have a conversation with you while you're completing the quests. Look through our gallery below for the new images of this phase.Many thanks to everyone who is sending up tips! You're helping everyone stay abreast of the latest invasion news!%Gallery-35412%
Argent Knight: My new best friend needs to level
One of the cooler things out of the zombie invasion is the quest rewards. The Argent War Horn stands as one of the most "epic" of all the rewards. This trinket will summon an Argent Knight to your side. He's got some spiffy abilities and stats. Let's take a look: HP - 2442 Mana – 2434 Damage: About 100 melee and about 150 crusader strike on a level 60 mob. He also has some spells: Heal: Heals a person for around 700, often times casting when the person is at 25% or lower health. Blessing of Protection: Target becomes immune to damage. Unknown when he casts this. Crusader Strike: A powerful attack that increases holy damage done to the target. The down side to this guy is that he's only level 60. That's kind of weird given that the trinket requires level 70 to use. I wouldn't be surprised to see his level increased to 70 in some future patch. However at the same time they might leave him at 60 just in order to keep this trinket as more of a joke item, rather then making it anything useful.
Zombie infection down to 1 minute
This just in... you now become a zombie after only one minute.After you kill a zombie infect player, creature, or NPC you'll become infected the plague that turns you into zombie. This plague now only takes one minute to increase your brain eating needs to epic levels.Does this mean phase five is about to being? Update: Yes, it appears phase 5 is beginning.We can't tell just yet, but we're all on the lookout for it. Phase 4 has brought lots of new rewards, events, and other fun things. Keep your eyes peeled, and if you see anything drop us a tip on our tip line! Update: Almost all Argent Dawn Healers are gone. The only ones in IF I was able to find were near the flight path and the King's room.WoW Insider likes us some braaaains!Thanks to the many people who sent this in!
Meet Tenris Mirkblood, a new Kara boss, possibly for the Scourge event
Our friend Boubouille over at MMO Champion has done some more digging in the datafiles of the beta realms, and pulled out a brand new boss in Karazhan of all places. Meet Prince Tenris Mirkblood of the San'layn, a group of elven princes aligned with none other than The Lich King himself. He's not live on active servers at all -- again, Boubouille dug this up from beta realm files, so we may never actually see Tenris in game.But there are a few quests surrounding the boss as well -- for more on how he might be included in the game during the world event (including possible spoilers), hit the link below.
Prince Menethil's steed and the empty grave
The chaos of the plague has most everyone's attention right now, but the world event potentially brought something a little less easily noticed as well. Just off the road to the Scarlet Monastery, there's an old grave that appears to have recently been dug up. As far as I can tell, it has appeared on servers on either the 19th or 20th or October. It's possible it went in with patch 3.0.2, but if that's the case then nobody noticed it until a couple of days ago. I find that unlikely. Either way, if it did crop up on the 20th, that means it predates the plague by a few days, and may have actually been the kickoff of the whole thing.So what is this grave? According to the gravestone, Prince Arthas Menethil's steed was buried here. The horse, named Invincible (which was apparently a lie), seems to have been dug up recently. By the Scourge, or by someone else? Probably the Scourge, but anything can happen. It's fantasy after all. Drunken Dwarves might have dug it up on accident thinking it was the skeletal remains of a Titan or some nonsense.I look forward to seeing what comes out of this, because the words on the gravestone don't give much away. It's very short and sweet, telling you what's there and little more. I guess that makes sense, It's a gravestone/memorial and I doubt the Scourge would spraypaint "ARTHUS WUZ HERR" across the stone. If you want to see what's engraved upon it, just take a look behind the link below.[ Thanks for the tip, Joseph! ]
Zombie Fighting 101
As you probably already know, there are zombies everywhere. Fortunately, you won't need to go to extreme lengths in order to fight them, such as grafting a chainsaw to yourself as a replacement hand. On the other hand, boomsticks will serve you well. Before we go about the strategies of how to fight legions of undead, it might help to read on all their abilities as well as some of their nefarious strategies for growing their numbers. Obviously, we won't need to tell you how to fight NPC zombies... they're mindless. But those crafty players-turned-zombies must be smote with righteous fury!Move fasterThe good news is that Azerothian zombies, just like in most movies, move slow. Just be sure to stay farther than 21 yards away from them as they have Retch! a ranged spell that will slow anyone within the area of effect. This is the smoky green cloud on the ground you see in all those screenshots. They can also summon a burst of speed using Lurch! so don't be too confident that they won't close the distance. That ability also frees them from movement impairing effects so trapping them or slowing them isn't a guarantee you'll be able to stay away from them. The idea is to kite the zombies, because getting into melee range with them is a very bad idea.
Tips for eating brains
I had a ton of fun on the servers last night running around and eating as many brains as I can. As I'm a huge fan of zombies in all their forms, Blizzard's world event hit the mark for me, and so, I've spent my every minute as a zombie plotting how the living undead just might take over the world. Here's a few tips for making sure the zombie apocalypse really does shake the world.Strength in numbers: This one's obvious by now, but you need to be with other zombies to really do any damage. You can convert NPCs, but not very quickly unless they're low level, and low level zombies drop relatively fast. It's far better to convert players (usually by listening in for anyone who wants to be a zombie, and then inviting them to a zombie party off the beaten path). But the key is to wait until you've got a good group -- any zombies that go shambling off by themselves are going to get quickly overtaken by NPC guards or overzealous Paladins.More tips after the break.
Zombies in Azeroth: A night of terror
There is a slowly growing chaos on the realms right now -- in the far reaches of Outland and even Azeroth, things are as normal, but slowly a plague creeps across the land. Westfall has fallen on many servers, and even our greatest leaders have become infected themselves, and the hordes continue to grow and lurch in search of living flesh.Below you can see the sights of tonight's Zombie invasion. Someone has put some curious infested crates in Booty Bay, and as a result, Azeroth's population, NPCs and players alike, are slowly becoming something even worse than dead. If you've got some great screenshots of tonight's festivities, send them in to our tip line -- we'll be adding to this gallery of the zombie world event in the days to come... assuming we live that long. %Gallery-35140%
Zombie Infestation Survival Guide
Bornakk posted some excerpts from what appear to be an old diary in the dead town of Andorhal. The diary details the struggles of one Eric Farrington, who explains the horrors of seeing loved ones transformed into gruesome tools of the Scourge only to be eventually transformed himself... and hunger for brains. Bornakk also appended a short Q&A that should answer some of the questions players might have about the new Scourge invasion. Of course, most of those same questions have already been covered by Mike in his live... er, undeadblog.Bornakk didn't mention that zombies also have their own language, and when players speak while transformed, their speech will be unintelligible to normal players. While the Q&A addresses how to avoid getting infected and finding a cure, players who might want to experience becoming part of the Scourge are encouraged to read up on the unique zombie abilities...
Things are only going to get worse
Kisirani, who no doubt is laughing with maniacal glee right now, says that if you're worried that the zombies might not overtake the world, don't -- things are going to get worse. When a player complains that the buff is easily dispellable, the world event designer jokes that "it sure does seem containable, doesn't it?"It kind of does... for now. But keep in mind that we haven't actually seen Arthas yet (and technically, we don't even know this is him -- it might just be, you know, a mistake in shipping or somethitng like that). Clearly, the Argent Dawn can handle this little "event," and none of us need to worry.Sure. Just keep thinking that. Meanwhile, more zombies have started appearing all over the world. Mind if I chew on your skull for a bit?%Gallery-35140%
