crossroads
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It came from the Blog: Pandamonium snapshots
Once upon a time, there were many, many pandaren. They loved to play and kill and put wild creatures in cages. Then one night, they had an idea. It wasn't an original idea. Everyone has it at one point or another. But it was an important idea that was to shape their destiny forever. And that idea was "Party!" Now, you know what happens when you get a bunch of pandas together to party: you get Pandamonium! First thing they did was get nekkid. Oh did I mention these pandaren were from the It came from the Blog family of guilds? That's an important detail, as those are a rowdy, drunken bunch who like to take their clothes off and/or run into dangerous territory and/or jump off of things. Spoilers. The story continues ...
WoW Archivist: Massacre at the Crossroads
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Last week, Tom Chilton revealed that Mists would have no dedicated world PvP zone like Wintergrasp or Tol Barad. Instead, Blizzard wants to encourage a more natural style of world PvP. It wants players to duke it out in actual questing zones. On PvP realms, it wants players to be free to attack towns and cities without overwhelming NPC intervention. Since we're reviving WoW Archivist here at WoW Insider after a seven-month hiatus, now seemed like a good time to revisit the earliest days of world PvP. It's no secret that world PvP has had a rough journey throughout WoW's history. Blizzard did all it could to discourage the wild Southshore vs. Tarren Mill clashes that made Hillsbrad Foothills a laggy, unplayable mess, often crashing the Eastern Kingdoms servers entirely. In patch 1.12, the developers gave us new objectives to fight over in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands, far away from where new players were leveling. Ultimately, those objectives failed to capture much interest. Players mocked the Silithyst PvP objective as "sandlol." Further experiments in The Burning Crusade were only moderately more successful. In Wrath, Blizzard added the Wintergrasp PvP zone, and that has been the company's primary world PvP model through the last two expansions. Before all of that, however, when the game was still so young that the vast majority of the playerbase hadn't yet reached level 60, there were raids on the Crossroads, in the heart of the infamous Barrens. And they were glorious.
Old Azeroth through rose-colored glasses
Sometimes denial works for you, and I think that's why I like this forum thread so much. It's full of nostalgia for a simpler time, when PvP meant going to Southshore and murdering some Alliance, when the encounters in Molten Core were the most epic thing in the game, and speaking of epics, when seeing a player outfitted with all purples meant that they'd be raiding for weeks with 39 other people. This thread willingly looks back and sees things not as they were, but as we remember them: super fun, refreshing, and completely empty of the problems and quibbles we have to deal with today.Of course, Azeroth's past wasn't really like that. It was hell organizing 40 people to do one boss, much less a whole night of raiding, and if the organization didn't get you, the server lag and disconnects would. Southshore and Crossroads PvP made for great stories, but in actuality, it was really just a zerg fest, and no one actually won, it was really just everyone throwing away their nights because there was nothing better to do. And epics -- well, it was actually pretty cool when epic gear meant something. But boy was it disappointing when you went whole weeks of raiding without getting any loot at all, without even a Badge of Justice for your efforts. Or when you had to disenchant a tier piece because the Paladin set dropped yet again.Do we want to go back to those days? Probably not -- while there are definitely some good things about them, there were all kinds of issues that have since been solved (and that many of the nostalgists tend to forget about). But every once in a while, it's nice to look back through rose-colored glasses and remember when.
Know Your Lore: Living Relics of the Barrens
Welcome to Know Your Lore, where each week Alex Ziebart brings you a tasty little morsel of lore to wrap your mind around. Sweet, sweet lore. Mmmm. Have suggestions for future KYL topics? E-mail us! Or, if you have a question for our sister column Ask a Lore Nerd, e-mail us those, too!Most of us probably know the Barrens as the far, far too big and empty zone that we all spent too long running through. I know I do. You whippersnappers these days and your three flight paths. In my day, we had one and we ran to Ratchet on foot every single time. You kids nowadays have it easy. All of that aside, though, did you know it was originally a lush forest, some of which was part of the ancient Kaldorei territory?It used to be a much more peaceful (and tolerable) place than it is now. Of course, we're talking ten thousand years ago. That place totally sucks now. Don't get all sentimental on me and pretend it's deep and meaningful and spiritual to quest there or something. It's horrible. Let's learn about it anyway, because learning is fun! ...Right?
Barrens Chat: Beggers can't be choosers
First of all, a huge thank you to Mike Schramm last week for covering my rear with his hunter comic. And it wasn't so much "kindly accepted" as it was "oh thank goodness, I'm saved" for the record, Mike. Thank you Turpster, also!Now, back to business (or tomfoolery, I haven't decided which it actually is yet). This week brings us a comic that actually took place in the Barrens. Crossroads to be specific. So once again for those of you who complained commented that the comics should take place in the barrens, your wish has been granted. %Gallery-22361%
Why raid the Crossroads?
When I regularly played Alliance, I didn't bother. Raiding the Crossroads seemed like a waste of time when there were so many instances to run to get loot or battlegrounds to run to get honor (more honor than the occasional HK in the Barrens would give me, at any rate). Why run all the way out to the Crossroads to hassle the Horde and receive no loot and little or no honor? And now that I usually play Horde, I find it annoying when a group of level 70 Alliance come and spend an hour or more wiping out every NPC in the Crossroads. Hey, guys -- think you could leave the flightmaster alive for long enough to me to pick up the flight path? Please?My only thoughts on the matter are that city raids like the near-constant assaults on the Barrens are an amusing change of pace for bored high levels... and I admit, fighting off Alliance in the Barrens are an entertaining distraction. But, really -- don't Crossroads raids eventually get as boring as any other existing content in the game? So I ask you, dear readers, do you spend your time in-game battling for the Crossroads? And if so, why?
Around Azeroth: Shrine of the Fallen Warrior
This shrine (the spirit healer image is visible if you visit the area when dead even when not dead) is located in the Barrens to the west of the Crossroads. The shrine is a tribute to the memory of Michel Koiter, twin brother of René Koiter, both influential Blizzard artists. Ariss of Duskwood sent in this image, saying that there's a bet riding on the picture getting posted -- I never knew "Around Azeroth" was a competitive sport! Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part.
DKs disappear in December patch
As you may or may not know by now, we've been told that DKs will be removed in the Burning Crusade. In fact, since that's as core a change as they come, Neth has revealed that DKs will most likely be bye-bye by December, when the next patch hits. "Most likely," she says, because it's not completely guaranteed that what's on the beta servers will make it to the live ones, but based on Neth's repeated comments, things look pretty good for this one.And for at least one player, that means it's time to go crazy. Peegee on Arthas has promised to make Mulgore his personal ganking ground. Most players agree that DKs make any sort of World PVP all but impossible, but you have to remember why they were implemented in the first place: to keep PVPers away from quest and trainer NPCs that lowbies need around to level. Sure, you may think that implementing DKs wasn't the best way to solve that problem (I sure do), but you have to admit that since DKs were brought into the game, lowbies have always had their quest and trainers NPCs around to talk to.In the first thread, Neth says that the devs do realize that, at first, a lot of players will be making up for lost time when DKs disappear again. For at least those first few days, I would imagine that the Crossroads might be a little overrun with overzealous Alliance. But then again, Neth says adjustments will be made "when necessary," so maybe the devs have something else up their sleeve-- maybe some NPCs will be invulnerable or, as a few players suggest, have "spirit stand-ins" to return quests even while dead. At any rate, start sharpening those swords-- as of the next patch, here's hoping it's open season on NPCs again.
