Oct 24
Complexity and the Changing World (of Warcraft)
WoW’s ongoing Zombie Plague event appears to be riling up the natives.
“Let’s say someone *doesn’t* want to participate, as some of my guild’s leveling alts did not. Unfortunately, they are FORCED to participate, even passively. They are affected by this, both in terms of being physical attacked by not only “Alliance” zombies, but also by their own faction. This contradicts the very nature of a PvE server, where you only have to fight people by your own volition.”
While they go on to note some of the positive folks as well, this sentiment really sticks in my craw. When so often MMO players go on and on about the stasis of their gameworlds, the fact that nothing changes … gaah. Here, Blizz finally really goes out there and gives you a changing world, an evocative experience, and you go ‘waaah’. Please.
As WoW Insider notes, the plague is growing and I’ve had a ton of fun being a plague-bearer. I can’t decide whether it’s more fun infecting your own city or hitting the opposition. The most fun I’ve had yet was in diseasing up the Lakeshire region. I started by plaguing some of the static NPCs in the field, the ones that were unlikely to die super-soon. Then I worked on the static NPCs in the town itself, even getting Bellygrub to become plague-born. I never saw her transform – I wonder if she’d be a zombie pig?
WI also has the news that they’re considering heavily revamping healing sometime in the next year or so. I’d love this, and the addition of a new healing class (as the poster intimates) would be a boon. I really hope we see this as a patch instead of an addition in the next expansion. A fun, starts-at-55 healing class would be a big boon to the game.
7 comments7 Comments so far
reminds me of the eq2 plague way back in the day
Hear hear for a hero healing class!
Please? I finally got a friend of mine who is anti-MMO to try WoW this weekend. We rolled night elves together as I figured that would be the least likely noob area to find zombie griefing.
But no, there was a group of high levels out there in zombie form killing all the low levels. 15 quick successive deaths later and I was being told how much the game sucks.
So I’m happy you’re having an evocative experience, but if you’re calling people whiners who get the short end of the stick this badly, well, you’re just being an ass.
I’m sorry you had a bad time. I’m not calling you a whiner, I’m calling the hoity-toity PvE purists whiners.
I’m a little offended at being lumped in with a bunch of griefers, actually. I hope you’d guess given previous writing that that’s not something I’d ever get into.
I was very specific in aiming for NPCs – dudes that respawn pretty darn quick after going away.
If I wrote something that made you infer that I was accusing you of that behavior, I apologize. That was not my intent. But I have seen a whole stream of comments from people along the lines of “shut up and suck it up.”
To have somebody like you start down the path really pushed a hot button.
I have to side somewhat with the PvE purist. I play on a PvE server because I want to be in an environment where ass-hattery is somewhat controlled. But Blizzard pulled the cork out of the ass-hat bottle and now a group capable of knocking down level 65 guardian mobs with ease is off one-shotting noobs in the starting area.
Honestly, I don’t care when I’m on as a level 70. I can take care of myself. But at level 5, when you cannot do anything but die. That is bad and I don’t know how Blizzard couldn’t have spotted that possibility a mile away and put in some safeguard. I can’t imagine anybody who is responsible for driving new business being happy with a plan that allows people to cream new players without let or hindrance.
@wilhelm2451 : I totally agree.
I just cancelled WoW over this, probably for good. It feels like a betrayal of trust on Blizzards part.
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