I want to smash them into a WALLLLLL...

[Shkspr]

Blizzard execs for World of Warcraft, that is.

I'm a casual player, but I've given Blizzard my $15/month pretty faithfully, as has my wife. After years of fits and starts, I finally dinged 70 on my first character last night, the first time I've capped exp in any of the dozen or more MMO's I've played.

This afternoon, I'm close to canceling WoW.

There's a pre-WotLK event in play now, with infectious plague zombies. The result of the virulence of this plage is akin to the results of mixing Ebola virus with Bush administration sex-education policies. Casual contact among players infects in seconds, resulting in pretty much everyone becoming zombies. It affects NPCs, meaning that the bankers are dead. The trainers are dead. The flight masters are dead. The quest givers are all dead. And when they come back to life, they're infected again within seconds.

And that's BEFORE players figured out how to band together to grief the NPC healers that can cure the plague.

There are parts of the cities where you can't see the floor for the bones.

That's not the problem.

The problem is, I just hit 70 last night. For the first time. I want to get my skills and respec my talents. I want to do daily quests. I want to get a flying mount. I want to pull all the 70 equipment in my bank I've been saving for today and put it on. I want to go to all the Outland cities and gear up in blues and purples with rep gains I've been getting from factions. I want to go and lose in a few battlegrounds so that I can get some honor marks before the expansion hits. I want to enjoy my first day as a capped character by doing the things I had to wait to 70 to do, or by doing the things I couldn't do so that I didn't outlevel my wife too badly.

I am all for serverwide events; I think a zombie infestation is a neat idea. But it's scorched earth out there, and it's impossible for someone to choose not to participate, the way they can every other special event.

It's not fun, it's making me rethink the $500 it's going to cost for my wife and I to get the expansion and play next year, and it's enraging me enough that I dare not email Blizzard support for fear I'll make some kind of stupid threat.

[GrantDawg]

Feel ya. That would suck bad.

[SnowMan]

On the bright side, the xpac is out in a few weeks, and it's a giant reset button. If it's anything like TBC was, you'll get quest reward greens that will replace anything you could hope to get between now and then.

But I do understand the frustration, these zombies are definitely getting old.

[JetsIn06]

My girlfriend is feeling the pain of this too. She's just trying to do a fishing competition thing, and she gets hit with the infection NON-STOP...She can't do it while infected. She gets herself killed, runs back to her body, and dies again. This is happening all over the game, making it unplayable for her right now. It's a stupid decision to do it this way.

[Eaglesfan27]

My wife finally got me to play WoW.. this infection is pissing us both off enough that we are considering dropping the game.

[Arles]

What possibly could be the logic in adding this into the game? I haven't played in over a year, but is this something added by Blizzard or is it some kind of mod?

[Eaglesfan27]

It's a holiday event that I think is also supposed to tie in with the upcoming expansion.

[sabotai]

It's not part of the holiday event, it's just a tie in with the expansion. A lot of the complaints about it is because it has ruined the holiday event. A lot of people like it, a lot of people hate it. I have not played this week thanks to Fable 2, but I imagine I would not like it from what I've read.

[Groundhog]

It might be time to cancel my WOW subscription. It hooked me bad for a few months, but I don't think I've logged in now in about 8 weeks.

[Bad-example]

So far the zombies have not affected me much, apart from the Shat flight point becoming a lagfest.

More disappointed that since I returned to the game a month ago, my server has become popular enough that most nights there is a queue.

[JetsIn06]

Originally Posted by sabotai

It's not part of the holiday event, it's just a tie in with the expansion. A lot of the complaints about it is because it has ruined the holiday event. A lot of people like it, a lot of people hate it. I have not played this week thanks to Fable 2, but I imagine I would not like it from what I've read.

From what I've seen, it seems like the only people that are enjoying it are the assholes who keep infecting every single person they see.

[EagleFan]

I thinjk ths is just for Hallow's End and should end this Friday evening. It is getting out of hand though. If I get infected I ask a hunter to kill me via ranged after I turn, that way it's over quickly and I can move on with what I was doing. Or get a player to heal me (can be done but it takes multiple cures to do it).

[Rizon]

I haven't had any problems with infections. I haven't been infected although I've run through a couple dozen battlezones.

[EagleFan]

The problems usually occur in the main cities. That is where the griefers try to infect the auction house, the gryph masters, any NPC they can.

[Schmidty]

I've played a lot lately and haven't had any issues with the plague. I've only gotten infected twice. I pretty much only raid with my guild (Black Temple last night), and do daily quests to fund my gear repairs, so that might be why. The only cities I go to are Shattrah and Silvermoon, and there haven't been more than a handful of plagued people. Maybe you're just on an unlucky server.

[Schmidty]

Dola.

Rumor has it that the event could be over as soon as Tuesday.

[PackerFanatic]

I haven't played in a few months - I only got to 64 and just couldn't find time to continue. Some friends of mine and I are starting up a private server to enjoy some of the fun things without the BS of a public server (a.k.a. the annoying people)

[flere-imsaho]

I'm currently on a WoW-hiatus due to a) baby and b) don't want to deal with the craziness that surrounds the month or two around Patch 3.0 and the expansion. So I'll be back in January.

The zombie event sounds like fun, but I've heard a lot of similar complaints. It's clear that Blizzard anticipated the NPC killings, and so put the Argent Dawn healers near important NPCs to keep them alive. What they didn't anticipate, however, is that players (as zombies) could either get around this or just zerg the Argent Dawn healers.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by PackerFanatic

I haven't played in a few months - I only got to 64 and just couldn't find time to continue. Some friends of mine and I are starting up a private server to enjoy some of the fun things without the BS of a public server (a.k.a. the annoying people)

How do you set up a private server?

[cuervo72]

Would it be trolling for me to say that I've participated in a few of the Zombie breakouts in CoH, and they have been quite enjoyable?

(Basically they are the Rikti invasions, reskinned - the events occur zone by zone. A warning comes up over global chat, and if you're in the zone the sky turns reddish. Then zombies come popping out of the ground. More will spawn around groups, and if the group is large enough you will get a number of bosses and elite bosses spawning. While the event is going on, debt is supressed. Fighting goes on for 5-10 minutes, badges are given out for enough kills, and if you get a few of the badges you unlock the "Pumpkin Head" costume piece at the tailor. With the zone warning these are completely avoidable, or if you want you can follow them from zone to zone.)

[PackerFanatic]

I haven't been doing any of the work myself - it's essentially just running on one of my buddies servers, you set up a few special database tables and files and such, give those files to the people that are connecting (essentially the realm list so they only see this server) and go to town - there is a lot of stuff on the net about how to set one up.

[spleen1015]

I would use one of the out of the way cities to do what you're looking to do in a major city. Exodar or Silvermoon are likely relatively empty.

I have been messing with a Draenei Warrior over the last few days and Exodar has been very quiet.

[Lathum]

I havent played a MMORPG since Everquest and would love to get back into one but I doubt my wife would approve.

That being said this sounds like an idiotic way to run your game.

[twothree]

This reminds me of the time I started playing an MMORPG, and cancelled by account after playing for only a few days because of some stupid event.

I don't remember, but I think it was Asheron's Call. I remember creating a character and doing some beginner's stuff. Then I reached a little town where some other players were located. It had some kind of christmas themed NPC that would cast spells on you. A snowman? Or, a candy cane? I don't remember. I was trying to learn how to play the game and probably doing a beginner's quest. But those spells just kept being cast on me, and I got upset enough to cancel my account after playing for only two or three days into my month's free trial.

[lordscarlet]

I should try Ultima Online again. I'm just not a big gamer these days, though.

[spleen1015]

The zombies will be gone today at 3pm EST.

The event wasn't that bad. It was a small event leading up to the release of the WotLK expansion. It only lasted for a few days.

[Schmidty]

I think people need to realize that "this too shall pass". I'm not saying people can't be annoyed, but to cancel an account over a temporary in-game event (that apparently a lot of players like or are indifference to) seems to be a bit overboard. I do think it could have been implemented better though.

I think Blizzard deserves some leeway since the game's been out for almost 4 years, and nothing like this has happened before.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

It was a small event leading up to the release of the WotLK expansion. It only lasted for a few days.

Yep. Like I said before, I was taken aback by the anger and threats over a short event.

[Lathum]

so does WoW offer a free trial?

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Lathum

so does WoW offer a free trial?

I have a bunch of 10-Day Free trial cards.

EDIT - Well, you have to get the game from some where. The card says to loan your disk to the friend when you give them the card.

[PackerFanatic]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

I think people need to realize that "this too shall pass". I'm not saying people can't be annoyed, but to cancel an account over a temporary in-game event (that apparently a lot of players like or are indifference to) seems to be a bit overboard. I do think it could have been implemented better though.

I think Blizzard deserves some leeway since the game's been out for almost 4 years, and nothing like this has happened before.

Except for the plague (granted that was accidental, but still)...

World of Warcraft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Schmidty]

I vaguely remember that, but like you said, it was accidental, and was taken care of fairly quickly.

[Bearcat729]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

I have a bunch of 10-Day Free trial cards.

EDIT - Well, you have to get the game from some where. The card says to loan your disk to the friend when you give them the card.

You can actually download the game from www.worldofwarcraft.com. Over in the quick links section on the right hand side it should say free 10 day trial.

[saldana]

so i picked this up and will be staring my 10 day trial this weekend at some point.

for those people still playing, is anyone on the LightningHoof server?

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by saldana

so i picked this up and will be staring my 10 day trial this weekend at some point.

for those people still playing, is anyone on the LightningHoof server?

so did you need to pay for the game or was it all free?

[saldana]

Originally Posted by Lathum

so did you need to pay for the game or was it all free?

a friend from work sent me a 10 day trial invite...i can play for free for 10 days, then have to buy the game...the first month after that is free too, so if you run them right after one another, you get 6 weeks free before the fees kick in, and as soon as I pay for my first month, by buddy gets a free month for getting me to join.

during the 10 day trial, you can play straight off the server without having the full game...after that you either need to digital download it, or go to the store and buy the discs....i got the game, plus the first expansion pack, plus both strategy guides (World of Warcraft Battlechest) for 40 bucks.

[saldana]

dola, since he invited me to play, if we play together, we get a bunch of bonuses, like triple experience points and attack modifiers.