Illy

It never had to be unplayable. The first time getting infected was amusing and all, but why couldn't they have added an option to be inoculated after that for folks who weren't that interested in it? I'm not alone in my frustration with this event, and like most of those folks I know in person my play-time has been spent in the middle of nowhere questing as best I could.

The issue for me with this is that my game-time is much more limited than it used to be, so to spend 45m just to try to get out of Booty Bay yesterday was extremely frustrating. Having some sort of option for folks like myself, who just don't want to take part, doesn't really ruin the experience for everyone else. However, giving me no option to avoid this really made one of the few times in a while I've been able to sit down and play very agitating.

 

Nathanyel

among other whispers:
Couldn't get it to whisper to me while I was a Zombie, so I can't tell whether the [Zombie] part actually has meaning.

PS: Lore hint: In e.g. Silvermoon and Orgrimmar the turnin NPCs are near the Boss leaders, but in Thunder Bluff, it is in Magatha's tent... WTB more Grimtotem lore, though I despise them, they offer a really nice insight to the "dark side" of the Tauren. A dark-skinned Tauren will also be my choice for a DK.

 

Beezer

I like the event, only a few times have I been infected while I'm in the middle of something but it's just a minor distraction. I've got a friend who isn't playing until everything cools down a bit, he absolutely hates this zombie gimmick (tragically, enough to resort to DotA) .

 

• Intermission

Having a "turn off zombies for me" option, as some have mentioned, does take away some of the fun of being a zombie. If everyone you attacked already wanted to be attacked and didnt even run away... where's the fun?

 

Illy

If the majority of folks used such an option, that's probably a sign the event wasn't such a good idea. If it's not a majority of folks doing it, then those who want to take part aren't really losing out on too much.

 

Rasputin

I wanted to cleanse all the infected people I met. They turned off curing the disease. Where's the fun?

I personally don't care much about the zombie invasion and it didn't really bother me much. I think leaving it in the hands of the player base made for some interesting social interactions, but it also made the "plague" extremely uninteresting to me. Everyone going out trying to get infected, and complaining at you when you cure them of this disease? It's quite silly for a supposed lore event. It doesn't really add anything but annoyance to the game for me. I have to wait 5 minutes for the Rokk to respawn so I can do my cooking daily, and another 4 for him to respawn when I turn it in. MY guild is full of people giggling about how they're exploding entire sections of Orgrimmar. The whole thing just felt very surreal and unimmersive, like all the players were several degrees removed from the actual event.

I understand it's something new to do and people are enjoying it, but I don't really see how it's a good event re event. It's just a chance for people to do a lot of Blizzard-supported mild griefing.

 

Daenerys

Well said.

If you're having fun with the event, great. But please realize that you are having fun *at the expense of* many of us who really have no interest in getting killed in our supposedly safe capital cities. I personally can't wait for the event to be over. I don't have hours and hours to play this game, so when I do get online, I don't want to be griefed in capital cities. I want to do my AH/bank business and then move on to whatever I plan on doing, which for the time being is a huge hassle.

 

legatto

Just a question, is there any sort of follow-up quest after you turn in the item to your racial leader?

The Draenei was a light infused relic, and throughout carrying it(I did the HH before turning it in)

A frozen shade whispers you and tells you to join the lich king, end the pain you have known since birth, etc.

When you turn it in, he says "ah there you are... say goodbye to the ones you love paladin!"

I was expecting the mob to phase in, but nothing has happened.

 

Telamarynth

I personally am enjoying the heck out of this event.

Are there griefers? Yes. Will there always be griefers in an online environment? Yes.

Is it a disruption to your everyday WoW experience? Yes. Should a worldwide invasion designed to make you want to strike back against those who invaded disrupt your everyday WoW experience? Yes.

Are there unintended consequences? Until Blizzard is omniscient, of course!

If you want to think about it from a lore perspective, it's perfect. If you want to think about it from a meta-design perspective, it's a solid attempt to reuse older programming and to improve on it for a new generation of gamers.

Yes, some people are not going to have fun with it, and some people are going to find that it ruins their experience. Several of my guild members fall into that category. More enjoy it for what it is: a brief moment in our WoW careers that we can not only enjoy, but talk about when the 'Lich King babies' start playing.

 

P51mus

Whispers from the "Frozen shade" you get while carrying the Light infused artifact:



I'll edit in more if I see any when turning in for my other alliance characters.

 

Addled

Pretty much this. The zombie event was amusing for the first few days, but it's quickly getting on my nerves. Especially when some idiot decides to blow up the orphan matron in Goldshire so I can't do my Hallow's daily quest, or decides to nuke the flightmaster so I can't fly up to Scarlet Monastary, or turns Southshore into a zombie town.

I would honestly like a "clean" zone that I can stage my alts out of, so I don't get bogged down on people exploding on me. Or an immunity ability that I could buy for a few gold. Or at the minimum, don't stage two world events simultaneously (Hallow's and LK invasion) so I don't have to rush to complete the requirements for the Hallowed title while things are zombifying around me.

 

flying-pcp

The Draenei starting zones were clear of zombies on my server, so you might try there if your alts are around that level. Blizzard said there would be some time after the plague is over to finish up the Hallow's Eve achievements.

 

Kumar

I got a quest from Putress, but no commoners are giving me any quests. Puzzling.

 

Xunwael

Beyond the problem an occational lvl 70 zombie [invasion] might cause for questhubs, I don't see how this event is much of an inconvenience. I come to shattrath and I see the bankers dead, so I go to silvermoon (there are never any zombies there). Takes me 2 minutes longer, yeah, but wiping in a 5 man takes up more time and that's been happening every goddamn day the last week. I'm standing by the cooking pot making food, and some guy walks up to me and explodes. I finish making my food, then I fly to the nearest argent healer and then return to the pot. Takes half a minute.

Sure, these things are mildly irritating, but - really - how can people claim that it totally ruins their gaming experience. I've been flying all around the world the last few days to gather candy on 5 different lvl 70 characters and I've never, excluding crossroads, come across a destroyed questhub unless I was the one destroying it. Even then, the questgivers respawn very quickly. I tried destroying freewind post, but the guards and questgivers were respawning faster than I could kill them off. Maybe I was doing something wrong.

"Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice."
- Clark's Law

 

Dotswtfownd

Do you really think this serves as a good example? Many players purposefully get infected to have fun as zombies.

 

Nathanyel

It seems only Forsaken Commoners send you to him.

 

Ngita

Servers differ of course but at least proudmoore alliiance is far from "Unplayable". For example my lowbie warrior bank alt has been running back and forward half a dozen times a day between AH and mail and has yet to be zombiefied and the worst i have been affected is I had to wait 30 seconds for a flightmaster in burning steppes to respawn. I even quested in Booty Bay and Ratchet yesterday.

 

Qrt

I got the quest 'Ironforge' from the bishop in Shattrath and thought 'righto off we go' - straight through the portal and off to King Magni. Perhaps I was too fast.. no whispers.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Igor, help me with the bags.
Igor: Soitenly. You take the blonde, I'll take the one in the turban.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: I was talking about the luggage.

 

Kumar

So, only in UC?

 

glowacks

What about the "idiots" who think they have the right to live their lives as normal when Blizzard has intentionally put in a world-changing event on the verge of an expansion release? The event is very clearly designed to disrupt the normal flow of playing for a large majority of players, to get them to notice that the things that are happening are not just minor or isolated and actually impact the world as a whole. While not at the same level, I recall when the AQ gates were opened there were Qiraji resonating crystals in various mid-level quest hubs that woudl mind control peopel and cause guards to beat on them - I distinctly remember having issues at the Horde town in Ferelas - so world events disrupting game play is not unprecedented. When all the raids are nerfed, the expansion looms very close, and everyone is itching for new stuff to do when they know normal game play currently is "pointless", the event allows Blizzard to keep *most* people interested in playing. All of Blizzard's content is designed with the idea behind keeping more people interested in the game than those that will lose interest.

You might pay for the game time, but asking to be able to use that time as you wish is similar asking to have a "Level Up" button you could press when you're bored at your current level. There are times that I wished I could stay low level and keep fighting enemies a certain level below me because I liked the gameplay and I wasn't bored of it yet, but in the end you have to move on because that's the nature of the game. In the same way, when Blizzard puts something this major and calculated into the game, it's not going to be changed just because a small vocal minority are inconvenienced. Especially when that's the entire point.

 

GSH

I wonder how much of it is the fact that the zombies are other players.

If the zombies were pure NPCs attacking the cities, would people have a different reaction? I know that a lot of people play on PvE servers specifically to avoid the griefers. If an NPC kills you, you blame yourself and the event (maybe even Arthas and the Scourge). But if another player kills you, even if she's a zombie, the natural inclination is to blame the other player.

 

Totemtoter

There's millions of players in WoW, some like the event and some don't. Can we stop calling people idiots for not feeling the same way about the event?

Does anyone know what level the new Shatt quest line requires? I was trying to do it on alts, but I think they might have been too low level to pick the quests up.

 

jurgan

The Quest from Shattrah regarding the Zombie event appears to be for level 70s as far as I'm aware.

 

Brigham

The whispers seem to be different from the Dual-plagued brain:

My king! I cannot hear your voice! Do not leave me!
There is fire in my eyes! My mind!

Please! $name! Destroy me!

Let the torture end!

Show mercy, $name! Give me peace!

Give me your brain!
I must feed...

You... I've seen you in Shattrath...
My King knows of you. He wants to see you...

He also whispers in zombietalk. When I went into a zombie, it stopped whispering me.

 

DeusEx

No, I got the quest from a Taueren Commener (being a Forsaken myself) in TB. It leads to Putress in Shattrath, who gives you the head to deliver it to Faranell in UC.


I love the event and sometimes think that people take this game way to seriously, especially considering that that the expansion is right around the corner. Blizzard throwing epic sets at us in the Scourge invasion events, shows quite clearly that the current expansion cycle is over and there's nothing really left worth grinding out now. Time to relax and enjoy the show. You can always grind AV or dailies, or complete Achievements, but there will only be one WotLK opening event.

I'm not an addict ... maybe that's a lie.