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The Zombie Plague has ended (article)
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The Zombie Plague has ended (article)
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Isadoriana
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Posted: 5860 days ago
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Edited: 5860 days ago
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 October 28, 2008
World of Warcraft plague halted by Blizzard
The Warcraft's authorities have acted to control a virtual plague they released into the popular online game last week.
The makers of World of Warcraft, an online game with more than 11 million players, today brought an end to a virtual plague that has infected hundreds of thousands of players, causing uproar among many fans who said it was spoiling the game.
Blizzard, the software company that runs the game, had deliberately introduced the virulent disease into its virtual world last week. The "undead plague" was designed to be highly contagious and, if left untreated, would turn players them into flesh-eating zombies.
It is thought that scientists have been tracking the progress of this week's disease, believing that the game would provide valuable information for researchers investigating how people would react to the spread of an outbreak in the real world -- and how it could be contained.
The game's creators faced a torrent of criticism as the disease spread quickly through the game's lands of Azeroth, with some fans arguing that the plague may put off beginners who would not be able to find a cure.
World of Warcraft players usually enjoy a fantasy life of quests, treasure collecting and monster killing. During the plague, players would be infected by contact with a zombie and, unless they could find a cure within minutes, they too would turn into zombies and continue to spread the disease.
Players could avoid joining the legion of the undead by killing and reviving their characters but they could, and often would, become infected again.
Blizzard faced criticism from fans four years ago when a similar disease accidentally spread through the game killing thousands of characters. The millions of players spend about $16 per month in subscriptions, giving Blizzard a keen financial incentive to keep players happy.
The plague was timed to coincide with the release of the latest "expansion" of the game, called Wrath of the Lich King, next month.
Though many fans of the game have applauded Blizzard's decision, saying it was yet another example of the company's ability to create interesting ideas to engage players, others have flooded online forums with criticism.
"It's not a plague/invasion - it's a game," wrote one disgruntled fan with the username Mutakmien. "If it's not fun, then it's a bad game and this event has turned World of Warcraft into a bad game for many people."
A Blizzard executive wrote to fans, saying: "While we recognise that the event could prove to be disruptive at times, we hope you made the most out of it while it lasted. Part of playing in a 'living and breathing world' means that things are going to change from time to time. We meant no harm but only wanted to create a lasting impression on players."
In 2004, the "corrupted blood plague" spread infected thousands of players within days. The disease was designed to affect only those who ventured into caves, but some mischievous Warcraft players worked out how to spread the disease and infect others. The game's programmers were caught by surprise and could not initially stop the epidemic reaching the virtual world's towns and cities.
The response of many fans was fierce, with some even comparing Blizzard's response to the crisis with the US Government's reaction to Hurricane Katrina.
Some scientists said at the time that the responses of people in the game were similar to those seen during real-world epidemics. Some rushed to the centre of the epidemic to help victims, while others rushed out of the major towns and cities to ensure survival.
Source : http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5032908.ece-- "If we ever get a dog and cat, they should be named "Come-on" and "Goddammit", so that when you yell "Come on, Goddammit!" you'll be surrounded by their love." -Locklear (paraphrased) "You navigate like a blind chick." -Locklear www.twitter.com/peligrie 
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truenos
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_BloodThis time it was on purpose. -- (USER WAS AWESOME FOR THIS POST) AFK: Attack, Fight, Kill! The healer is telling you to go pull mobs. WTF: Way To Fight! The healer is applauding your tactical genius. OOM: Out Of Mobs, go pull more. "Being around you makes me feel nicer [by comparison]." -Valaheea "You can't use math to determine (your) spec." - Vomit of Ursin, on rogue class mechanics
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Isadoriana
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I knew it. It was Neely, Nove, and Ellisande's fault. The only way that a player was able to bring the disease outside of Zul'Gurub was by allowing a pet to get the debuff, dismissing the pet in less than five seconds, then summoning it in a populated area. (When dismissed, the pet retains the debuff and the timer of the debuff is paused.) -- "If we ever get a dog and cat, they should be named "Come-on" and "Goddammit", so that when you yell "Come on, Goddammit!" you'll be surrounded by their love." -Locklear (paraphrased) "You navigate like a blind chick." -Locklear www.twitter.com/peligrie
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Isadoriana
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Posted: 5855 days ago
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Edited: 5855 days ago
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World of Warcraft and the potential for a real zombie MMO
Ron Hogan
A zombie outbreak on World Of Warcraft? Ron couldn't get there fast enough...
I've had my issues with certain MMORPG games, and despite everyone's claims that I am a Blizzard fan boy, I recently bought and enjoy the new Warhammer Online. I'll write about that particular torrid affair at a later date, but suffice it to say I was off being a Dwarf in a never-ending war when I saw a little note from a friend. Here's what it said:
"You need to get back on WoW, there's a zombie outbreak."
I goggled at the email a bit, and wrote back with questions. I couldn't wait for that answer, though. I ran off to the Internet and discovered that yes, Virginia, there were zombies and that those zombies were World of Warcraft players who were getting infected, turning, and infecting/attacking other players. This wasn't some limited event where only players in a certain zone could become zombies, or you could only be a zombie once or for a limited amount of time.
No, this was Romero-level, 1970's Italian, Army of Darkness medieval fantasy zombie carnage designed to promote the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion.
Players from the two factions that put the "war" in "Warcraft," the Horde and the Alliance, cannot communicate with one another. They don't share the same cities (Shattrath aside) and only meet on the field of combat or in passing. If I have an issue with someone, or need to speak with someone playing on the other side, I have to log out of my current character (or toon in the parlance of the game) and log in to a character in the other side of the war.
These rules don't matter when you're a zombie. Players from the Horde and Alliance dropped their rivalries and came together for one purpose while under the sway of the Lich King: destruction. Major cities became ghost towns as zombies rampaged through the streets, killing everything and everyone in their way. Players banded together to fight off the zombie menage, dropping longstanding class warfare issues for survival. It was complete and utter madness.
I loved every single minute of it. When I was a zombie, my goal was to infect as many people as possible. When I was my normal character (a paladin-holy warriors that use the power of the Light to combat the forces of evil and who have multiple skills useful only against the undead), my goal was to get out there and slaughter as many zombies as I could before the disease took me. I have never had as much fun playing WoW as I did in the week-long event in which zombies ran rampant throughout Azeroth. In the week after the zombie plague was cured, certain zones still come under attack from non-player zombies, though players can't become zombies anymore.
I've played WoW for two years and the zombie outbreak is the first time I've ever really felt immersed in the world. You never knew what was going to happen when you logged in. Would things be fine, and you could quest and do Hallows' End events like normal, or would you log in to find the capital cities of the world overrun by brain-hungry corpses? For the first time in a genre that depends solely on scripted events, where characters pace the same paths and spout the same meaningless dialog, there was some legitimate excitement and, dare I say it, danger!
Certainly the unpredictable nature of the event coupled with WoW's massive player base created a lot of the fun of the zombies for me (as did the fact that Blizzard has completely changed how my favorite class operates while finally giving me a reason to use all those cool anti-zombie powers paladins have). It begs the question, given the amount of zombie fans out there and the dearth of good non-fantasy MMORPGs, could a zombie-world online game work?
Maybe it's the zombie fanatic in me, but I think it totally could work.
I don't think Romero's name has the cachet it once did to sell this sort of thing, but the Resident Evil series does. Make it console and computer compatible, so players on the PS3 and Xbox 360 work alongside the serious MMO gamer and get the biggest install base possible. For instances and raids, change the settings to familiar tropes, like a housing project full of zombies or a shopping mall. For raid bosses, perhaps have some more powerful zombies or larger groups of zombies. As characters level up and progress, the leveling zones can go from a deserted farmland environment to a densely-packed city (or cities) where players have a modicum of protection from the outside world, but have to travel through subterranean tunnels to enter and exit.
I think the mechanics of a MMORPG, like solo players versus groups, player versus player settings where guilds or gangs compete for the same resources (or giving people the option to play zombies in PVP like Lord of the Rings Online does), and all the rest of the things we deal with in our games can work in any setting with a little adaptation, but I think the unique world of the zombie apocalypse is one of the best suited for the MMORPG play style. There are enough elements at play in that game world to provide a rich, full experience of point and click killing, mindlessly grinding reputation with various factions, and praying for cool loot drops.
Make this happen, game design geniuses. I want guns and bats and bullets in the brain. I want to mow down corpses with machine guns. I want to raid decaying cities and team up with ten of my closest friends for some undead-smashing action! I think I'm not alone in this, either.
US correspondent Ron Hogan has abandoned Warhammer Online for his first love, World of Warcraft. Find more by Ron at his blog, Subtle Bluntness and daily at Shaktronics and PopFi .
Source: http://www.denofgeek.com/games/139971/world_of_warcraft_and_the_potential_for_a_real_zombie_mmo.htmlI post this for the Nove and Neely's of WoW, who want the Zombie invasion to come back... -- "If we ever get a dog and cat, they should be named "Come-on" and "Goddammit", so that when you yell "Come on, Goddammit!" you'll be surrounded by their love." -Locklear (paraphrased) "You navigate like a blind chick." -Locklear www.twitter.com/peligrie
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