The WoW game remains the most popular role-playing MMORPG in the world for many years, which is confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records. For more than ten years she has been holding and not letting go of her fans. During this time, the developers have released many add-ons, but not one of them can compete with the most unpredictable and interesting event in the history of VoB - Zombie Plague. This addition will be discussed later.
Background
It all started on October 22, 2008. Agents of the Silver Dawn order arrived in the glorious cities of Ogrimmar and Stormwind with terrible news: the Lich King Ner'zhul wants to demonstrate to his enemies that he has returned, and this absolutely must not be allowed. This Boss, living in the Icecrown Citadel , can telepathically control his army of the walking dead, sweeping away everything in its path. Ner'zhul, a prisoner in his ice throne, created a virus of a strange plague, after infection of which people turn into submissive zombies. Together with Dalaran, recruited by the human magician, he creates the Scourge - the most powerful fraction of the undead - and with its help he dreams of destroying the world of people.
At first, none of the players attached particular importance to this threat, because the Lich King had previously made an attempt to conquer the world, but it was defeated. And no one imagined what this new Scourge invasion of the World of War would turn into. The plague has not yet begun, but the players froze in anticipation of new adventures.
The beginning of the apocalypse
It all started quite harmlessly. Players began to find strange boxes in Pirate Bay, and anyone who dared to open them was infected with a strange infection. A debuff appeared, and a timer counted down 10 minutes. If during this time the player did not use a special spell or did not take the antidote, then death awaited him. And of course, a strange life after death in the guise of a zombie. On the second day of infection, strange boxes began to appear in other major cities of the VoB universe. The plague was gaining momentum - now the plague cockroaches also carried danger, from which it was also easy to get infected. The epidemic grew stronger and took on large-scale turns. Now you had half the time to recover, and the disease itself was difficult to cure. But playing has become much more interesting.
World pandemic
It was the third day of infection - the epidemic progressed. In areas of low-level locations, NPC zombies began to appear, which attacked everyone they saw. When injured from such an opponent, the player also became infected with the disease, but now he had only two minutes left to recover. The whole day passed in a battle with these mobs, which were gaining more and more power and becoming smarter and more agile. In the evening, the Scourge turned to its full potential, and many players realized that dealing with the infection would not be so easy.
Tears, pain and complete delight
You can understand what was happening at that moment if you read the comments of some users. “My friend and I just managed to finish our business in Outland, when something incredible began to happen. My friend and I have already reached level 70 and decided to go to Stormwind. And then everything was like in a movie. The chat was torn from messages like: “What the hell is going on ???”, “What kind of plague is this - zombies ???”, “SOS, help is needed to protect the bridge, a wave of zombies is coming”.
Having bought several things, my friend and I rushed to help. Oh, it was a fierce battle. We were expected as marines in the movie Alien. Everything looked exactly as it should be in the best films about zombie apocalypse. The line of defenders gradually receded, many were infected. At first we managed to restrain the enemy near the gate, then we retreated to the bridge, into the tunnel, and in the end everyone got infected. Pouring into the crowd of the dead, we entered Stormwind. Everything seemed crazy, and so many tears I had not seen before. I would love to participate in such a venture again. ”
What brought the plague?
Many moments of patch 1.11 were carried over to the new Scourge invasion of WoW cities: items, quests, bonus bosses, dungeons, rewards. For example, one could meet Prince Tenris Cloudy Blood. You could find him in Karzhan. A rare loot fell from this boss: bat bat (a rare pet) and Arkonitovy reaper - one of the best, according to users, not legendary weapons in WoW. These things can now be purchased only from players at the black auction.
Culmination of the epidemic
Like the past invasion, flying ziggurats contributed to the spread of the epidemic on the continent. New WoW characters appeared, thanks to which the disease spread. Plague rats were given the opportunity to infect city guards who reached level 70, and it was quite difficult to kill them. There were fewer and fewer Veda able to help cure the plague, which made it difficult to find antidotes.
The third day can be called a turning point, because until that moment it seemed to everyone that the epidemic was just a funny situation. Some players sided with the Scourge and started happily infecting other users because it was insanely fun. Others, on the contrary, did their best to prevent the spread of infection for the same reason. But by the evening of the third day, the epidemic brought to its knees absolutely all the key locations of the WoW world. Quests are postponed until better times, all the forces go only to fight the disease.
Zombies are power
Of course, the epidemic has provided many new tools for fun. Players who help spread the infection have organized special raids that bring even more chaos to the world. In the role of zombies, users got new opportunities, and it became much more difficult to overcome them. Unique abilities:
- Mutilation. This ability reduced enemy armor, and the debuff stacked. Also, the target infection timer for each use, along with the “Take” passive, was reduced by 15 seconds. A single target had no chance against large groups of zombies, so in just a few moments the undead army replenished.
- Bueee. An excellent skill that helps slow down the target, heals all friendly zombies around, which is very useful, because the plague takes small portions of HP every second.
- Attracting howl is a spell that helps to group all the NPCs turned into zombies. A very useful skill, because the converts for a long time stood in one place.
- Yum - an ability that works on the principle of PvP-trinkets, and also increases the speed of movement by 100%. This skill did not introduce an imbalance, because the usual zombie speed reaches 50%.
- Explosion of zombies. When using this skill, a dead man exploded, but infects everyone in the affected area.
Such skills made the walking undead a powerful force, thanks to which the plague became more widespread. Zombies have become a real threat to any user. It was impossible to hide from them. Even a small group, which constantly debuffed, slowed down the enemy and healed themselves, was a danger from which it was difficult to escape.
Playing for the dead was incredibly fun, and the diversity and ability of the skills brought tactical depth to the collective infection. An excellently selected and coordinated group of zombies could quickly and easily slaughter any metropolitan city. Another advantage was the ability to use any portal, even if the city belonged to an enemy faction. Many players were delighted with this: “Me and two of my friends were having whole fights in Ogre. One of us burst into any crowded place, be it a bank or an auction, and blew himself up, infecting everyone around. Then the others ran in and bit non-stop all those whom they could reach. And under the influence of a debuff, infection occurred after one bite. What happened next is clear. It’s a pity that everything ended so quickly. ”
Fighting against the crowds of the dead was no less fun, the main thing is to pick up strong weapons. WoW gave users a unique opportunity to feel like a fighter against global evil. Despite the fact that a close-knit team of defenders could withstand the waves of zombies for a long time, still the forces were unequal.
Truthfulness of the situation
People began to lose ground. Important venders were dying one by one, and the cities were empty. The few survivors in this meat grinder saw in front of them only abandoned deserted streets and mountains of corpses, both recumbent and walking. The entire world economy was completely paralyzed, because all auctions became places of mass graves. All who remained alive and not infected, strayed into numerous groups. Keeping their weapons ready, players tried to survive far away from densely populated areas.
The atmosphere of this event makes a huge impression, it was so authentic. Ubiquitous hell felt exactly what it would be in a real zombie apocalypse. Large and small incidents led to total chaos. Left4Dead seemed like childish fun. The fourth day brought even more destruction to the world of WoW. The levels of zombies have increased, they have received amplification, and it became even harder to kill them. The disease could only be cured within a minute after infection. The plague larvae did not stop the attack on the city guard. The world was rapidly rolling into the thick of it.
User outrage
But many players did not find this event so much fun. The main reason for the outrage of fans was that the user was very dependent on the game world and on NPCs, which were not as strong as it turned out. For example, a player has run out of reagents necessary for the portal to work, and the seller of these reagents is dead, so teleporting will not work. If you want to go to the BG, then you need to talk with the master of the arena. But if he is dead, then there’s no one to talk to. The fact that the NPC could get the plague, while the player was in the arena, added piquancy. You contemplate the loading screen and at the same time get your dose of infection. And all because you teleport back to the place where you were called up to the arena, that is, directly to the hungry zombies.
There would be less disturbance if the plague did not come to the cities at the same time as the Halloween event. Their joint release brought even more frustration for WoW fans. Quests are impossible to complete because of the crowds of the dead, and accordingly, you cannot get all the rewards and achievements of this event.
End of the epidemic
If such an apocalypse had occurred at the present time, it would not have produced such a grandiose effect. In recent updates, players have received much more independence than it was in those days in the WoW universe. A cheat protecting against the attacks of the dead did not help, and there was no possibility of flying at that time. So there was no way to take and escape from the epidemic. Now you can sit on a mount and fly away from the land, teeming with hordes of zombies. There was no such possibility at that time. So some missions were impossible, which caused a protest from most users. But it was precisely on this, most likely, that the developers were counting, never before had the players had such a fierce desire to put the torture death of the Lich King. We can say that the mission of the event was completed with interest.
The fifth day of infection brought new quests, the horde began to attempt to create a vaccine against the plague, and the Alliance began to develop new weapons to bring down flying ziggurats. The sixth day brought victory over the infection. Adherents of the Silver Dawn found a cure and stopped the apocalypse in the world of "WoW". The plague was defeated, but the memory of it will forever remain in the hearts of fans.
Unprecedented success
The plague epidemic has attracted great attention from the press in the Blizzard studio, including one that has nothing to do with the gaming industry. All this information noise helped to significantly increase the WoW rating and collect the maximum number of subscribers during the WotLK. It is because of the unpredictability and originality of the idea of the plague that the majority of players express their dissatisfaction with the pre-match event “Iron Horde Invasion”. After all, the zombie apocalypse has set a fairly high bar, which will be difficult to compete with any new update.
For several days, the game turned into a brand new WoW. The versions put forward on user forums added even more acuteness to the sensations. So, according to one of them, the developers themselves can not cope with the plague epidemic due to miscalculations and programming errors. And how long it will last, no one knows. The event was remembered for not being like any of the earlier versions. The players liked this uncertainty, because no one knew what would happen next.
Another advantage of the epidemic was the ability to choose the side in the conflict. The player had to decide whether he would seek funds from infection or take the side of the walking dead. Users could gather in raids and conquer cities from the undead, or, conversely, devastate everything in its path. Whatever side the player took, he still got invaluable experience and a huge portion of fun if he wanted to participate in this event. Blizzard can repeat something similar at any time, but the question arises: will it be possible to create something that will surpass the zombie apocalypse included in the annals of WoW history?