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World of Warcraft is Infectious
ringbarer writes "News is coming in that the lands of Azeroth have become infected with a deadly plague which the developers never intended to spread. Originating from the new Zul'Gurub instance, the plague has spread from player to player via town NPCs. Entire cities are being wiped out, yet players are finding this surprise content entertaining!" From the article: " Some servers have gotten so bad that you can't go into the major cities without getting the plague (and anyone less than like level 50 nearly immediately die). GM's even tried quarantining players in certain areas, but the players kept escaping the quarantine and infect other players." Commentary on Terra Nova.
Sounds like a return of a Sims add-in for a pet gerbil.
c gi?entry_id=179
It was downloaded from TheSims.com, and it could infect players, which could infect other players, etc.
Some linkage on the item:
http://www.alexjacobson.com/cgi-bin/mt-comments2.
This was unintentional? We had no idea on our server and assumed it was something Blizz had added to add some depth to the game. It was actually quite amusing to watch it spread as people attempted to go about their business between the bank and auction house in Ironforge.
Well, now WoW finally has taken indiscriminate PK to a whole new level with your body itself as the weapon. Question is, would those be honorable or non-honorable kills for every person you spread the disease to (disregarding the rollback)?
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This is absolutely great. This is an element of gameplay that even if unintended (which I'm not so sure about) can have far-reaching consequences.
Why shouldn't MMORPG characters get sick? Maybe once you're exposed and recover from a certain illness, you have immunity. Maybe this immunity will be helpful in a later instance.
I would love for more MMORPGs to release world-affecting things like this into the game. It might be hard to balance, but I think this is fantastic.
One of the reasons gameplay in MMORPGs gets boring is that typically, the world never changes except for the addition of new material.
Give me the four horsemen of the apocalypse any day!
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
The Romans used to fling diseased corpses into the towns that they were laying siege to, and not surprisingly the tactic worked quite well. But can you fling a player into a town in WoW?
Monstar L
Real plagues also affect everyone more or less the same. The world's greatest warrior isn't going to succumb 70,000x slower than some CPA or McDonald's cashier. Only natural variation in your immune system would offer a difference, and because extreme physical exercise actually weakens your immune system, the level 12 billion warrior would likely die more quickly than the CPA.
Of course, expecting a plague to affect everyone equally in a MMORPG is like expecting a fireball to burn everybody without armor equally.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Bleh, I had the same problem on the MUD I was coding in 92. I should have patented it.
I think we all know who is to blame. LEEEEROOOOOY JHEEEKIIINS!!!!!!!!
I'm not scared of anonymous cowards.
It's not a bug, it's a feature!
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