Zombie Infestation = Corrupted Blood 2.0
iTZKooPA on Friday, October 24, 2008 - 37 Comments Tags: blizzard poster, cdc, corrupted blood 2.0, corrutped blood, diseases, lich king, lich king world event, plague, world event 
Remember that small issue Blizzard had with Zul'Gurub a few years ago? You know the one I am talking about. It revolved around one of Hakkar The Soulflayer's abillities, Corrupted Blood. The ability was harmless to most high level players, causing a direct hit of 875-1125 shadow damage plus 200 damage a second after that. It wasn't until someone managed to hearth to a major city with the debuff that the problems started. To lower level players and players not paying attention, the DOT could easily kill them, while spreading further.
Many servers were absolutely destroyed by the bug, with Blizzard running around to try and repair the damage. After the mess was finally cleaned up, the academics that focus on video games and/or contagious diseases became interested in the topic. Numerous academic outlets, including the Center for Disease Control (CDC), requested the data with hopes of using it as a model for real world research. A devastating bug in a video game may turn out to be good after all.
I am shocked and dismayed that so few people have put that little issue together with the current World Event going on in World of Warcraft. To me the events occurring now are clearly designed based on the accidental Corrupted Blood plague. For those of you who may not have noticed, various places in Azeroth have been delivered a package by someone, Booty Bay is considered to be the first. The packages began arriving hours after the Argent Dawn setup posts in all the major cities, warning all the citizens that the Lich King was coming. Oh, and said packages corrupt those around them with You're Infected!
There are slight differences between the Corrupted Blood issue and the Lich King World Event though. Those differences are easily attributed to that fact that the designers did this event on purpose. The You're Infected! debuff does no damage, it will simply turn you into an undead zombie should the timer run out. Getting hit by the zombie ability Mangle, will reduce your timer by a full minute, so mind those who hunger for brains. As of press time, most of the continent of Kalimdor on my server has been whipped clean of NPCs, cities and mobs.
I believe that Blizzard Poster Kisirani's statements lead credibility to my thoughts. When a poster said that the plague was to easy to avoid – Argent Healers, Priests, Paladins and Shamans can dispell it – Kisirani quipped “It certainly does seem containable, doesn't it? :)” Seems like a dead reference to how “easy” it should have been to contain Corrupted Blood. On the flip side, the crates have been appearing in more locations, as well as an introduction infected critters, such as roaches. Making it easier for the zombies to lay waste to Azeroth.
So what are you guys doing? Plundering your homelands while having fun conversing with the opposing faction through zombie chat or are you defending your castle? Perhaps you are trying to find out exactly who is behind this mess? Or are you still stuck on farming those Hallow's End items?
Reader Comments (37)
I had fun today. Rezzed about 50 times, lost my precious 5g on equipment repairs. My infection to zombie timer was 30 seconds. As for hunters having an advantage -- I fired on a plague roach at max range (I'm lvl 37) and became infected.
I pay a subscription fee to play a game not spend 90% of my time in wisp form because zombies have overrun all the safe zones.
Yeah, I'm lovin' the Zombie Plague thing -- boo Blizzard!
This event is great =D lvling isnt too hard... a lil bit annoying when the NPC is dead i find its mainly the Cities getting the most badly hit.. so quest hubs going largely unhit XD
first day on my server it was already kicking about most of the major cities i think it took 2 hours for like 20 zombies to make it to iron forge and now its really quick to get infected...
now its Kind of '28 days later' ish running away from a swarm of angry Zombie /lurching around the streets of SW...
im currently standing on so man corpses i cant see the floor outside the AH...
also i dunno if you get zombied quicker if you get re-infected... i been stood curing and healing myself then like 3rd infection and i'm zombied...
definately a fun and exciting build up... but agree that Low levels are pretty much screwed >_>
Success Rates for Paladin Cleansing is not 100%. I had to cleanse (Purify) 3 or 4 times on myself to get rid of it, and afterwards I found i could not always cure higher level infected people, I am lvl 49.
It is annoying but strangely compelling and I did notice the relation to the ZG blood corruption.
This could be a goverment experiment request to assess the effects of a virulent strain on a populous. THEY are watching you. ;P
I love this thing. However, I'm getting sick of my entire server bitching about it in trade chat. I got into a huge argument with an officer of my guild about it. I dont see the big issue. Mostly its the big cities getting hit, and the only time the lowbies get hit is when they wander around Org.. (which is their fault anyways, they should be out levelling) For 70's to bitch, its kinda pointless. theres plenty of things for them to do. And seriously.... Just relax and have fun
I was pissed at first because the zombies can lock the pvp gear hut and you can't open it unless your a zombie...sad...
I find this event to be a P.I.T.A. there have been several times when I went to go train my inscription up and they were all dead, or went to go get the PvP daily and everyone was dead so I couldn't even enter a BG.
Now as a Pally I try to cure pretty much anyone I see with it on, but my cures are not effective and they seem to be getting less and less effective as this thing goes on. I couldn't even get it off myself once and got zombified. I just hope this "event" doesn't last for the whole time until the Expansion comes out... thats TOO long!
Im fairly indifferent about it. Ya, Ive been turned once or twice, but its not big deal. Im not lvling an alt right now, cuz I could see how that could be frusterating. But Ive been able to go to do HH with my toons and stay clear of all the mayhem on my flyer in Shatt. I just wish people would stop bitching about it in trade. Its a world event, people, have some fun. It will be over in a few weeks.
Honestly I thought it was kind of funny at first. However it is becoming an annoyance. I have trouble getting into BG's because the battlemasters are all dead. Sometimes I log on, see there is nothing to do and log off. I should be seeing the overall picture and how this will all make sense in the long run, but all I can think is that I can't get myself that 25000 axe for my op ret paladin because the zombies have ganked the bg masters.
It is going to be very interesting to see where this goes cause the plauge is down to less than a minute for infection. It does suck though cause like everyone else i have ran around as a zombie, but like alot of people now I just want it over with but it will probally stay untill LK
it was fun at first... now its annoying.
this gets annoying when the auctioneers get killed during a transaction. grr!
watch blizzard put a stop to it.... ONLY if you get wrath of lich king. would be awesome marketing!
i had to listen to half the server of The Scryers piss and moan about the event. whining that they were going to quit WoW and all that jazz.
but, personally, i loved it. sure it sucked trying to buy stuff int he AH only to have the auctioneer turn into a zombie and start swiping at you was kinda annoying but the whole ordeal helped me finish the southshore daily that was going on.
Horde wasnt dropping stink bombs so we got a little group together, got us all infected, and raided Tarren Mills. sure enough, after about half an hour, they were piling in to Southshore.
win/win