Lack of Interactivity - My Rant

've read dozens of posts concerning the reasons why Blizzard cannot incorporate World Events. Yes, some are valid, but most are utter bull. I just read one by Caydiem:

Acrofales, I'm the one who made the end of Beta event. Those infernals, those demons? All planned out by me.

That was a special case. Everyone enjoyed the "forced" event because no one cared. It was the end of Beta. These characters were being deleted the next day. GMs weren't taking tickets -- they were watching the action, spawning in mobs occasionally to keep people interested.

And yeah, it was fun for a lot of people. But that's not something we can duplicate right now (certainly not the way it was done in Beta, anyway). And it's not something we want to duplicate. These characters we're playing aren't going to be deleted the next day. Repair costs matter. Time matters. I understand that you feel it was fun, and I understand that you, personally, wouldn't mind it now... but I hope that, as I'm the person who made the encounter, you'll take my word for it when I say it's not the best thing to do at this point due to the factors I've mentioned in this thread.

As for the suggestion of hitting Thunder Bluff and Darnassus with bug invasions, not only are those two cities the most impractical to hit with Silithid lore-wise, but it's still forcing it on people. No, our general outlook at this time is that we're not forcing you to participate. You can if you like, but if you don't want to, you're not shoved into the action anyway. I don't think that's changing.

Now, Queptar!

Hah, Queptar, my friend, I know how human actors in these games work all too well. And because of that, I can tell you that with the number of realms we have, there is no way we could deliver content on a wide-reaching and high-quality scale with human actors at this point without the cost being astronomical (folks, I continue to make the point that this isn't about money, and in this case too it's primarily about quality. The business practicality does step in, however, since it's regarding personnel. Read on).

Here's the dilemma.

When you have a small number of available servers -- say you can count them on your hands -- employed actors are certainly an option. You can cover the ground you need to cover in a reasonable timeframe. Because your actors are employed by the company, you have strict control over the quality of their work, and the result can be a wonderful and engrossing experience.

When you have "dozens" of servers, depending on the number, you can probably field them with volunteer actors -- at this point, employed actors aren't remotely cost-effective for the impact they'll have -- but you can't control the quality as strictly. This results in a lot more human error and lore mistakes that are taken as canon.

When you have hundreds of realms worldwide, as we do, even volunteers (which we don't wish to use in this capacity for a number of reasons. Research volunteers for past games if you're curious) become difficult -- the sheer number you'd need to properly field these realms (and understand I'm talking a small crew covering several realms on a schedule, not a small crew to every realm) is insane. Your quality control tanks unless they're employees, and for the impact human actors make, it's just not worth it.

Now, myself, as a player? I love that human interaction. The idea of speaking to a famous NPC and having them respond to me in a human way is very immersive, and can definitely bring more players into the story. I understand well the merits of such a program, as they're something that interest me. But at the same time, human actors simply are not feasible with our model.

I've already covered the arguments regarding the Thrall event a few pages back, folks...

And as for a video, that's definitely a possibility, but only a while after the fact. The vast majority of realms have yet to unlock the gates, and we don't want to spoil it for them. ;)

EDIT: It appears now that this thread is broken. Thank you all for the conversation!

First, she talks about how the end of beta event was planned by her. I was there. It was just big bosses spawning at every major city. Big deal - I'm sure any GM with power to spawn units could have done the same. There was no lore behind the attack - just random huge demons and boss units spawning in Orgrimmar from what I remember.

Second, she talks about repair costs. This is a video game. Repair costs are put in to make sure the world economy doesn't inflate and turn it into Diablo where money is worth nothing. WoW does a fairly good job - gold has value still. Now, I don't care if everyone on the server gets repair costs, if an invasion comes and they die - they can choose to resurrect and run away for all I care. If this is supposed to be a persistent world, and we are supposed to be immersed in it (which is shown always by GM's changing names to keep Azeroth "authentic") then an invasion should be a realistic thing.

What happens in real-life when a country gets invaded? The civilians say - "Hey, I don't wanna be involved, get out of here!"? No. Obviously that's real life and this is a game, but it's WARCRAFT - WAR. Where's the war? This War Effort is the first real War I've seen. Upon a certain event Silithid should be hitting every major city and/or town.

When people come into the game, they shouldn't always be in control of every element. There should be unpredictability; an element of surprise should be present. Is it? No. All we see is the same boring things - an endless PvP grind where 14 hours a day is required to compete. A PvE system which was interesting at one point, but now Molten Core has turned into a 3-hour routine for most guilds. Now we also have Blackwing Lair, the next step in the 40-man raiding. Only a matter of weeks before guilds mastered this one too, and now we just have leet guilds farming both instances for items so they can eventually get to Ahn'Qiraj. Blizzard just keeps making higher tiered items so you can hit the next raid instance. No purpose to items.

Those who reap rewards should be the ones helping to fight for their side. Why do I not see Horde sending small attack waves to Lakeshire in Redridge (according to quest lines, they are at war with Orcs)? Why isn't Duskwood attacked at any point during the night (yes its always night there but during the night hours)? The idealism of PvP/PvE servers remains fine in my opinion - world PvP enabled all the time and the other type it's a choice to turn it on.

Looking back at Caydiem's comments, she brings up Lore. With so many damn Sithilid in Sithilus, they could take down Orgrimmar, or Thunder Bluff with a well-coordinated attack. That's why PCs (Player characters) should be making the difference to tip the tides of war in the favor of their side. Now, when Blizzard saw the obvious rivalry in Hillsbrad, why didn't they build on it? Make a control point somewhere between the cities and involve some siege units. Have a small war going on in the zone and change the questing to fit this small war, like an open-zone battleground, or even make Hillsbrad an instanced zone that can only fit, say, 80-100 people at once, in the level range of the quests.

Something Blizzard, something. Yet, we get the same old boring play. This is why I quit my decked out level 60 Rogue. Boredom. I had good items, I was ranked 10 and top 100 on my server, with a good chance to go even higher but I stopped. I was wasting my nights from 9 PM to 3 AM raiding BWL and learning the instance and also running MC once a week for more items, and in my free time during the day farming the battlegrounds for honor. Why? It wasn't fun, wasn't rewarding, just a grind.

Make something fun - something to work for. Not everything has to be a grind for a reward. I guarantee you the Hillsbrad battleground that awards ZERO honor and ZERO reputation and ZERO rewards would still garner more fun for the level 30-40's in the zone then any amount of people in Arathi Basin, Alterac Valley or Warsong Gulch (which are all fine places, very fun, but get old).

I was extremely pleased with Blizzard's success but now I refuse to give them my money. I am playing on a friend's account now that he pays for and plays sometimes, and I am going to sell my account. I've made my decision - WoW is Blizzard quality only level 1-60. Past that, it's just a grind. No matter where you go. No wonder so many people have so many alts.