Poster: Ultimus at 4/28/2005 3:05:39 PM PDT
Subject: Hi Caydiem a question |
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Are there still plans for dynamic GM events in World of Warcraft? For instance, if you played Everquest you may be familiar with events such as the invasion of Split Paw by the Gnolls. Another example would be the changing of Kithicor Forest by Lanys the daughter of Innoruuk.
Is WOW planning such events as these further down the road?
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Poster: Caydiem at 4/28/2005 3:08:33 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Hi Caydiem a question |
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I don't believe there are current plans for live, Blizzard-employed actors in game, no. We still do plan to have events similar to the scripted ones taking place already.
- Caydiem -
Assistant Community Manager
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=2873743&p=#post2873806 |
Poster: Caydiem at 4/28/2005 3:48:58 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Hi Caydiem a question |
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Folks, let me explain why it's a bigger deal than one might think. I'm experienced in such matters and know quite a bit about how such events have worked in the past... logistically it's very difficult to pull off well.
We have about 100 live realms at this time. Now, that's a lot to cover. Ideally you would like an event to go off roughly at the same time to prevent spoilers and overcrowding. (If an event happened later on certain realms, most players would already know about it and rush it, causing load issues; when it happens simultaneously, this is much less of a problem.) Assuming you are only using one actor in the event -- only one -- you must staff that across 100 realms. That's one hundred people just doing an event.
Due to legal issues and management concerns, we do not use volunteers, so they would have to be employees. Again, ideally, you would prefer people who would be able to improvise and respond in-character to the questions of players; when an event is nothing more than a numbered script with no interaction, that is neither fun nor engaging. The number of people able to do this while keeping to the lore and being able to type quickly and accurately is not as high as one might think; and of course, in doing these events, you do not want to take away from the support staff at any time.
I understand the desire to see these, I do. I enjoy them greatly myself. But the logistics of doing such right now simply are not feasible currently.
- Caydiem -
Assistant Community Manager
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=2873743&p=#post2874563 |
Poster: Caydiem at 4/28/2005 4:03:07 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Hi Caydiem a question |
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Q u o t e:
I'm not saying your incorrect here Cay.
Granted there are alot of logistical issues in arranging such things and given the size of the realm base it then just makes it larger x 100.
But why do they need to be run at the same time ? And why do they need to be the same event ?
Evil dragons lead by Eyonix on 20 realms who only kill warlocks (cause he ahtes them).
Another 20 Realms are invaded by fangtooth's minions etc etc .
I guess the problem nowdays is that there are so many whining children around in the MMO community that they cant stand that THEY didnt get WHAT EEVERYONE ELSE DID.
Suppose they/we only have ourselves to blame for missing out on such things nowdays.
*drifts off to Reminisce about times when MMO's had no boundaries and much less whiners*
You put your finger on it -- favoritism. We would need to show all realms as equal attention as possible, especially if there was a reward of some kind.
- Caydiem -
Assistant Community Manager
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=2873743&p=#post2874822 |
Poster: Caydiem at 4/28/2005 4:08:26 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Hi Caydiem a question |
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I explained why in my third post, Selga.
It would be nice, ideally, but the cries of favoritism would be dire. Everyone pays for the same game, after all.
- Caydiem -
Assistant Community Manager
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=2873743&p=#post2874905 |
Poster: Caydiem at 4/28/2005 4:09:45 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Hi Caydiem a question |
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I organized the End of Beta event. I know what goes into such things, but remember how few realms we had then. ;)
- Caydiem -
Assistant Community Manager
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=2873743&p=#post2874932 |
Poster: Caydiem at 4/28/2005 4:21:31 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Hi Caydiem a question |
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Q u o t e:
But cay the best part about these types of events is that they're not advertised. Blizzard can totally not even say, "Hey Chris is going to do blah blah event at 5pm on realm x" He can just kinda do it, or the GM can just spawn something.
The magic about these is that, they are totally random. And rumors spread around the player community, and people get all excited and want to play more hopeing that one day they will get to participate.
I mean, this is better than being a jedi!
Trust me, Selga, I understand these events.
I'm not talking about beforehand. I'm talking about after the fact. Someone inevitably posts about it, and then other realms are up in arms because they've not seen anything to that extent. You have to be very careful with this sort of thing. Yes, some people get excited too, but that excitement can fade into frustration if they never see an event on their own realm.
It's a touchy situation.
- Caydiem -
Assistant Community Manager
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=2873743&p=#post2875147 |
Poster: Caydiem at 4/28/2005 9:04:46 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Hi Caydiem a question |
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Phalon, what makes these events special is being part of something as a player. Linking them -- which I'm not sure is even possible -- would make it completely impossible to react to what players are doing on a given realm. Whether text or voice, it would take away from what makes events like this unique.
And we are not merging realms into three huge worlds at any time. There are technical limitations. (To give you an idea, Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, and Instances are all their own server per realm already.) It would not make for a much more stable environment; the opposite is true.
- Caydiem -
Assistant Community Manager
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=2873743&p=#post2878963 |
Poster: Caydiem at 4/28/2005 9:13:02 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Hi Caydiem a question |
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Oh, I'm not denying there's a way, Coogee, but if we do anything like this at all we want to do it right, and in any regard it requires staff that happens to be dedicated to other things.
- Caydiem -
Assistant Community Manager
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| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=2873743&p=#post2879058 |
