• Developer Time vs. Player Time; the Repeatable Content Factor. Any sort of event like this takes time to create and execute. No company has infinite resources, and it's important that the talented staff work on projects that will make best use of their time. When working on a persistent world such as World of Warcraft, where no one actually finishes the game, repeatable content is a must. Players, by nature, devour content far faster than it can be implemented. Therefore, repeatable content is key. Dungeons are an example of this. Battlegrounds are another. They're features that are used by players over and over again.
  
  Now, world-changing events tend to be one-time happenings that may take a month to create but only two days to occur for players. The question comes into play... which is better? A one-time event with all the bells and whistles, or a new dungeon? Which would best utilize the developers' time? The answer, more often than not, turns out to be the one that pertains to repeatable content.
  
  
• Dynamic vs. Scripted; the Manpower Factor. The question then comes into play... all right, if you'd rather have the developers work on repeatable content, why not hire people specifically for world events? As someone who has done precisely that job for two other games in this genre, again, I'm fairly knowledgeable regarding the pros and cons.
  
  Let me define a term before I delve deeper: "dynamic event", in this case, is a term for a world event run and executed by actors in the world playing the NPCs or controlling the monsters in some fashion.
  
  Now, developers implementing world events are more akin to actual, coded game interactions -- true NPCs and scripted occurrences patched in. Since that takes more time to create and test than players take to exhaust it, naturally the next progression is to consider a troupe of dedicated actors and strategists to do these events on the fly, without need for developer support. There are many problems inherent with this setup as well, however. First, you need to make certain you have the right people. The individuals need to be fast and efficient typists with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of game lore. They also must be trustworthy enough to be given tools that could cause any number of cancellations if abused to the fullest. Once you start hiring these folks, keep going -- you'll need enough to effectively man over 100 realms. And that's only in the North American offices -- the international teams would naturally need their own dedicated crew.
  
  The number of realms is a clear detriment to this style of event. Now let's say you want to run a dynamic event. Ideally, you want the event to occur at the same time. Internationally. Staggering times is an alternative, but unfortunately brings with it spoilers and potential technical problems that will affect everyone on the realm regardless of whether or not they're participating (I'll get into this later). So it's a simultaneous event. You therefore need at least one person per realm if it's a simple event -- that's 100 employees dedicated to this alone. If it's an extremely simple event you may be able to pull it off by two-boxing, but 50 is still not an insignificant number.
  
  The problem is that the overall effect on the game is very small in the long run; most people probably won't even know the event occurred, regardless of what sort of in-game or out-of-game messaging used prior (to a point -- again, I'll cover this later). The cost, ergo, to maintain such a force of actors is not worth it. GMs couldn't do it -- they need to be focused on supporting players in-game. There is never a slow time for them.
  
  Ahhh, but volunteers could do it, you think. This comes with its own serious issues as well. Volunteers are long-distance and extremely hard to manage -- coordinating one hundred of them to execute an event is nigh-impossible. Inevitably something comes up. Also, maintaining the quality of the event is much more difficult when you cannot manage them as intricately. (I wish I could share the stories. :P ) Lastly, giving that kind of power to someone with very little accountability in the long run is a truly dangerous risk. And overall, again, this sort of thing does not have much impact unless you have a large amount of actors working the realms often; and that sort of system simply isn't financially feasible.
  
  On a side note, I know many people have brought up the "you are swimming in money, finances are no excuse" line, but you're not considering what I'm saying on the whole, specifically in terms of business. In any business, it's important to get a decent return from the money you invest in something. The sheer amount of funds requires to do true dynamic events would not return the investment well in the slightest. The overall impact on the game would still be relatively small, and then the company is out cash they could have been using to pay some more content developers. (If I spend money on a musical ice-maker, it might make the act of making ice more pleasant, but considering the overall impact it has on my experience as a whole, it really isn't worth the monetary investment.)
  
  
• Latency and Crowds; the Technical Factor. Another serious consideration, not to be overlooked, is the technical limitation of the server infrastructure. Huge crowds in a small area can cause problems. Huge crowds actively doing something in a small area is liable to cause something that leads to a realm restart. (Anyone who has participated in an Ironforge raid will be well aware of this.) Therefore, when considering world events, it is important that no event cause people to gather in such a way that would compromise playability from a technical standpoint. While not really a consideration anyone wants to make, it's nonetheless necessary that players not be drawn to one particular point.
  
  This is also why simultaneous events are important. If they're staggered, word-of-mouth travels quickly. More and more people end up waiting for the event in that area when it happens, thus leading to the technical issues.

---

Q u o t e:
How come you can't just make more scripted events like the one the original poster mentioned? They wouldn't have to be GM run, just spawn every once in a while. Like the elemental invasion, and other small things in the game like when the winterbark trolls attack hammerfall.

---

---

Q u o t e:
One thing that I considered a while back when you originally posted this was that you might think about possibly having a small group of actors for this purpose, and have them randomly rotate across a set of perhaps five servers at a time, and then slowly work their way through the line-up, thus allowing for world events but eliminating the high budget costs that would come from hiring hundreds of actors to have a world event on all the servers simultaneously.

---

---

Q u o t e:
If you guys are using this cash to pay the content developers, why has it taken like 8 months to get Warlocks a shard purse? ;)

---

• Developer Time vs. Player Time; the Repeatable Content Factor. Any sort of event like this takes time to create and execute. No company has infinite resources, and it's important that the talented staff work on projects that will make best use of their time. When working on a persistent world such as World of Warcraft, where no one actually finishes the game, repeatable content is a must. Players, by nature, devour content far faster than it can be implemented. Therefore, repeatable content is key. Dungeons are an example of this. Battlegrounds are another. They're features that are used by players over and over again.
  
  Now, world-changing events tend to be one-time happenings that may take a month to create but only two days to occur for players. The question comes into play... which is better? A one-time event with all the bells and whistles, or a new dungeon? Which would best utilize the developers' time? The answer, more often than not, turns out to be the one that pertains to repeatable content.
  
  
• Dynamic vs. Scripted; the Manpower Factor. The question then comes into play... all right, if you'd rather have the developers work on repeatable content, why not hire people specifically for world events? As someone who has done precisely that job for two other games in this genre, again, I'm fairly knowledgeable regarding the pros and cons.
  
  Let me define a term before I delve deeper: "dynamic event", in this case, is a term for a world event run and executed by actors in the world playing the NPCs or controlling the monsters in some fashion.
  
  Now, developers implementing world events are more akin to actual, coded game interactions -- true NPCs and scripted occurrences patched in. Since that takes more time to create and test than players take to exhaust it, naturally the next progression is to consider a troupe of dedicated actors and strategists to do these events on the fly, without need for developer support. There are many problems inherent with this setup as well, however. First, you need to make certain you have the right people. The individuals need to be fast and efficient typists with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of game lore. They also must be trustworthy enough to be given tools that could cause any number of cancellations if abused to the fullest. Once you start hiring these folks, keep going -- you'll need enough to effectively man over 100 realms. And that's only in the North American offices -- the international teams would naturally need their own dedicated crew.
  
  The number of realms is a clear detriment to this style of event. Now let's say you want to run a dynamic event. Ideally, you want the event to occur at the same time. Internationally. Staggering times is an alternative, but unfortunately brings with it spoilers and potential technical problems that will affect everyone on the realm regardless of whether or not they're participating (I'll get into this later). So it's a simultaneous event. You therefore need at least one person per realm if it's a simple event -- that's 100 employees dedicated to this alone. If it's an extremely simple event you may be able to pull it off by two-boxing, but 50 is still not an insignificant number.
  
  The problem is that the overall effect on the game is very small in the long run; most people probably won't even know the event occurred, regardless of what sort of in-game or out-of-game messaging used prior (to a point -- again, I'll cover this later). The cost, ergo, to maintain such a force of actors is not worth it. GMs couldn't do it -- they need to be focused on supporting players in-game. There is never a slow time for them.
  
  Ahhh, but volunteers could do it, you think. This comes with its own serious issues as well. Volunteers are long-distance and extremely hard to manage -- coordinating one hundred of them to execute an event is nigh-impossible. Inevitably something comes up. Also, maintaining the quality of the event is much more difficult when you cannot manage them as intricately. (I wish I could share the stories. :P ) Lastly, giving that kind of power to someone with very little accountability in the long run is a truly dangerous risk. And overall, again, this sort of thing does not have much impact unless you have a large amount of actors working the realms often; and that sort of system simply isn't financially feasible.
  
  On a side note, I know many people have brought up the "you are swimming in money, finances are no excuse" line, but you're not considering what I'm saying on the whole, specifically in terms of business. In any business, it's important to get a decent return from the money you invest in something. The sheer amount of funds requires to do true dynamic events would not return the investment well in the slightest. The overall impact on the game would still be relatively small, and then the company is out cash they could have been using to pay some more content developers. (If I spend money on a musical ice-maker, it might make the act of making ice more pleasant, but considering the overall impact it has on my experience as a whole, it really isn't worth the monetary investment.)
  
  
• Latency and Crowds; the Technical Factor. Another serious consideration, not to be overlooked, is the technical limitation of the server infrastructure. Huge crowds in a small area can cause problems. Huge crowds actively doing something in a small area is liable to cause something that leads to a realm restart. (Anyone who has participated in an Ironforge raid will be well aware of this.) Therefore, when considering world events, it is important that no event cause people to gather in such a way that would compromise playability from a technical standpoint. While not really a consideration anyone wants to make, it's nonetheless necessary that players not be drawn to one particular point.
  
  This is also why simultaneous events are important. If they're staggered, word-of-mouth travels quickly. More and more people end up waiting for the event in that area when it happens, thus leading to the technical issues.

[ post edited by Caydiem ]

---

Q u o t e:
I disregard anything Cay has said in this because if other games that make tons less money (obviously) can do it, then the GM's in WoW should be able to do it.

Its that simple.

---

---

Q u o t e:
Or...have one or two or 3 teams, visit the servers in turn. I was there for the end of beta demonic thing. It was the BEST thing about the whole beta. Its the BEST thing to make you feel like your in a real world. Not static instances, which of course you have more of a need for as far as lasting content goes.. I'm talking once every 3 months at the very LEAST for crying out loud. This is warcraft, and nothing happens outside of an instance. You missed one event? At least maybe we might know that there is a chance of more coming. Do like end of beta again, out of nowhere. Don't let them drop anything. No rewards other than, for a few hours we have to get off our AH camping asses and do something.

There are level 60's that will NEVER see Onyxia. Having her rampage a few small towns would thrill the hell out of people more than any instance you have added so far.

IMHO fishing and faires are NOT the content I was looking for when I picked the game WARCRAFT.

I'm sorry these idea seem more fit for EQ. The story line in war3 was dark and harsh, as it is in the lore and trilogy. WoW is turning into happy fun land.

---

[ post edited by Caydiem ]

---

Q u o t e:
demonic invasion you just plopped some some high level elites around the world. wow you organized THAT it must have taken months!

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---

Q u o t e:
Let me guess you had GM's manualy spawn the mobs instead of having a template spawn them automaticaly across all servers? Yes the same COULD be done now just because you wont spend the money on the resources to do so it WONT be done. WoW generates enough profit to fund a world event staff for each server to say otherwise is silly.

---

---

Q u o t e:
I would but then im forced to reconize the darkmoon faire and Elemental invasions that seem to disreguard that portion of your statement.

---

[ post edited by Caydiem ]

---

Q u o t e:
Granted, your argument about getting the most bang for your buck holds with this as well, but what about this: you've got a fifteen-person live event team, and they develop a series of scripts (the paper kind) for maybe four or five different kinds of small events - story-telling in an inn, escorting a lost person home, and so on. Nothing big, nothing earth-shattering, just little things. The team then rotates across the realms, performing as they go - with five to ten events going on at a time, and with two or three or four events per day per person, you could have one on each server every week. You get more return on your investment than just the few people that partake in the events - people start talking about having partaken, and the vitality of the world will seem to have gone up just because your friend heard that someone once got to escort a lost person home with mobs jumping out from dark corners.

It could be done, and it could be effective.

---

---

Q u o t e:
Caydiem.. your statement is flawed. Games with few people and few servers can have these events. With more people your getting more money and should still have the same % of the money going towards live events.. its sad that blizzard GMs are too lazy.

---

---

Q u o t e:
out of curiousity cay what were these other two MMOs you worked on

---

---

Q u o t e:
Cay I kept trying to figure out where I knew you from, and now it makes sense....but you were a GM in MMO's in 97, if you are the red head I am thinking of from a certain online game. Red head in RL btw not in the game...although I think you were a red head too in the game. I could be totally wrong but if not its good to know you are still in the biz.

---

---

Q u o t e:
I agree you cannot dedicate staff to this, nor should you have to. As much as they sa no, they can get volunteers. Volunteers wouldn't have to be paid. Make it part of a contest. "This month: compete to run a player controlled world event" and make us compete for the honor. Blizzard says they cannot control what the volunteer does? Excuse me? That's a lie. Script the event and let the volunteers only do what you want them to do just like you do with every NPC and PC in this game! I cannot destroy the world with my druid so why should a volunteer be able to? An event shouldn't be able to do so either. It should only work within the parameters that the programmers see fit. If the attack was on SW then don't let the volunteers leave the zone! Simple? Limit them in their abilities like summon soldier or rez soldier. Limit who and what they can kill. Limit who they can grief. Blizzard can lock it down to where we can't go overboard and they should know that.

---

---

Q u o t e:
For scripted world events, in closed beta, I remember that a few dedicated friends and I used to enjoy taking 61 elite demons from tainted scar to places such as SW and Lakeshire. We'd train them there with our epic mounts and drop them off to see what happens. As long as we didn't die, the mob went on a rampage killing everything in sight, even guards. Why can the devs not script a random mob drop such as that? The current AI for the mob sent it on rampage mode going from building to building destroying everything it could find. The poor city guards were no defense. Imagine if that was refined and targeted! An onyxia raid finally came in from IF to beat our demons down. No one ever knew it was us and congratulated Blizzard on such a fun world event! Some people thought it was GM controlled. Some thought it was a pet that got loose. Very few figured out it was the guys on mounts running through SW that were not being killed by said demons. There was no total player nor GM control and it was much more fun than a random elemental attacking a tree in a far off zone that no one cares about. The devs lack imagination I guess? I honestly don't get the thinking behind believing that the elemental invaders were a good idea and fun too! They are retarded for lack of a better word. A giant murloc attacks menthil would be funny and FUN! It doesn't have to drop anything and requires little to no control. Drop the sucker and let it go. Use the model from the one in WC!

---

---

Q u o t e:
I don't want to hear the "there is no returns on the money spent" line. Player happiness means that they play longer. The longer they play, the more money goes into your pocket. I want to know my money is goign at least partially into making this game better. As far as I can tell, it's going only into making people at Vivendi richer and richer. That's utter BS. Short term mass profits are bad for longevity of a game. It's bad for the longevity of a company as well. People get bored with content and with the game and then quit if not given bites. Just one simple event like a dragon swooping down and eating Auctioneers for a day every 10 minutes would be enough to make people go "wow, wtf?!?!?! that was crazy!?!!? What's next?!?!?" and continue to play instaed of "GDI! I quit this game is boring! Raids suck!" You spend money to make money. I don't mean spend millions on a small GM ran world event. Spend it on developing a nice scripted event or volunteer based system instead. The Faire was a joke. Elemental invaders are a joke. Those are so poorly done that it's not even funny. How much money did you spend on those? How much money was lost on the people saying "WTF? it's invading a tree?" and quitting?

You are not giving real world excuses. You are trying to talk over peoples heads and intimidate them into believing your game is good enough and you are doing the best you can. You are not! You are following the example of every other MMO that has came before and that is disappointing. You can't please everyone but at least you can keep us guessing.

The main reason Blizzard does not want to do this isn't about money and it's not about staff. It's about lag. A "world event" would break the server. The technical issue excuse is the only valid one. They have yet to be able to deal with massive concentrations of people in one places other than in instances, which are not even working correctly (see BWL for an example). They screwed up and are not willing to spend the money to fix it. It was a known issue in beta. It's still an issue. Regardless of the suggestions and helpful tips we gave them, they ignored it and went on as planned.

---

---

Q u o t e:
Wordfully dodging any question of why the "too many players in one area" doesn't apply to areas of the game where that already is a problem.

IF - auction hall and great forge - constantly bogged by the same (quite valid) reasons given for not doing live events, but not fixed or acknowledged. Why?

---

• Developer Time vs. Player Time; the Repeatable Content Factor. Any sort of event like this takes time to create and execute. No company has infinite resources, and it's important that the talented staff work on projects that will make best use of their time. When working on a persistent world such as World of Warcraft, where no one actually finishes the game, repeatable content is a must. Players, by nature, devour content far faster than it can be implemented. Therefore, repeatable content is key. Dungeons are an example of this. Battlegrounds are another. They're features that are used by players over and over again.
  
  Now, world-changing events tend to be one-time happenings that may take a month to create but only two days to occur for players. The question comes into play... which is better? A one-time event with all the bells and whistles, or a new dungeon? Which would best utilize the developers' time? The answer, more often than not, turns out to be the one that pertains to repeatable content.
  
  
• Dynamic vs. Scripted; the Manpower Factor. The question then comes into play... all right, if you'd rather have the developers work on repeatable content, why not hire people specifically for world events? As someone who has done precisely that job for two other games in this genre, again, I'm fairly knowledgeable regarding the pros and cons.
  
  Let me define a term before I delve deeper: "dynamic event", in this case, is a term for a world event run and executed by actors in the world playing the NPCs or controlling the monsters in some fashion.
  
  Now, developers implementing world events are more akin to actual, coded game interactions -- true NPCs and scripted occurrences patched in. Since that takes more time to create and test than players take to exhaust it, naturally the next progression is to consider a troupe of dedicated actors and strategists to do these events on the fly, without need for developer support. There are many problems inherent with this setup as well, however. First, you need to make certain you have the right people. The individuals need to be fast and efficient typists with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of game lore. They also must be trustworthy enough to be given tools that could cause any number of cancellations if abused to the fullest. Once you start hiring these folks, keep going -- you'll need enough to effectively man over 100 realms. And that's only in the North American offices -- the international teams would naturally need their own dedicated crew.
  
  The number of realms is a clear detriment to this style of event. Now let's say you want to run a dynamic event. Ideally, you want the event to occur at the same time. Internationally. Staggering times is an alternative, but unfortunately brings with it spoilers and potential technical problems that will affect everyone on the realm regardless of whether or not they're participating (I'll get into this later). So it's a simultaneous event. You therefore need at least one person per realm if it's a simple event -- that's 100 employees dedicated to this alone. If it's an extremely simple event you may be able to pull it off by two-boxing, but 50 is still not an insignificant number.
  
  The problem is that the overall effect on the game is very small in the long run; most people probably won't even know the event occurred, regardless of what sort of in-game or out-of-game messaging used prior (to a point -- again, I'll cover this later). The cost, ergo, to maintain such a force of actors is not worth it. GMs couldn't do it -- they need to be focused on supporting players in-game. There is never a slow time for them.
  
  Ahhh, but volunteers could do it, you think. This comes with its own serious issues as well. Volunteers are long-distance and extremely hard to manage -- coordinating one hundred of them to execute an event is nigh-impossible. Inevitably something comes up. Also, maintaining the quality of the event is much more difficult when you cannot manage them as intricately. (I wish I could share the stories. :P ) Lastly, giving that kind of power to someone with very little accountability in the long run is a truly dangerous risk. And overall, again, this sort of thing does not have much impact unless you have a large amount of actors working the realms often; and that sort of system simply isn't financially feasible.
  
  On a side note, I know many people have brought up the "you are swimming in money, finances are no excuse" line, but you're not considering what I'm saying on the whole, specifically in terms of business. In any business, it's important to get a decent return from the money you invest in something. The sheer amount of funds requires to do true dynamic events would not return the investment well in the slightest. The overall impact on the game would still be relatively small, and then the company is out cash they could have been using to pay some more content developers. (If I spend money on a musical ice-maker, it might make the act of making ice more pleasant, but considering the overall impact it has on my experience as a whole, it really isn't worth the monetary investment.)
  
  
• Latency and Crowds; the Technical Factor. Another serious consideration, not to be overlooked, is the technical limitation of the server infrastructure. Huge crowds in a small area can cause problems. Huge crowds actively doing something in a small area is liable to cause something that leads to a realm restart. (Anyone who has participated in an Ironforge raid will be well aware of this.) Therefore, when considering world events, it is important that no event cause people to gather in such a way that would compromise playability from a technical standpoint. While not really a consideration anyone wants to make, it's nonetheless necessary that players not be drawn to one particular point.
  
  This is also why simultaneous events are important. If they're staggered, word-of-mouth travels quickly. More and more people end up waiting for the event in that area when it happens, thus leading to the technical issues.

[ post edited by Caydiem ]

---

Q u o t e:
How come you can't just make more scripted events like the one the original poster mentioned? They wouldn't have to be GM run, just spawn every once in a while. Like the elemental invasion, and other small things in the game like when the winterbark trolls attack hammerfall.

---

---

Q u o t e:
One thing that I considered a while back when you originally posted this was that you might think about possibly having a small group of actors for this purpose, and have them randomly rotate across a set of perhaps five servers at a time, and then slowly work their way through the line-up, thus allowing for world events but eliminating the high budget costs that would come from hiring hundreds of actors to have a world event on all the servers simultaneously.

---

---

Q u o t e:
If you guys are using this cash to pay the content developers, why has it taken like 8 months to get Warlocks a shard purse? ;)

---

---

Q u o t e:
I disregard anything Cay has said in this because if other games that make tons less money (obviously) can do it, then the GM's in WoW should be able to do it.

Its that simple.

---

---

Q u o t e:
Or...have one or two or 3 teams, visit the servers in turn. I was there for the end of beta demonic thing. It was the BEST thing about the whole beta. Its the BEST thing to make you feel like your in a real world. Not static instances, which of course you have more of a need for as far as lasting content goes.. I'm talking once every 3 months at the very LEAST for crying out loud. This is warcraft, and nothing happens outside of an instance. You missed one event? At least maybe we might know that there is a chance of more coming. Do like end of beta again, out of nowhere. Don't let them drop anything. No rewards other than, for a few hours we have to get off our AH camping asses and do something.

There are level 60's that will NEVER see Onyxia. Having her rampage a few small towns would thrill the hell out of people more than any instance you have added so far.

IMHO fishing and faires are NOT the content I was looking for when I picked the game WARCRAFT.

I'm sorry these idea seem more fit for EQ. The story line in war3 was dark and harsh, as it is in the lore and trilogy. WoW is turning into happy fun land.

---

[ post edited by Caydiem ]

---

Q u o t e:
demonic invasion you just plopped some some high level elites around the world. wow you organized THAT it must have taken months!

---

---

Q u o t e:
Let me guess you had GM's manualy spawn the mobs instead of having a template spawn them automaticaly across all servers? Yes the same COULD be done now just because you wont spend the money on the resources to do so it WONT be done. WoW generates enough profit to fund a world event staff for each server to say otherwise is silly.

---

---

Q u o t e:
I would but then im forced to reconize the darkmoon faire and Elemental invasions that seem to disreguard that portion of your statement.

---

[ post edited by Caydiem ]

---

Q u o t e:
Granted, your argument about getting the most bang for your buck holds with this as well, but what about this: you've got a fifteen-person live event team, and they develop a series of scripts (the paper kind) for maybe four or five different kinds of small events - story-telling in an inn, escorting a lost person home, and so on. Nothing big, nothing earth-shattering, just little things. The team then rotates across the realms, performing as they go - with five to ten events going on at a time, and with two or three or four events per day per person, you could have one on each server every week. You get more return on your investment than just the few people that partake in the events - people start talking about having partaken, and the vitality of the world will seem to have gone up just because your friend heard that someone once got to escort a lost person home with mobs jumping out from dark corners.

It could be done, and it could be effective.

---

---

Q u o t e:
Caydiem.. your statement is flawed. Games with few people and few servers can have these events. With more people your getting more money and should still have the same % of the money going towards live events.. its sad that blizzard GMs are too lazy.

---

---

Q u o t e:
out of curiousity cay what were these other two MMOs you worked on

---

---

Q u o t e:
Cay I kept trying to figure out where I knew you from, and now it makes sense....but you were a GM in MMO's in 97, if you are the red head I am thinking of from a certain online game. Red head in RL btw not in the game...although I think you were a red head too in the game. I could be totally wrong but if not its good to know you are still in the biz.

---

---

Q u o t e:
I agree you cannot dedicate staff to this, nor should you have to. As much as they sa no, they can get volunteers. Volunteers wouldn't have to be paid. Make it part of a contest. "This month: compete to run a player controlled world event" and make us compete for the honor. Blizzard says they cannot control what the volunteer does? Excuse me? That's a lie. Script the event and let the volunteers only do what you want them to do just like you do with every NPC and PC in this game! I cannot destroy the world with my druid so why should a volunteer be able to? An event shouldn't be able to do so either. It should only work within the parameters that the programmers see fit. If the attack was on SW then don't let the volunteers leave the zone! Simple? Limit them in their abilities like summon soldier or rez soldier. Limit who and what they can kill. Limit who they can grief. Blizzard can lock it down to where we can't go overboard and they should know that.

---

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Q u o t e:
For scripted world events, in closed beta, I remember that a few dedicated friends and I used to enjoy taking 61 elite demons from tainted scar to places such as SW and Lakeshire. We'd train them there with our epic mounts and drop them off to see what happens. As long as we didn't die, the mob went on a rampage killing everything in sight, even guards. Why can the devs not script a random mob drop such as that? The current AI for the mob sent it on rampage mode going from building to building destroying everything it could find. The poor city guards were no defense. Imagine if that was refined and targeted! An onyxia raid finally came in from IF to beat our demons down. No one ever knew it was us and congratulated Blizzard on such a fun world event! Some people thought it was GM controlled. Some thought it was a pet that got loose. Very few figured out it was the guys on mounts running through SW that were not being killed by said demons. There was no total player nor GM control and it was much more fun than a random elemental attacking a tree in a far off zone that no one cares about. The devs lack imagination I guess? I honestly don't get the thinking behind believing that the elemental invaders were a good idea and fun too! They are retarded for lack of a better word. A giant murloc attacks menthil would be funny and FUN! It doesn't have to drop anything and requires little to no control. Drop the sucker and let it go. Use the model from the one in WC!

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Q u o t e:
I don't want to hear the "there is no returns on the money spent" line. Player happiness means that they play longer. The longer they play, the more money goes into your pocket. I want to know my money is goign at least partially into making this game better. As far as I can tell, it's going only into making people at Vivendi richer and richer. That's utter BS. Short term mass profits are bad for longevity of a game. It's bad for the longevity of a company as well. People get bored with content and with the game and then quit if not given bites. Just one simple event like a dragon swooping down and eating Auctioneers for a day every 10 minutes would be enough to make people go "wow, wtf?!?!?! that was crazy!?!!? What's next?!?!?" and continue to play instaed of "GDI! I quit this game is boring! Raids suck!" You spend money to make money. I don't mean spend millions on a small GM ran world event. Spend it on developing a nice scripted event or volunteer based system instead. The Faire was a joke. Elemental invaders are a joke. Those are so poorly done that it's not even funny. How much money did you spend on those? How much money was lost on the people saying "WTF? it's invading a tree?" and quitting?

You are not giving real world excuses. You are trying to talk over peoples heads and intimidate them into believing your game is good enough and you are doing the best you can. You are not! You are following the example of every other MMO that has came before and that is disappointing. You can't please everyone but at least you can keep us guessing.

The main reason Blizzard does not want to do this isn't about money and it's not about staff. It's about lag. A "world event" would break the server. The technical issue excuse is the only valid one. They have yet to be able to deal with massive concentrations of people in one places other than in instances, which are not even working correctly (see BWL for an example). They screwed up and are not willing to spend the money to fix it. It was a known issue in beta. It's still an issue. Regardless of the suggestions and helpful tips we gave them, they ignored it and went on as planned.

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Q u o t e:
Wordfully dodging any question of why the "too many players in one area" doesn't apply to areas of the game where that already is a problem.

IF - auction hall and great forge - constantly bogged by the same (quite valid) reasons given for not doing live events, but not fixed or acknowledged. Why?

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