A Wave of Hostility

People are not happy about the zombie event. In post after post on the official Blizzard forums, as well as in various blogs, a wave of hostility to the minions of Arthas is sweeping the Internet.

People are saying they don't like it due (mostly) to the fact that players can misuse the event to grief/camp/molest lower level players, even on PvE servers where this is usually harder.

I'm not going to tackle each individual point or case. I think in many cases people are right to be angry and in many cases people are wrong - for example, people have always been able to kill NPCs of the opposite faction, this type of griefing was hardly invented when the zombie invasion started.

However I'd like to say in general, in my very personal opinion I think the negative aspects of the event are being overblown. Yes, there are some jerks who misuse the event. These people have always been around, causing problems in PuG runs and they will continue to be an issue when the invasion is over. However from what I've seen, they are outnumbered by the people simply trying to have a good time and enjoy the event for what it is - a one time opportunity to do something out of the ordinary.

Not every killing of a flight master or banker NPC is the act of griefers. Not every player who tries to turn you into a zombie is a ganker. Some are simply trying to get into the spirit of the event and I for one don't begrudge them their fun, even if it inconveniences me.

I think the forums and to a lesser extent blogs cause people to make a bigger issue out of this than it is. Even a mild post can turn into a nasty argument, let alone a provocative one. The entire invasion looks like it will last only a few days. Certainly the phase where people started being actively turned into zombies in large numbers has so far been what, 2 days long? And yet people are focusing on the negative aspects as if their entire 3 years of WoW have been ruined by the last 2 days. I think people, especially bloggers and forum posters, need to take a deep breath, step back and re-evaluate whether this is such a major issue.

For many people, even a determined zombie ganker can be dealt with by using higher level alts or friends, or even asking for help on the local-defense channel (that's what it's there for, after all). At worse, you can switch locations or even log off for an hour till the ganker gets bored. Is this an ideal situation - no. But it is hardly game breaking.