Gallery: 7 Most Catastrophic World of Warcraft Moments
01wow3x-intro-engb-1280
*World of Warcraft* is about to be shaken to its core. Again. [Cataclysm](http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/), the third expansion to the popular and long-running MMORPG, is a major moment in the evolution of Blizzard Entertainment's fantasy game. As the name implies, *Cataclysm* throws *Warcraft*'s world of Azeroth into upheaval, with the evil dragon [Deathwing the Destroyer](http://www.wowwiki.com/Deathwing) smashing his way up from an elemental plane and into the real world, as seen in the trailer above. Accompanying the creature are natural disasters that move mountains, flood valleys and change the way *Wow*'s virtual world looks and plays. Well, that's how the fiction goes, anyway. In reality, the Cataclysm unleashed Tuesday is a carefully controlled series of fastidiously tweaked upgrades that Blizzard has been beta testing for nine months. But some truly unplanned cataclysms have rocked World of Warcraft in the game's six-year history. Relive with us seven of the craziest catastrophes to befall the virtual realm. (Special thanks to WoW experts Gus Mastrapa, Karen Chu, John Mix Meyer and Clarence Lum.)
02lich-king-zombies
*Lich King* Zombies ------------------- To get players ready for the launch of the game's last expansion, 2008's [Wrath of the Lich King](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2008/11/review-wrath-of/), Blizzard had what it thought would be a wacky, fun-filled weekend in store. The Lich King himself dropped mysterious crates around Booty Bay, and when players searched them, they [got infected and became zombies](http://wow.joystiq.com/2008/10/22/the-argent-dawn-spreads-word-of-the-lich-kings-arrival/). Zombies had a whole array of undead powers, chief among them the ability to infect any character with which they came in contact. This was Blizzard's plan. So what was the problem? Although many players enjoyed the diversion, others seemed to really hate being forced into playing as a zombie for a whole weekend. One player said he lost a lot of gold repairing items, couldn't sell things at the auction house because it was overrun with zombies and [had trouble helping newbies get through the weekend](http://wow-blue.com/customer-service-forum/t12065090751-zombie-event.html): "A friend was trying the game to see if she wanted to buy it. She was infected so many times in the beginner area that she quit and likely will not be back. When she complained about it she was called a liar." __The aftermath:__ Blizzard ended up crediting each player's WoW account with three days of free in-game time after the event, although it said this was simply due to "general frustration" with a variety of small technical issues associated with the expansion.
03corrupted-blood-incident
'Corrupted Blood' Incident -------------------------- Blizzard introduced a new boss character in 2005, when *Warcraft* was not yet a year old. The boss, Hakkar the Soulflayer, unleashed a spell called "[Corrupted Blood](http://www.wowwiki.com/Corrupted_Blood)" that wreaked havoc on anyone who attempted to kill the demonic deity. Corrupted Blood would instantaneously do a massive amount of damage to a player, enough to wipe out a low-level one and seriously inconvenience a high-level one. It could also pass from player to player if the characters stood too close to each other. Ordinarily, this would have resulted in nothing more than a tough boss fight. But some players found — whether inadvertently or intentionally — that they could teleport out of Hakkar's lair and take the Corrupted Blood with them. The infection spread like a real-life virus, bouncing from player to player all over the world of Azeroth. Blizzard didn't know what to do. At first, the gamemaker asked players to quarantine themselves to avoid the disease. __The aftermath:__ Eventually, Blizzard was able to reset enough of the damage and end the pandemic, but what ensued that day was a microcosm of how people react to disease outbreaks in the real world. In later years, physicians would [use the data from the infection](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood_incident#Model_for_epidemic_research) to study epidemics.
04opening-of-ahnqiraj
Opening of Ahn'Qiraj -------------------- Opening the mysterious [Gates of Ahn'Qiraj](http://www.wowwiki.com/Gates_of_Ahn%27Qiraj) was a giant undertaking, requiring cooperation among a massive number of players over a months-long stretch of gameplay. So it probably shouldn't have surprised Blizzard that many players wanted to finally see the gates open once all the requirements had been fulfilled. Players came from all over, converging on the same small spots on the map. __The aftermath:__ A massive battle against an ancient civilization was supposed to happen when the gates were opened, forcing Horde and Alliance warriors to team up to take on an external threat. What happened for many players was that the game dropped down to a few frames per second, [then crashed for an hour](http://burritobandits.com/pages/features/ahn_qiraj_recap.htm) under the weight of all those players.
05blizzard-kills-resurrects-anonymous-posting
Blizzard Kills, Resurrects Anonymous Posting -------------------------------------------- This past summer, Blizzard said the release of Cataclysm would bring with it a massive change to the privacy policy on its Warcraft forums: All posts would be [marked with the player's verified real name](http://www.pcworld.com/article/200728/blizzard_thou_shalt_be_anonymous_no_longer.html) in an attempt to cut down on trolling and online harassment. Reaction to the news was swift, furious and near-unanimous: No one wanted to be forced to share their real names. It wasn't that players had the intention of behaving badly, it was that they didn't want their identities to get out there for people to harass them. __The aftermath:__ To prove a point, a group of players [started with a Blizzard employee's real name](http://consumerist.com/2010/07/you-want-your-real-name-publicly-associated-with-your-world-of-warcraft-account-right.html) and made short work of finding out the names of his relatives, home address, phone number and the fact that he apparently still lived with his mom. Blizzard climbed down soon after, rescinding the policy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBwTpHNZDpQ
06blood-elf-controversy
Blood Elf Controversy --------------------- The introduction of blood elves [brought no small amount of controversy](http://www.wowwiki.com/Blood_elf_controversy). Some players hated the idea of introducing sexy human characters into the Horde faction, which otherwise was populated by grotesque trolls, orcs and goblins. When Blizzard made some tweaks to the male blood elf to broaden his shoulders and make him look a little more menacing and a little less [Legolas](http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Legolas), others complained, saying they preferred the slender male model. Still others nitpicked over whether blood elves would join the Horde in the first place, given their back stories. __The aftermath:__ It all turned out to be sound and fury signifying nothing, as blood elves quickly became the most-played race on the Horde side.
07flight-from-illidan
Flight From Illidan ------------------- Like most online games, Warcraft players choose to play on one of several servers. The Illidan server is one of the originals that launched when the game went live, and as such remains a popular place to play. So popular that it often crashes. So much that its nickname became "Illidown." __The aftermath:__ According to the WoWWiki, problems on this particular server caused Blizzard to [allow players to switch servers](http://www.wowwiki.com/Server:Illidan_US) in order to relieve the lag on Illidan.
08kiting-lord-kazzak
Kiting Lord Kazzak ------------------ "Kiting," as the name implies, is the act of [luring a boss bit by bit out of his dungeon](http://www.wowwiki.com/Kiting) and into an area where he's not supposed to be, as if he were attached to a thread. In general, there are protections against this, since the (computer-controlled) guards are supposed to kill anything that tries to waltz in, and high-level characters should at least be able to band together to dispatch the boss. But when [Lord Kazzak](http://www.wowwiki.com/Lord_Kazzak_(tactics)) got lured into the town Stormwind, getting him out proved to be a big problem. Every time Kazzak kills a character, he regains his health. After about three minutes, he becomes practically invincible and can wipe your whole party out. When players managed to kite him into Stormwind, he wreaked havoc pretty easily and no players could defeat him. A Blizzard rep would have to come in and delete the monster before it was over. __The aftermath:__ Blizzard chained the boss down, adjusting his settings so he would no longer leave his lair.
