World of Glitchcraft: A Strategical/Tactical Tug of War
written by: Megsterrz
It's not recent news to WoW players that glitches, or malfunctions, happen in the World of Warcraft. In fact, many of these glitches have paved their way forever into the history of the game. Players reminisce back to the days where major cities were filled with corpses, as players essentially "one-shotted" every lowbie in the game. Other glitches, such as wall-jumping and casting manipulation, have served another role, simply allowing players to skip content, and maybe even explore a new zone that they didn't even know existed. In the realm of Communication and Media, these glitches actually follow the theoretical guidelines of Michel de Certeau, a French scholar, who stated that media paradigms work off of strategical input that consumers can manipulate in tactical ways. In World of Warcraft, we see that Blizzard is the main source of incorporated strategy, where as we, the gamers, find tactical ways to take advantage of all of the content that they throw at us through the use of glitches. Let's look at some of the common occurrences of glitches in the game.
Corrupted Blood
In addition, the
effect acted like a plague, spreading to other characters within the
general vicinity. This “Corrupted Blood” effect could only live
within the raid since it was tied specifically to the boss Hakkar
the Soulflayer,
so as soon as players were back in the outside world,
there was no way to be inflicted with the corrupted blood. Players
soon figured out however (and this is where tactics come in), that there was a defect in which a hunter's
pet could be inflicted with the corrupted blood, and summoned in the
outside world to spread the plague, resulting in massive deaths of
innocent online players who possibly never even had met with Hakkar
before. Furthermore, other online players discovered ways to quickly
teleport out of the raid zone while still being able to bestow the
corrupted blood to other online players. Many, many skeletons were seen throughout
major cities at this time. Many actually took on serious roles, attempting to heal other players in order to form quarantine zones and help effected
characters survive the duration of their Corrupted Blood.
This glitch was
shockingly so wide-spread within the game that The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention actually studied the player
pandemonium as well as the effects of the Corrupted Blood in order to
expand their knowledge on the ways in which diseases spread in real
life (Staff, 2005). Later on in 2007, epidemiologist physician, Ran
Balicer, actually published an article in the journal Epidemiology
which compared the Corrupted Blood against avian influenza outbreaks
(Balicer, 2007). In fact, Corrupted Blood received so much
feedback, that Blizzard actually tried to refine the epidemic into an
event that was more manageable for players, while also providing a
way for institutions to study real life epidemic effects in a virtual
world. This, my friends, was the Zombie Infestation that took place just before the release of Wrath of the Lich King in 2008. This was one of my favorite events, and there actually was a glitch to close the door to the Champion's Hall, the PvP rewards center in Stormwind. I would know...I closed that door and saw everyone freaking out. Still makes me laugh thinking back to it ("HELLPPPPP"). But ANYWAYS....
Casting
Manipulation, Old Ironforge:
Ironforge is a city, sculpted by the Dwarves, that has always been
inhabited by many online players. The city of Ironforge has a rich
history in the lore of World of Warcraft, and players were extremely
excited to hear that there was an “Old Ironforge”, a section of the city that existed "underneath" that was not supposed to be accessible to characters. This content
was first hidden by Blizzard when added to the game, but once players
had found the “secret spot” for Old Ironforge, people were
exploring this zone more frequently, which was not what Blizzard had
originally intended. After hiding a functioning door behind a throne
in the original Ironforge, Blizzard realized that more players were
finding this area than they had liked, and removed the door from the
game. Why it was added in the first place is unknown, but players
utilized the function to access content that the game developers did
not necessarily want to be revealed on a large scale. In fact, it has
been said for years that Blizzard had added Old Ironforge to the game
only to be used/revealed in later expansions, although it is unclear
whether this is the true intention or not.
Old Ironforge does, in fact, still exist and is still accessible to
characters via casting manipulation. Blizzard has tried various times
to stop players from entering this zone by fixing various glitching
possibilities, but has never been able to stop the accessibility
entirely since players keep finding new tactical ways to get into Old
Ironforge. The current tactic that players use is a form of casting
manipulation combined with the previously mentioned wall jumping
tactic. There is a very distinct location in which characters must
cast a spell which summons their mount, or steed, and quickly walk
forward while jumping at just the right time. It may sound confusing,
and it is. Getting the
timing right is not an easy task, and is frustrating to many players. The exploration of this content, may be well worth it though! "Look Ma, I've been to Old Ironforge!" BRAGGING RIGHTS!
Martin Fury
Soooo...Many of us have probably been hacked over the course of this decade of playing WoW, right? Well, one character had a very awesome, WoW-changing experience after finally receiving his character(s) back. This is one of my favorite "glitches", if it can even be considered a glitch...It's kind of more of a hiccup from the Game Masters...But, regardless, let's call it a glitch for our own sake. One character, named Leroyspeltz, had found a surprise in his in-game mail after having had all of his characters restored to their former glory. On his level 13 Gnome Warlock was the chest-piece called, "Martin's Fury". Leroyspeltz and his buddy, Karatechop, had used the item 14 times, mainly in conjunction with clearing the Ulduar raid. Upon claiming "world's first" titles, Blizzard caught on to what was happening and banned the accounts for their use of an item that caused them to "cheat" the system. Both players saw nothing wrong since the item was sent by Blizzard, and were unaware of the all of the titles they were claiming. So after having an account restored, Leroyspeltz was banned, as well as his partner in crime (if you can call it that), Karatechop. The whole malfunction of strategy is actually quite comical...But really, how can one be banned for Blizzard's mistake? Unfortunately, these accounts were not restored.
There are so many other glitches that have occurred in this game that it would take pagessss and pagessss to talk about them all, but these bugs are a great way to understand de Certeau's theory about the ways in which strategy and tactics run hand in hand. Hopefully I brought back some memories...I know for me this article made me feel an overwhelming sense of nostalgia! What were some of your favorite glitches in World of Warcraft history?
