Warcraft Ratings

The most satisfying memory I ever had w/WoW was 40man pugging the 10hr war in Silithus (followed closely by the Zombie invasion pre-WOTLK). The lag was horrendous for the first 4hrs or so, while the opening of the gates themselves was a slideshow. Didn't matter. Several weeks of realm-wide effort led to a still-shot of as yet unforeseen, giant, armored, 2-legged cockroaches menacingly perched upon the walls. I managed to catch a glimpse of some chat text before the realm collapsed, "I'm scared!" (classic!!).

For the next 10hrs, on through the early morning, those of us sensible enough to recognize the AQ dungeons will be there forever while this world event war will not - raped and pillaged the dunes for sick rewards and unending action vs armies of mobs we'd never seen before ("Roachman" moving at incomparable speeds). It didn't matter that I was moving in quicksand those first few hrs - the world had erupted and we were immersed in something wholly unpredictable and adrenaline inducing. All culminating in a mass NPC march to the walls where enormous Egyptian Dogmen stomped upon 100 of us like campfire tinder.

The scale of patch 1.9 was so beyond epic that an earnest population made it impossible to implement error free. We'd never seen anything like it - and never would again (until the Zombie event, which I thought brilliantly done... save it's anticlimactic, seemingly QQ induced end).

Here's hoping they've worked out the kinks and the tech is there to support more truly visceral world altering events such as the AQ patch. I'm expecting big things for Cataclysm...