Longtime World of Warcraft players are usually willing to share with others several reasons as to why the MMORPG giant's earliest expansions were their favorite, especially considering their somewhat experimental nature. As World of Warcraft: Shadowlands releases today, current players are saying goodbye to the return of the Wrath of the Lich King-era undead and their player killing plague mechanics, some finding their way into the game's new player-oriented starting zones.
Prior to the return of the scourge and their terrorizing of Azeroth's biggest cities and settlements, patch 9.0.1 introduced several quality of life adjustments and new features, one of which being the introduction of a new starting zone for new characters: Exile's Reach. Being hailed as World of Warcraft's most alternate-character friendly expansion to date, Shadowlands welcomes new players to the game with the choice of playing through Exile's Reach's newly designed starting zone with emphasis on explaining the game's previously under-explained and more nuanced mechanics.
While the new starting zone is a welcome addition, the decade-old original starting zones are still fully playable by players old and new, though the timing of the scourge invasion provides some curious parallels with some of World of Warcraft's most memorable infection inspired events. Where the problem lies is in the separation of the Exile's Reach starting zone from the rest of the game world, meaning once players start there, complete their leveling to ten and leave, there is no returning to Exile's Reach. Isolated from the spread of the infection that travels from player to player via being attacked by a formerly living player character, the original starting zones are not only susceptible to infection, but usually too low-leveled to resist it.
Frustrating for the uninitiated, the situation is still difficult to label as true and actionable griefing. The alternative starting zone is as easily available to new characters as the original zones, meaning risking exposure to the infection is at the player's discretion. The event itself has also seen a relatively short run-time running up until November 23rd, the release date of Shadowlands, meaning for as often as it was inconveniencing new players, it seems unlikely that gamemaster intervention should be deemed necessary with the issue being removed in the coming expansion launch along with the scourge invasion event.
Some players may be surprised to know that the pre-patch's Death Rising scourge invasions are actually the game's third infectious plague, the previous two used to glean real-world information as to how plagues spread. Thankfully, this event was implemented with 16 years of developing World of Warcraft in mind, giving players plenty of avenues to avoid the infection, or of course voluntarily spread it.
World of Warcraft is available on PC. World of Warcraft: Shadowlands releases November 23rd.