State of emergency at Blizzard: Almost exactly twelve years ago, a bug almost paralyzed World of Warcraft. Anyone who logged in ended up at the spiritual healer without even knowing what was going on there. What happened? And what did the blood god Hakkar and Jäger have to do with it? Our WoW author Dirk explains his favorite wow event – and how it happened.
Almost exactly twelve years ago, a virtual plague in World of Warcraft reached its peak and swept the capital cities empty. The floor of Ironforge and Orgrimmar was paved with skeletons and whole guilds would meet at the spirit healer and wouldn’t dare press “revive” – pretty scary. But what happened?
The hunters were to blame. As always!
The problems started with the introduction of the new raid Zul’Gurub in Stranglethorn Vale. Blizzard’s programmers had installed a bug that turned the game world upside down for days. The final boss, Hakkar, inflicted the Corrupted Blood debuff on player characters . This debuff caused heroes and all bystanders to take damage over time for 10 seconds and arcs to nearby allies. In the boss fight against Hakkar, this was an exciting boss mechanic. So nothing wild? Yet! Because the debuff did not disappear from the hunter pets when leaving the instance, and so hunters carried the plague from the raid into the game world and cities. Corrupted Blood sprang therethen to everyone who was within range of the pet – players, NPCs, pure risk of infection! Low-level heroes with low health died after a few ticks, it took only slightly longer for level 60 characters.
Infection, panic or help? Some players made fun of spreading the disease as quickly as possible. Others banded together and tried to heal the sick and cleanse the debuff. Most of the players fled in panic to areas that had hardly been used before. Ironforge and Orgrimmar became ghost towns full of skeletons. Normal gambling was hardly possible for a week. The boss mechanics became an involuntary world event. Complaints about this dominated the official forums and the developers had to apply several hotfixes at once until they got the situation under control.
More than just an event
But why is this bug so memorable? There are several reasons for this. Here are a few testimonials from players who witnessed it:
“The crazy thing was that nobody was safe. You could get infected anywhere and the chat was nothing but a topic. Everyone knew. It was kind of like being part of something big. Plague alert in Azeroth, LoL. Was more fun than the actual raid.” – Rodderigg, Cenarion Circle
“It was just that it was something different, something unforeseen. Something that wasn’t scripted in the game. And when I imagine Blizzard’s heirs of programming frantically trying to fix the bug … they deserve it, hahaha!” – Wind of War, the Aldor
The bug even gained notoriety beyond World of Warcraft. Newspapers and news outlets reported it as the “Hakkar Incident” or “Blood Plague”; often without understanding the problem or the game mechanics behind it. The bug went down in history as the first online epidemic. In fact, even scientists were concerned with the event – especially epidemiologists and terror researchers from the US government. And even Blizzard learned from it: From the experience with the corrupted blood, they developed the zombie plague to start Wrath of the Lich King.
Were you there then? Have you fled the cities, tried to heal the sick, or spread the plague?
What is WoW Classic?
World of Warcraft Classic is a true recreation of the original WoW as you know it from 2006. All parts of the game – from combat mechanics and talent trees to character models and zones – have been recreated, contributing to the authentic experience.
Getting Started
All players with an active World of Warcraft subscription or game time on their accounts have access toWoW Classic at no additional cost.
- Open the Blizzard Battle.net Desktop App and select World of Warcraft from the menu.
- Select World of Warcraft Classic from the Version menu. If you have more than one World of Warcraft account, you’ll see a second Account drop-down list. In this column, select the active account you want to play with.
- Click the Install button. The progress bar will tell you when your game is ready to play.
- Click the Play button when the installation is complete.
You will need to select the realm you want to play on from several different realm types. Make sure you choose the same realm as your friends – in World of Warcraft Classic, you can only group with characters that are on the same realm as you!
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