Mighty Moon Massacre

So, this is a World of Warcraft post that shows unintended consequences - or rather, something that sounded like a good idea at the time.

As one of their events, they are celebrating "Lunar Festival". This is a time when both factions (Alliance and Horde) can get together in Moonglade, neutral turf, and set off fireworks and dance. As two of the activities, high levels fight an ancient evil from beneath the lake while low levels can gather coins from various elders across the continents, which they then turn in for special prizes.

Oddly enough, the second activity is killing more players than the first one.

These elders are in easy locations (racial starting areas, main cities) and tougher ones (in higher-level locales, and "instances" - dungeons). But what is an easy local for one faction is a difficult one for another. So now Horde players have a reason to break into the Alliance citadel of Stormhaven and while Alliance figures can visit the Horde starter town of Brill. And while the starting areas may have low level PCs, they are protected by high level PCs. And low level coin-gatherers can quickly find themselves outmatched.

And now fields of broken skeletons crunch underfoot around the major cities as people try to get as many of the coins as possible. And the end result of this celebration of the united races of Azeroth results is more massive carnage than usual. You have to wonder whose side these elders are on.

More later,