Cybersecurity is an important part of every video game, especially when it comes to AAA titles. However, even in such games, there are vulnerabilities and bugs. Today in the article we will remember the top bugs of the most popular game.
Players spend many hours in the game to upgrade their accounts and be at the top. However, due to some vulnerabilities, they may lose progress and quit the game forever. Since serious vulnerabilities are rarely discovered, many now prefer to use boosting services on a special site where professional gamers help ordinary players. This includes leveling, content progression, and more. As a result, players spend much less time and effort on leveling up their accounts.
After the first Battle for Azeroth reset, some players discovered a very useful gift. If you completed a Mythic+ keystone dungeon during the last week of Legion, you may have found a high-level item (up to level 400) in a Mythic+ chest. You could also receive the Battle for Azeroth key, which cannot be completed with the current level of equipment. Blizzard didn’t plan for this. They patched the chests and removed items. Is this a bug or just an oversight? World of Warcraft has had both over the years, often with hilarious, memetic consequences. Sometimes Blizzard even added references to such bugs after they were fixed. Let’s look back at some of the most memorable bugs from WoW’s past.
Munkins – those who conquered the sky.
There is a character class in the game – Druid. As befits all real druids, he is capable of taking different forms. One of the forms is a lunar owl, and there is also an ordinary bird in the arsenal. In moonkin form, the druid can use abilities, but cannot fly, and in normal bird form, he can only fly. One fine day, while spending it in one-on-one battles near the faction capital, we saw them. A flock of wild owls who, despite the developers, have learned to fly. All classes that were unable to attack from a distance were mercilessly beaten and humiliated. What was the bug? It was only necessary to obtain the Burgy Blackheart’s Handsome Hat artifact, which changed the character’s appearance. Having this item on the head, the character needed to move to a new location, after which the owl became flying. Unfortunately, for the owls who finally achieved the desired skill of flight, fate prepared a terrible twist in their history. The bug lasted for several days, everyone who used it suffered permanent banhammer punishment, and the item was removed from the game. But we all remembered the flying squadron for a long time.
Sabotage in Gruul’s lair
There is a character class in the game – Priest. The priest has light magic, as well as dark magic (after all, there are sinners even among saints). Dark magic is available in small quantities, but it still exists. The Mind Control spell also belonged to the school of dark magic. Control worked exclusively on characters level 71 and below (and it also had to be a humanoid). At that time there was no postscript stating that it was impossible to control elite NPCs. There are raids in the game for a large number of characters – this is one of them. It’s called Gruul’s Lair. In this raid you can get better loot than in dungeons for five players, as well as for further development of larger raids. In Gruul’s Lair, all enemies were level 71 humanoids except the bosses. To complete the raid almost alone and take all the loot for themselves, the priests gathered in small groups and used the mind control spell. First, they pitted opponents against each other to get to the boss, and then they built controlled opponents around him and staged sabotage and a rebellion against their leader. This bug took a lot of time to fix. Unfortunately, Blizzard noticed this and fixed the bug in about a month. Either they didn’t want to, or they were amused by how sometimes their opponents lost control and killed the priests. In any case, eternal memory for all the priests who used this bug. Also, everyone who used it was given a ban for a week. Items obtained this way were not taken away.
Global melting
In February 2009, during the start of the Love Fever holiday, an unusual riddle awaited players. Every few minutes a message appeared in the global chat that all players could see: “The ice stone has melted!” Everyone thought it was some kind of mystery related to the holiday. When they asked about it, Blizzard GMs remained silent, making the situation even more mysterious. Players gathered on official forums and shared their guesses. Everyone had their theory, from an overabundance of fire benders to air pollution in the dwarves’ starting area. The most popular theory was from a player named Athlos: “The Ice Stone is Arthas’s heart, which is melting due to the enormous amount of love spreading throughout Azeroth.” It turned out that these messages were related to the past Summer Solstice festival, where players melted Icestones throughout Azeroth to summon bosses (especially Ahune, the Lord of Cold in the Imprisonment). Why these messages started appearing during the Love Rush is still a mystery. However, this is a bug. Perhaps the most mysterious bug in WoW history. In Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard added the Froststone item to the Spectator’s Box in the Frostfire Ridge arena. Its description reads: “Good for cooling drinks. Melts quickly.” After 30 seconds of activation, the player received a message: “The ice stone has melted.”
Each of these bugs to some extent affected the overall player experience of the game. Some bugs were harmless, others seriously affected game progress. That is why a lot of attention is paid in games to cybersecurity and the absence of critical bugs.