My MMO ideas expanded upon (really long!)

[Secura]

Ahh, my experience is with WoW up to Burning Crusade, so I am not familiar with the phasing system Wrath has, can you explain how it works please?

The mechanic is more widespread now but it was kinda being road-tested in Wrath and didn't crop up a whole lot.

The main example of it's use was the Wrathgate event in Dragonblight; players that have cleared this questline will see the Dragon Queen Alexstrasza and her consort sat in front of the gate assessing the aftermath of the battle... but those that have not will simply see a helluva lot of undead milling around since the battle hasn't occured for them yet.

The thing about phasing is that it only has an effect on the player themselves and not the world at large, as phased events play out in the player's personal timeline rather than a wider reaching one.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I think that Vashj'ir, one of Cataclysm's new zones, is the best example of how the phasing mechanic works.

Firstly, you take a boat from Stormwind intending to head to fight the Horde on a nearby island, but your boat ends up being dragged to the depths by a large creature as it passes over Vashj'ir; you are saved by a shaman who has brought you to another recently-attacked-and-capsized ship, whereby he tasks you with gathering certain items to render yourself able to breath beneath the waves, and then he sends you back out to save your fellow soldiers.

You swim out into the depths and you see the soldiers drowning, and you're able to grant them the same buff that the shaman gave you; once you grant this buff, the soldiers swim back to the safety of the ship and the phasing mechanic removes them from the waters, instead relocating them to the boat. When your group eventually leaves the boat, all NPCS will phase out of it and will no longer be present, in keeping with the storyline.

Later in the zone, you're find one of the civilians who had been onboard your ship and you'll direct her to a nearby cave that provides air and shelter from the beasties in the waters; she tasks you with finding her friends, who will also phase into the area once you've rescued them... they in turn provide you with further quests, where the fruits of your efforts will phase in as you complete them, such as a quest to gather jewellery from the ocean floor (whereby a treasure chest appears) or recover some gunpowder for them to light a fire and keep warm.