Into Azeroth something fierce. I’ve found the Scrolling Combat Text UI mod to be most helpful, and GameSpy’s World of Warcraft at 60 piece to be a good overview.

Kill Ten Rats on how games aren’t jobs. No duh, but some funny comparisons between the workaday world and the average MMOG.

Instancing rears its head again. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn into the circle o’ fun like last time.

VirginWorlds has a post up with a well-considered argument for reducing the fee on Everquest Live, to allow folks who might not otherwise play one of the aging dames of MMOGs to do so.

I say, it’s time to put that dame on a boat. Let EQ1 go.

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Lost Garden has a long, in-depth look at the possibilities of using a notation when developing gameplay.

Commentary by Raph Koster on the interative processes in entertainment mediums. If it’s good, it’s been polished.

With a force equal to seven of your earthy suns, I have been pulled back down into the gravity well that is World of Warcraft. There are several forces pulling me down, and several of them are social. Always a sure sign of danger.

1.) My wife. Probably the most villainous of all of these forces, she’s really gotten into the Night Elf rogue that has been boon companion to my newbie Druid. A Druid/Rogue combination is (if you’ve never participated) quite suited to mowing down critters in woodland glades, and after three short sessions she’s dual-weilding and I’ve got fuzzy underpants. I’m so glad to be done with Teldrassil, and Darkshore looms ahead.

2.) My friends. Several associates of mine are now leveling within reach of my main Grodin. Grodin has been around basically since launch, and he’s only 55. I will now admit a dirty secret: I am absolutely terrible at playing Massively Multiplayer games. That’s a whole post in and of itself, but for later. It’s MLK’s birthday and I’m playing hooky with some off of work friends in about 20 minutes.

3.) PvP. I played enough Warsong Gulch back when it first released to hit Private, and so I’ve been Private Grodin on the Argent Dawn server for some time now. Why didn’t anyone tell me how kickass Arathi Basin is? I managed a few sessions over the weekend, and did more than adequately despite being ‘only’ 55. The Horde continue to amaze me with their concentration and skills in the face of our level-57-but-still-can’t-follow-directions Hunters.

4.) The Paladin respec. While I miss my Blessing of Kings something fierce, I’ve learned to live with it. The fact that I inflict debuffs on almost every creature I fight makes me giggle.

This week, I’m aiming for another level for Grodin, some more PvP, and some quality time with my rogueish better half. I haven’t been this engaged with WoW in several months. It’s not quite like being a newb again, but … I’ll take it.