I’m a damn dirty liar. I didn’t lie intentionally, but that doesn’t make me any more of a liar. In fact, my lie was one of omission, rather than deliberate. For this, I apologize.

You may recall a while back about a month ago I ‘banned’ myself from World of Warcraft. My reasoning was just and sensical. And it didn’t survive contact with reality.

Here’s the reality: I need to be be playing a MMOG. All the time. Not “all the time”, just … you know, I need a MMOG to be playing. And it needs to capture my attention.

So here’s the real problem: I *could* be playing games that aren’t even out yet. I could be playing Pirates, or TR, or Gods and Heroes. And yet, what have I been playing since my sickness lowered my shields and FORCED me at gunpoint to get back into a Massive game or die?

Blizzard’s game. I’ve been reading the mmogblogosphere over the last few weeks, even if I haven’t been participating, and it’s been kinda funny watching people herniate themselves with the whole “Why is WoW fun?” and “What will take WoW’s place?” thing?

I’m not going to jump into that; not really my thing to beat a dead horse. Instead, I’ll offer you up a small vignette from my recent WoW play … otherwise known as “what kept me sane all last week.”

I started a Rogue on the PvP server Dark Iron a long, long time ago. I originally decided that I was going to try to hook up with the PA guilds as a priest, but then I got a really bright idea. I’ve wanted to go Hordie for some time, but I was always flummoxed by the side balance thing. Soooo many allys, you know? BUT, in response to PA’s showing on the Alliance side of Dark Iron, Scott Kurtzs’ PvP comic threw down the gauntlet on the Horde side. As a result, to this day, the Horde faction on Dark Iron is thriving, and it made for a perfect place to try my hand at PvP and ‘For the Horde’ at the same time.

Cut to this week. Guess what, apparently, is a lot of fun to do on over-the-counter medication? If you said Arathi Basin, you were looking over my shoulder most of late this birthday week. Yeah, you earn a sad amount of Honor at the level I’m at (just cracked 30 tonight) but those tokens are good for ever and always. I’ve got my eye on a couple of fun toys for higher levels; not only is the Basin my favorite Battleground (”I’ve got LM!”), but those precious bits open the door to stabbity goodness at 70.

Anyway, an example of what makes WoW so fun: Tonight I was in the Harpy cave in Thousand Needles, working my way through the wretches for xp and profit. Those vibrant plumes sell for a pretty penny, you know. I’d decided to head elsewhere, when at the cave entrance appeared a pair of Blood Elves. One was a priest, and the other a rogue like myself. Both were in their early 20s, and needed some help doing one of the ‘Test’ quests, which requires players to take on swarms of Harpies at the back of the cave in successive waves. I did my stabbity thing, and (since I didn’t really need to pay any attention) I spent most of my time just watching.

Have you ever watched a Blood Elf move? Since going Horde, I’ve really kind of fallen in love with the Belfs. I HATE the Night Elves, and originally my dislike extended to their paler cousins as well, but many things about them have turned that disdain into Elven pride. First and foremost, their haughtiness is just awesome. I mistook it at first for the sorority girl/fratboy kind of pride that their ’silly’ emotes imply them to be … but that’s really not what their about. As you quest through the Ghostlands, you come to realize that their cruel looks and arrogant sneers are pretty much the only thing holding that race together. The Scourge took everything from them …. and what the undead didn’t take their now overweaning lust for magic might. There’s a poise, an elegance, a grace to the Belfs, and it speaks volumes about the character of the race just to watch them move.

The way they hold their hands, as the priest cast his spells. The ’sprinter’s crouch’ that the rogue adopted when she stealthed.. The way both of them cocked their heads to the side in sad sympathy whenever they regarded a mob … it all spoke volumes about where the race has come from, and what they’ve had to do to get where they are now.

That …. that’s why World of Warcraft is fun. Blizzard can tell a story in an animation cycle. Some game companies couldn’t storytell their way out of a paper bag with 2000 words and an FMV.

Anyway, 30! Woot! Cross-racial birdie mount, here I come!