Like Scott Jennings, I’m voting for Barack Obama next Tuesday. I don’t expect you to care, or be swayed, at this point, but I felt it was worth pointing out.

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WoW’s ongoing Zombie Plague event appears to be riling up the natives.

“Let’s say someone *doesn’t* want to participate, as some of my guild’s leveling alts did not. Unfortunately, they are FORCED to participate, even passively. They are affected by this, both in terms of being physical attacked by not only “Alliance” zombies, but also by their own faction. This contradicts the very nature of a PvE server, where you only have to fight people by your own volition.”

While they go on to note some of the positive folks as well, this sentiment really sticks in my craw. When so often MMO players go on and on about the stasis of their gameworlds, the fact that nothing changes … gaah. Here, Blizz finally really goes out there and gives you a changing world, an evocative experience, and you go ‘waaah’. Please.

As WoW Insider notes, the plague is growing and I’ve had a ton of fun being a plague-bearer. I can’t decide whether it’s more fun infecting your own city or hitting the opposition. The most fun I’ve had yet was in diseasing up the Lakeshire region. I started by plaguing some of the static NPCs in the field, the ones that were unlikely to die super-soon. Then I worked on the static NPCs in the town itself, even getting Bellygrub to become plague-born. I never saw her transform – I wonder if she’d be a zombie pig?

WI also has the news that they’re considering heavily revamping healing sometime in the next year or so. I’d love this, and the addition of a new healing class (as the poster intimates) would be a boon. I really hope we see this as a patch instead of an addition in the next expansion. A fun, starts-at-55 healing class would be a big boon to the game.

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It’s days like this that remind me why we play MMOs. I refer to them as bridge clubs and bowling leagues all the time in interviews, comparing the comradre of a guild to any other team activity. Ultimately, though, the appeal of MMO play is about competence. Whether you’re in a group, part of a guild, or (especially) soloing, playing an MMO means acting fundamentally in a competent and useful way. Even new players hammering at the keys in the first ten levels will – usually – be able to achieve the goals set before them. At the highest levels of play that competence is honed to a fair-thee-well, with gameplay more resembling a dance or orchestral movement than simple button-mashing.

That applies to story as well. Additionally appealing is the ability to involve yourself into a fiction or a context outside your norm. Soloing allows players to really understand and appreciate the lore set out before them. They can take the time to read the quest text, and enjoy the events of the world around them. In a group or as part of a guild, the ’story’ is really more about the people than the game. Whether the tale is one of tragic comedy in a failing PUG or of heroics and victory in a server-first raid, there’s a story you can immerse yourself in as a player. You sink into that experience, participating as much or as little as you want.

The ulimate appeal of the MMO, beyond competence and story, is that immersion factor. You can be as present in the real world – or not – as you so choose. You can be a late-twenties guy playing a game, chatting with friends, and watching a video … or you can be a lithe undead rogue skirting the edges of a dungeon in search of treasure and glory.

I bring this up becuase I’m having yet another frustrating kind of morning. My wife and I find ourselves in doctor medical clinics or worrying about health problems far, far too often in my opinion. I’m writing this from yet another waiting room, wishing I were doing my dailies or working on my exploration Achievements or doing the Headless Huntsman with WWTD … pretty much anything but what I’m doing right now.

Escapist inclinations, many people call them. A rejection of reality, shirking of responsibilities, or refusal to grow up, others accuse. I call the human mind’s tendency to seek out solace where-ever it can find it highly sane. Whether that’s online, in a book, hobby, vice, or sport we use the larger context of outside environments to connect us, to support us. It’s not about wanting to escape. It’s about wanting something to lean on, a means to make it through rough times with some measure of good cheer and productivity.

I love MMOs for many reasons. Today, I mostly love them becuase they’re always there when I need them.

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Earlier this week I completed the overarching goal I’ve had since I began playing again. I set out to get a character to level 70 with an Epic Flying Mount before the expansion came out. Just over 20 days before Lich King drops, I became a pauper by buying my Artisan riding skill. In my eyes, I’ve now ‘won’ The Burning Crusade. Yes, it took me almost two years to do it. Yes, I realize everyone else did this months and months ago.

But I feel pretty darn good about it. I’ve really fallen hard for WoW again in the last month – likely the result of an awesomesauce guild – and I’m looking forward to Wrath in a way I never expected I would. My collector’s edition is showing up the day of or the day after launch, and I look forward to jumping into Howling Fjord with gusto. It’s weird to think that I’m actually invested in a game after all these years of being a wandering pariah.

When SWTOR launches in two years or whatever, I’ll play the guts out of that game, no doubt about it. I get to enjoy the build-up to BioWare’s revelation until then and, until then, enjoy what I consider now to be my virtual home away from home.

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I had some fun in Lakeshire and Goldshire this evening. Go check WoW Insider for the full details, and watch below for a demonstration.

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Several people have called me on the fact that I said here “I’m going to go play single-player games”. I’ve learned in the almost three years I’ve been writing MMOG Nation that the surest way for me to do something is to say I’ll do the opposite in public. Every time I say something like “I’m going on a break from MMOs”, or something to that effect, I get sucked in hardcore.

This time around it’s WoW, my guild, the 3.0.2 patch, and Hallow’s End. Stacking these elements on top of each other has made a delicious sandwich of gameplay goodness that WILL NOT BE DENIED. It doesn’t hurt that I’m *this* close to the money required for my Epic Flying Mount. I said I was going to hit 70 and get my epic before the expansion and golldarnit it looks like I’m actually going to follow through with that vow.

As you probably gets from my fanboi slobbering the other day, the Achievement system is a shot to the heart. I’m not an achievement whore on XBLA, but I certainly like them quite a bit. My biggest unlock-fest was Viva Pinata, which I’ve already compared to an MMO in some ways here on the site. I’ve also complained about the poor Achievements in FFXI. So it probably isn’t surprising that – given real Achievements in a real MMO … well, it’s been a little hard to do stuff like feed myself over the last week.

That combines messily with the Hallow’s End event. Just like in previous years you can do X, Y, and Z … but this year X, Y, and Z are actually enumerated right there for you in the Achivements window. When you know that ‘all’ you have to do is such and such it’s a powerful compeller to actually go out there and do it. My guild has been a great enabler on this front, with much backpatting all around whenever an Achievement notification goes out across the green channel. Good times.

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I’m really … really … really glad they finally announced this fricking thing. Yay BioWare!

• Massively’s SWTOR Coverage
• IGN’s Blowout
• The GameSpot Rundown
• The GameSpot Video
• Gamasutra’s Followup
• The Giant Bomb Post
• Eurogamer’s Announcement
• TORWiki

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