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.