Are you feeling festive? The Christmas update hit World
of Warcraft's servers today, and WoW Insider has the nitty gritty.
However, are Christmas features just an annoying breach of the barrier between online worlds and the real world, or are
they a nice way of making virtual places seem current?
While it's pleasant to wander into one's favourite MMO and see decorations around the place, it breaks the feeling of
escapism—a hard day's Christmas shopping shouldn't end with logging into a game and continuing the task there.
Fortunately, the Christmas spirit often brings good things, though—nifty jetpacks and special quests with bonus XP are
just two examples—and can be confined to particular areas. It becomes intrusive when those areas are popular for other
reasons and slow down immensely due to overcrowding at Christmas.
Also, Christmas makes a great setting for your own creativity, and this winter festival just happens to coincide with
Blizzard's WoW machinima
contest—there's big money for grabs, so get your thinking Santa hats on.
