Yesterday was Black Friday, and as usual there were incredible deals to be had all over the place.  Rampant consumerism at its best.  And once again people died in the rush to get a great deal.

It might be one thing if it was just one or two isolated events one year…  But similar things happened last year, and the year before.  We are being whipped into a frenzy of consumer lust that defies all reason.  And folks are all-too willing to go along with it.

Personally, I think every single person at that store should be held accountable.  Every single person in that crowd of rabid shoppers who trampled the man, and then his would-be rescuers.  But the store is also to blame.  Maybe not the local sales clerks and managers, but certainly the geniuses in marketing who managed to get everyone so wound up that people died.  Isn’t inciting a riot illegal?

Honestly, it’s crap like this that makes me hate the holiday season.  What was supposed to be a holy day has instead turned into months of gluttonous consumer spending.

So, yesterday was Thanksgiving.  Terri got the day off on account of her slaving over a hot stove every other day of the year, so I did the cooking.  Everything turned out surprisingly well.  Not that I really thought I’d ruin everything…  I can cook fairly well usually…  But a big ol’ Thanksgiving dinner is a little imposing.

I, of course, ate far too much.  Piles of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, pumpkin pie…  It’s amazing that I didn’t rupture something yesterday.

I also spent a good chunk of the day yesterday playing WoW.  My Warlock is now 76, and my Death Knight is 62.  I’m more-or-less done with Dragonblight…  There are still a few group quests for me to do there, but I’ve had enough.  Some of those quests were pretty frustrating and I’m glad to be out of the zone.  I’m currently grinding in Howling Fjord – technically a step backwards, as the zone is lower level, but it’s a lot of fun.

I haven’t played Left 4 Dead again since that first session.  It was certainly fun, but I’ve been tied up in WoW almost nonstop.  That’s the problem with the holiday season in general – excess.  Too much stuff going on, too much to do, not enough time for any of it.  I’ve still got to play through Red Alert 3, and I wanted to try Fallout 3, and I never did finish Dead Space…

The best part though, is that it is only Friday night.  I’ve had two full days off from work, and I’ve got two more to go.  Very nice.

Monday was my Birthday, and Terri got me Left 4 Dead.  I didn’t have a chance to play it Monday night because we were running through the Wrathgate stuff…  So last night I fired it up for the first time.

Left 4 Dead, if you aren’t aware, is the new zombie shooter from Valve – the folks responsible for Half-Life and Team Fortress 2.  Strictly speaking, the enemies aren’t zombies.  Much like in 28 Days Later they are actually people who are infected with some virus that turns them into zombie-like homicidal maniacs.  But for all intents and purposes they are zombies.  Civilization has been pretty much wiped out.  You and a few other survivors spend the entire game trying to find safety, and fighting off the zombies at every turn.

From a gameplay perspective, L4D is a pretty simple shooter.  You move around with your keyboard, aim with the mouse, left-click to shoot, and right-click to club someone…  There are a couple extra keys to turn your flashlight on or off, and to pick up items, but that’s really about it.  Nothing terribly complicated or weird.  Just run and shoot.

But there really is quite a bit more to the game than simply running and shooting.  They did a great job of capturing the feel of a zombie apocalypse, and that impacts on how you play the game.

It isn’t a solo shooter.  You’re teamed up with three other survivors who can either be controlled by other players on-line or by the computer.  You don’t carry an arsenal – you get a pistol, a bigger gun of some sort, and maybe a single explosive.  You aren’t indestructible – it is fairly easy to get yourself overwhelmed and killed.  You really need to rely on your team mates at times…  If you get knocked down you’ll need a team member to pull the zombies off of you.  If you get “incapacitated” you’ll need a team member to stop your bleeding and get you back off the ground.  And you’ve got a real incentive to keep the rest of your team alive, because you can’t fight everything off by yourself.

There’s basically a limitless supply of zombies.  You aren’t going to methodically clear one room after another and have a safe trip to the goal.  They keep re-appearing when you aren’t looking.  And if you’re too slow and cautious you’ll get attacked by a swarm of zombies that leap over walls, climb in through windows, or simply break down walls.  So you need to keep moving.  You need to keep shooting.  You need to have other people along to keep you alive.

Navigating the levels can be a little challenging.  There aren’t a whole lot of obvious directional cues in the ruins of this abandoned city.  I wandered around the same city block several times before I figured out where I needed to go.  It wasn’t so bad inside the hospital, I just followed the brightly-lit exit signs…  But it adds a very worrisome edge of realism to the game.  It is entirely possible that you’ll get lost and wander into a dead-end somewhere, with a horde of zombies blocking your only way out.

The zombies themselves come in a few different flavors…

You’ve got the standard-issue zombies.  They stand around looking mostly dead until they notice you, at which point they’ll charge right at you.

There are hunters, which are far more active and agile.  They’ll leap from one place to the next, climb up walls, and tackle you to the ground.

There are smokers, which like to lurk in dark places and then reel you in with a giant tentacle.

There are boomers, which like to vomit on you.  The vomit then attracts every other zombie in the area.

There are tanks, which look kind of like the Incredible Hulk.  They’re huge, muscular beasts.  They look kind of silly from a distance…  But when they’re charging at your, throwing cars out of their way, and knocking you across the room they’re not nearly so humorous.

And then there are the witches.  These zombies just huddle in a corner weeping, and will sit there unless you disturb them.  If you disturb them, they kill you.  They’re insanely fast and powerful.

The game feels exactly like playing through a Romero movie.  It reminded me a lot of the recent remake of Dawn of the Dead.  It wasn’t exactly horrifying…  Not a whole lot of scary moments…  But there’s a distinct feeling of suspense and oppression.  A very real sense that you’re only a hair’s breadth away from death at every moment.

I dragged Terri though the Wrathgate stuff last night, so I can now discuss it in-depth.

I’m really impressed with what Blizzard has done with the Wrathgate encounter.  Not so much because it’s a great quest, or there’s wonderful loot, or because the cutscene is dramatic…  But more what it means for MMOGs from a technical standpoint.  What it means Blizzard is able to do with storylines and quests in the future.  And I’m very eager to see where this goes.

For folks who don’t know what I’m talking about…  After a series of quests at Wintergarde Keep you wind up meeting Bolvar Fordragon at Fordragon hold, right outside the Wrathgate.  The Wrathgate is a gigantic structure that looks like it was ripped right out of Lord of the Rings.  It’s a huge, imposing gate blocking the way to Icecrown.

Fordragon launches an attack on the Wrathgate, calling on Arthas to show himself and answer for his crimes.  The Horde shows up to help in the attack on the Wrathgate, fighting right along-side the Alliance.  You get a great in-game cutscene that shows this epic battle.

Pretty much everyone dies.  You are tasked with bringing Fordragon’s shield to King Wrynn in Stormwind.  And then you go on a diplomatic mission to Orgrimmar.  And then you get to fight to retake The Undercity.  It’s all very epic.  It’s all very fun.  But, as I said, that isn’t really the point.

The point is that Blizzard has managed to introduce a real storyline into a MMOG.  This is the kind of action, arc, and development that you typically see in a single player game, not a MMOG.  As far as my Warlock is concerned, the world has been permenantly altered.  Bolvar is dead now.  I will not see him standing watch over Fordragon Hold.  The armies that were massed outside the Wrathgate are now gone, replaced with flaming debris.

By contrast, look at the old Onyxia attunement showdown…  It used to be that if you wanted to fight Onyxia, you had to get attuned.  Which meant a fairly long and involved series of quest, which ultimately resulted in a showdown in the Stormwind throneroom.  Turns out Onyxia was there the whole time, in disguise, advising the child king.  There’s a big showdown.  She’s revealed for who she is.  Several of the guards are revealed to be dragonkin.  There’s fighting.  Eventually Onyxia flees the scene.

And if you wait a few minutes Onyxia will re-appear, in the guise of the child king’s advisor.  She’ll be right back where she was before you unmasked her.  And if you wait a little while longer someone else will come along who’s working on that attunement quest as well, and you’ll get to see the whole showdown again.

If you hung out in the throneroom for a few hours you’d see Onyxia unmasked a good dozen times.  Over and over again.  And even though you had personally unmasked her…  Even though you had personally gone to her lair and killed her…  Even though her head was hanging from Stormwind’s gates…  She was still there, standing beside the child king, waiting to be unmasked once again.

It really hurt the idea of WoW as a living, breathing world when you saw such an obvious example of basic game mechanics.  They couldn’t leave her dead, because she had to be there for the next personto do their quest.  So she’d just re-appear, over and over and over again – regardless of what you had done.  The world was never permenantly changed.  Nothing you did ever had a lasting impact on anything.

Until now.  Now you can actually change the world.

I saved a number of townsfolk in Wintergarde keep, and they’re permenantly saved.  They’re at work in the inn.  If I come back tomorrow, or next week, they’ll still be there.  They won’t need to be saved again in ten minutes, or an hour, or a week.  Sure…someone else may need to save them…  My other characters will need to save them…  But as far as my Warlock is concerned, they’re saved.  It is done and over with.  They’re safe and happily serving drinks at the local inn.

And Bolvar is dead.  The attack on the Wrathgate ended in disaster.  The armies have been reduced to ashes and flames.  I can wait around all day long and I won’t see anybody else launch an attack on the Wrathgate.  Bolvar isn’t going to miraculously re-appear to lead the attack again.

Yes, that Wrathgate encounter was impressive…  But what I’m really excited about is the new dimension this adds to gameplay.  I am now able to permenantly change the world around me.  That’s something I’ve been wanting to do in MMOGs for years now.  And I’m dying to see what other changes I’m going to be allowed to make.

I spent most of the weekend playing WoW…  Didn’t do much on my Death Knight, focused almost entirely on my Warlock.

I located the floating city of Dalaran, out in Crystalsong, but I wasn’t allowed to go up to it.  I guess you need to be 74 to be allowed in Dalaran.  Unless you’re a mage…  And Terri was quick to grab the appropriate quests and tell me how wonderful it was up in Dalaran just as soon as she could.  So I decided to grind my way to 74 just as quick as I could.

I managed to burn through two levels on Sunday, hit 74, and ran off to Dalaran to see the sights…

Dalaran is certainly cool.  It reminds me a lot of the Blood Elf architecture you see in various places.  Which makes sense, I guess.  Blood Elves used to be High Elves, and they were always very magical.  The city is far more friendly to foot traffic than Shattrath ever was.  It feels more like a real city.  You’ve got streets that wind around buildings…  An assortment of shops and inns…  I’m a little disappointed that there are no trainers or auction houses in Dalaran – you have to port back to the capital cities just like you had to in Shattrath.  I was kind of hoping they wouldn’t do that again.

But, honestly, the trip to 74 was far more interesting than seeing Dalaran was.

I did a bunch of quests for the dragons at Wyrmrest Temple.  They had me flying around on the back of a dragon, fighting off other dragons.  They had me holding back waves of the undead.  I had to help out the Bronze Dragonflight, and the Obsidian Dragonflight, and the Emerald Dragonflight…

Then I wound up over at Wintergarde Keep fighting back the scourge.  The place was under assault – undeads everywhere.  Zombies, ghouls, death knights, abominations…  People running, screaming, dying.  And I actually managed to make a difference.  I saved a bunch of villagers that were otherwise going to get eaten.  The inn, when you first arrive, is deserted.  After you save a bunch of villagers though the inn is able to re-open.

I also got to see the battle of the Wrathgate, which was simply awesome – in the purest sense of the word.  I can’t say any more, because Terri hasn’t completed it yet…  But, wow.  Best moment in any MMOG I’ve ever played.

So, I’m 74 now.  I’m done with the Dragonblight.  I’ve completed every quest that I could find out there with the exception of a couple dungeon quests and a few group quests.  I’m not quite sure where I go to from here…  I have, for the moment, gone off to Howling Fjord to do some easy quests and see the countryside.  And there were a couple silver quests that weren’t available to me yet in the Dragonblight.  But I’m really not sure what is the next zone for me.  Maybe the Grizzly Hills?

I don’t like Christmas.

I’m not just indifferent, I actively dislike it.

All the stores around here have their Christmas stuff out…  All sorts of snowmen and trees and stuff for sale.  Assorted lights and signs and displays to decorate your house.  All sorts of sales and flyers and stuff trying to convince you to buy more crap.  Christmas music on the radio…  All sorts of talk about Christmas planning, shopping, and celebrating on TV…

It all makes me cringe.

Within the confines of our own house I enjoy the holiday.  I like having some time off.  I like the excuse to spend time with my family.  I like the feasting and the way it tricks people into sitting down around the dinner table and talking to eachother.  I like to see my wife and son smile to see what they’ve got under the tree.  That’s all fun.

But outside of the confines of my own house…  Out in the world at large…  Christmas has become downright distasteful to me.

We’re told to give, give, give…  They tell us how much better it is to give than to receive.  The Salvation Army is outside stores, ringing their bells.  There’s specials about how people are going hungry and need your donations.  There’s tales of random acts of charity.  But it all seems like a very thin veneer over rampant greed.

We’re told how great it is to give gifts…and then we’re handed a sales flyer pointing out all the wonderful things we could give, if we bought them.  We’re told how disappointed the children will be if we don’t get them everything they want.  There are “news” stories about how to explain to your children that times are tight and Santa won’t be bringing as many presents this year…  Followed up shortly by an advertisement for American Express, or MasterCard, or some other way to dig yourself deeper into debt.

And then…  In a time when we’re all supposed to be coming together to celebrate this wonderful, holy occasion…  We’ve got the fundamentalists who want to exclude people, rather than include them.  Folks who are upset when you try to include people of every creed by wishing everyone a Happy Holiday, instead of wishing happiness on only the Christians.  We’re told that people who want to include everyone in the joy of the season are, in fact, waging a War on Christmas.

A holiday that is, at least theoretically, supposed to bring people together in celebration…  Is instead used to drive another wedge between people.

And if you don’t like all of this crap…  If all the rampant commercialism and thinly-veiled greed and nicely-dressed hate doesn’t make you bright and cheerful…  Then there’s something wrong with you.