I both hate and love the fact that Blizzard run seasonal events in WoW. They’ve had two recently. Well, three if you include Christmas. One of them, as far as I’m aware, didn’t have a real world equivalent and that was the Lunar festival held by the druids. The others were christmas and valentines.

I hate them because, well, christmas is one thing but to be reminded of such tedious, corporate coercion like valentines day in the fantasy world of a game almost defeats the escapist reasons I play such games in the first place.

I love them because they’re so well implemented. The christmas (or Winterveil) celebrations featured a Father Christmas character who would give out seasonal gifts but never forgot to mention the corporate sponsors (in game corporate sponsors - don’t know of many real world companies run by goblins. Apart from the one I work for of course). And this week the inhabitants of Azeroth have been subjected to romantic poems, boxes of chocolates and quests to fix broken heart. It’s all very twee and yet Blizzard have undermined the whole valentines ideal by making it so that a chain of quests leads you to investigate this “sickness” that is spreading throughout the world and to find an appropriate cure.

It just appeals to the subversive in me.