Hallow's End = WoW Done Right

The Hallow's End event has been going on for a few days now, and it's actually a lot more fun than every other seasonal event Blizzard has put in to the game. Yes, Brewfest had ram racing and beer goggles, but Hallow's End is just plain fun.

At the high end, you can take down the Headless Horseman every day, and he actually drops useful loot. The first day, I got both the Witching Band and the The Horseman's Signet Ring. His Horseman's Helm not only looks cool, and is useful, but also lets the wearer laugh like the Horseman. And this loot is not very hard to get at all. It's not as good as some of the uber-endgame loot, but it's pretty darn good. As a healer, the Witching Band is better than the Ring of Convalescence that many of us healers who haven't cleared Serpentshrine Cavern wear.

You can also get flying broom mounts from him: one that works in the Outlands, which you can actually fly around on, and one that works in the old world, which doesn't let you fly, but looks cool anyway.

On the lower end, the Horseman flies over the starting areas, dropping firebombs, and everyone can pitch in and put out the fires. Sure, you don't get epics, but you do get rep and some cash. On top of that, there's candy galore to get, and if you eat too much too fast, then you get a dubuff that makes you randomly throw up.

The whole event is fun, rather than work (such as collecting tickets, which is more or less another rep grind). It reinforces what's interesting about the game, and not what's repetitive about the game (although you could make the argument that more loot and/or the daily quest nature of the Horseman quest = repetitive). It's enjoyable to play in the event across the board, because it's easy and because the rewards are good, and because the activities are (at least at the lower end) are different.

I hope that Blizzard learns from the popularity of this event and the positive feedback they are getting from it. No one's saying that the whole game should be as easy as the Horseman or drop epics like he does (though easy-to-get epics = nice), but when the game is fun, everyone wins. People play more, enjoy playing, find the joy that we first had leveling our first characters, and Blizzard has happy players who will stick around longer and continue to pay them their monthly subscription fee.