What I've learned on WoW when I should have been doing real homework...

This is from my writings on my WoW play to date. It'll be posted elsewhere soon, but here it is, for the purpose of centralization.

1. At certain level, you can't play the game alone. Sure, you can whack on bad guys one by one, but sooner or later, there are two or three of them, and only one of you. What's really amazing, in that situation, is how easy it is with a friend.
2. The kindness of strangers can be remarkable. I asked a higher level player a question about how to chat - I couldn't figure out the interface and the manual didn't help. The player not only answered the question, but then gave me 5 gold pieces. 15 levels later, I still have 4 of those gold - 1 gold goes a long way - but I have better equipment, and have been able to do so much more - it really was a huge gift. I've never seen them again. I can only pass the favor along some time in the future.
3. I think we overlook a crucial point about human-computer interaction when we ignore the intrinsic desire to use the interface for some other purpose. The interface of WoW isn't badly done as game controls go - it follows some established conventions - but the reality is, it was easier to learn because I wanted to play the game for the enjoyment of the game. Not many people learn Microsoft Word's interface for the fun of it, and even when they want to write the Great American Novel, the word processor interface doesn't add much to the experience. I can't say that I'd learn the WoW interface without the game's goals, but mastering the interface deepens the pleasure of the game.
4. The other thing about Blizzard's design decisions on WoW's interface was to recognize that no interface serves all needs, and so they actively promote the tools needed to change the interface. Granted, not everyone will want to tackle XML and some Java-based graphic tools to rearrange the game controls, but some will. For those people, Blizzard has established tutorials and forums for people to share ideas and examples of different interface designs. Thinking back to The Inmates Are Running The Asylum, this seems to run counter to the idea that interface or interaction designers are what we need to improve our experience. Instead, perhaps what we need is infinte flexibility in our interface design, someone to make a good first guess at the design, and then simply facilitate the modders with tools and a community.
5. Part of what makes WoW "digital crack" (and other MMO games too, I'd guess) is how apparent they make the progress toward advanced ability. Now, I'm not sure I am that much more expert a player at level 20 as I was at level 10, but my avatar is definitely more expert. I know it by seeing the larger damage numbers showing up above my opponent's head when I whack them with my two-handed broadsword, and I know it by watching my experience bar gradually fill, marching across the screen from left to right, until I level up in a burst of golden sparks. Not to put too fine a point on it, but hey, it's kinda sexual, huh? And not to trot out orgasmic bliss and then drop it for another metaphor, but perhaps we're a bit too quick to hammer on learning products like Accelerated Reader and SRA - they might have had it right. I can remember pretty clearly the satisfaction of knocking off several SRA cards in a sitting as a third grader - gradually the colored tabs of the cards moved through the spectrum. I might have been missing the golden sparkles, but the levelling up of WoW feels pretty similar.
6. WoW on dialup has its hazards. When you lose connection briefly to the server, you experience what's called "lag" - your display doesn't accurately display what your avatar is experiencing. If you're just jogging from one location to the next, no worries - but if you've just engaged the Dalaran Apprentice, and you can't see to whack him... well, you're just dead. But more disconcerting is when you lose connection from the server for a long time - 30 seconds or so. What's intriguing is that the world doesn't dissolve into digital dust. Instead, it just gets ... empty. I don't understand how the game is architected, but somehow, what's installed on the host computer are the landforms, but not the quests or NPCs or other players. Lose connection with the server, and you're all alone in what is a very desolate land. At its most basic, Blizzard's servers serve community at a monthly fee, and those of us that make the community pay to have it returned to us.
7. The social hierarchy of WoW is not so subtly tilted toward those who support collaboration, and against those we'd traditionally call our leaders. Doubt it? Consider the case of the guild that recruited CharmingUrg, my Undead Warrior. Granted, Innate Malevolence is a small guild - not necessarily prominent, but there are about 100 players. They were happy to let my warrior join, but who do they really want? Priests. Shamans. Characters that can heal other players. Characters that can "buff" others' abilities. What they want, at its simplest, are players willing to set aside their own ego for the greater good of the team. Warriors and Hunters are great, charging around with their tank-like hit-point totals taking on the bad guys, but it's the individual players who have chosen an avatar with a goal of healing and support that are most in demand. Even after a quarter of Farzin trying to get through to me on leadership, I can't define it, but somewhere there's got to be a model of leadership that recognizes the Priests among us.
8. On the other hand, when a level 30 player and a level 20 player team up, the level 30 player will receive a disproportionately high share of the XP earned by whomping an adversary. This strikes me as an interesting conundrum. On the one hand, the social nature of the game encourages teamwork to a point, but also dissuades mentorship. It'd be interesting to have the option to bind your character to another in an apprenticeship, and have the higher (more expert) player's actions reflect more disproportionately on the noob. Would Level 60 players brag about their ability to bring their mentees quickly to higher levels, or would they say, "ahh, teaching - there's just no gold in it..."?