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As so succinctly stated on a message board I frequent, the Noblegarden annual event in World of Warcraft amounts to, “Click on eggs before anyone else clicks on eggs to win!” Timed and themed analagous to Easter in the real world, the event’s mind-numbing at best.

Apparently, the game’s developers rightly realized that hours of staring at one spot on your computer’s monitor and clicking blue orbs isn’t appealing enough for its public. Their solution: Let’s introduce sexism! Hey, it makes all other media content popular, and no women play online games anyway, right?

Here’s a little background for those who aren’t familiar with the game. Late last year, taking a cue from the Xbox Live service, Blizzard introduced the ‘achievements’ system. Perform a novel, difficult or repetitive action in the game, and you get 10 achievement points, which at this time, are used for nothing. Several, after achieving them, give you “cosmetic” items, such as clothing, that don’t affect gameplay. One of the few exceptions to the gameplay rule, out of the more than 750 achievements, grants the fastest mount in the game.

Recently, Noblegarden (formerly a day-long event) was extended to a week, and numerous achievements related to it were added to the game. Most are pretty banal (eat 100 chocolates!), a few are cute (find a rabbit a suitable mating companion,) and one is unconscionable: Shake Your Bunny-Maker.

How this works: In the course of participating in Noblegarden, the ...