As your number grows, the game world will tailor itself to you in other subtle ways: as the pool of players you interact with becomes more and more exclusive, you’ll no longer need to stand still in prominent locations quite so often to allow others to inspect your gear; you’ll have fewer time-wasting calendar invitations to sift through; and your friends list will become increasingly more manageable, reducing needless scrolling time. Any negative repercussions of these changes will be offset by the satisfaction you’ll receive knowing your equipment is significantly more impressive than average.
Sure, the EPEEN is Gear Score. Here's the problem: I really don't feel that Blizzard is being self-deprecating here, past possibly Binky the Rooster, which kills the joke. The joke isn't on us; the game is overly much about numbers and gear. Gear does work like leveling. People don't interact with others based on a Gear Score number because that number does have a direct correlation with successful gaming.
I loved the in-game /panda joke a year or two back. This year's joke, however, is too close to the truth to do more than make me melancholy.
