With fewer and fewer children donning costumes and hitting the streets every year to celebrate all things sweet and spooky, the Halloween tradition is alive and well in the virtual worlds of today's massively multiplayer online games.

The world's a scarier place than it was when I was a kid. Back in my day parents had no qualms about suiting their children up in dark clothing and sending them out to play in traffic and eat candy. It's not so much that the world has gotten more dangerous as it is our enhanced ability to perceive the dangers that were already there. With the internet and cable television we get to see all the horrible things that have been happening for years, and it scares the hell out of parents and children. Communities just aren't what they were back in the day, unless you count online communities.

In the realms of games like World of Warcraft and EverQuest, children of all ages can celebrate the season without fear, outfitting their characters in crazy costumes, earning rare in-games items, and taking down creepy crawlers of all shapes and sizes, all safely from within the confines of their own computer desk. They may get killed, but it's never permanent.

Let's take a worry-free look at how the major massively multiplayer games are celebrating Halloween this year.

Go on, click through the gallery to see how MMO developers are getting their spooky on this year, and don't get too upset if I missed your favorite game; there's a comment section below this post just waiting for you to share.