I’m just in a bit o’ this week’s Conference Call from GWJ; Rabbit and I tossed a few questions at Bethesda’s Pete Hines about storytelling. Watch the softball action!

This week Julian Murdoch and Michael Zenke lob softballs across the plate for Pete Hines to knock out of the park. We also cover a crazy amount of games, your emails and some new listener submitted audio bits.

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Someone on the last post suggested I plug my DDOcast apperance last week, which I … totally should have done.

This week’s show features Ask the Devs #6 along with an interview with Michael Zenke from Massively.com.  Lessah talks about leet speek on ”Know Your Role”, Rowanheal has some thoughts on recent stuff on ”Girl Gamers” and Steiner-Davion looks at Gianthold collectibles on ”Definitive Collectibles.”  There’s also a sketch about the Stormreach Mayoral Election – Goodblade’s Downfall!

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First commented on by Scott and now a subject of some discussion in twitter over a whole other sort of ad, Massively’s RSS feed has been a subject of much facepalmery on my part in the last week. As a commercial site Massively is beholden to elements over which we are just not in control. The RSS feed, how its ultimately used, and what elements of it we can tweak, are one of those things.

Let me make this clear:

• Massively does not in any way support gold farming or gold farmers.
• Massively does not advocate for or against any political argument, candidate, or point of view. It’s as neutral a place as we can make it, given the fact that everybody is biased one way or another.
• All ads on the RSS feed will be removed as soon as we can arrange it, but the reality of the situation is that after 7:30pm ET on a weeknight (when I found out about this) is not a time when much can be done one way or the other.

As lead blogger I sincerely and honestly apologize for any frustration or annoyance this has caused the MMO blogging community. Please always feel free to get in touch with me if you have a concern about Massively.com.

Thanks.

Read below the cut for something far less serious that helped me get through the headdesking and facepalming.
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Like Scott Jennings, I’m voting for Barack Obama next Tuesday. I don’t expect you to care, or be swayed, at this point, but I felt it was worth pointing out.

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WoW’s ongoing Zombie Plague event appears to be riling up the natives.

“Let’s say someone *doesn’t* want to participate, as some of my guild’s leveling alts did not. Unfortunately, they are FORCED to participate, even passively. They are affected by this, both in terms of being physical attacked by not only “Alliance” zombies, but also by their own faction. This contradicts the very nature of a PvE server, where you only have to fight people by your own volition.”

While they go on to note some of the positive folks as well, this sentiment really sticks in my craw. When so often MMO players go on and on about the stasis of their gameworlds, the fact that nothing changes … gaah. Here, Blizz finally really goes out there and gives you a changing world, an evocative experience, and you go ‘waaah’. Please.

As WoW Insider notes, the plague is growing and I’ve had a ton of fun being a plague-bearer. I can’t decide whether it’s more fun infecting your own city or hitting the opposition. The most fun I’ve had yet was in diseasing up the Lakeshire region. I started by plaguing some of the static NPCs in the field, the ones that were unlikely to die super-soon. Then I worked on the static NPCs in the town itself, even getting Bellygrub to become plague-born. I never saw her transform – I wonder if she’d be a zombie pig?

WI also has the news that they’re considering heavily revamping healing sometime in the next year or so. I’d love this, and the addition of a new healing class (as the poster intimates) would be a boon. I really hope we see this as a patch instead of an addition in the next expansion. A fun, starts-at-55 healing class would be a big boon to the game.

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It’s days like this that remind me why we play MMOs. I refer to them as bridge clubs and bowling leagues all the time in interviews, comparing the comradre of a guild to any other team activity. Ultimately, though, the appeal of MMO play is about competence. Whether you’re in a group, part of a guild, or (especially) soloing, playing an MMO means acting fundamentally in a competent and useful way. Even new players hammering at the keys in the first ten levels will – usually – be able to achieve the goals set before them. At the highest levels of play that competence is honed to a fair-thee-well, with gameplay more resembling a dance or orchestral movement than simple button-mashing.

That applies to story as well. Additionally appealing is the ability to involve yourself into a fiction or a context outside your norm. Soloing allows players to really understand and appreciate the lore set out before them. They can take the time to read the quest text, and enjoy the events of the world around them. In a group or as part of a guild, the ’story’ is really more about the people than the game. Whether the tale is one of tragic comedy in a failing PUG or of heroics and victory in a server-first raid, there’s a story you can immerse yourself in as a player. You sink into that experience, participating as much or as little as you want.

The ulimate appeal of the MMO, beyond competence and story, is that immersion factor. You can be as present in the real world – or not – as you so choose. You can be a late-twenties guy playing a game, chatting with friends, and watching a video … or you can be a lithe undead rogue skirting the edges of a dungeon in search of treasure and glory.

I bring this up becuase I’m having yet another frustrating kind of morning. My wife and I find ourselves in doctor medical clinics or worrying about health problems far, far too often in my opinion. I’m writing this from yet another waiting room, wishing I were doing my dailies or working on my exploration Achievements or doing the Headless Huntsman with WWTD … pretty much anything but what I’m doing right now.

Escapist inclinations, many people call them. A rejection of reality, shirking of responsibilities, or refusal to grow up, others accuse. I call the human mind’s tendency to seek out solace where-ever it can find it highly sane. Whether that’s online, in a book, hobby, vice, or sport we use the larger context of outside environments to connect us, to support us. It’s not about wanting to escape. It’s about wanting something to lean on, a means to make it through rough times with some measure of good cheer and productivity.

I love MMOs for many reasons. Today, I mostly love them becuase they’re always there when I need them.

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