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Meet the Team: Michael Zenke

Michael Zenke
Updated ·5 min read


Once a week our writers will give you a glimpse into their lives, to let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more Meet the Team.

 What do you do for Massively.com?

I'm the Managing Editor for the site. That means that in addition to doing regular news blogging and the occasional feature, I help the contributing editors focus their coverage and writing. I try my best to connect the site with development houses and publishers, and generally work towards getting new and better content on the site every day. For the past year plus the site's been my life and fulltime work, and I'm really very fond of it.

That probably sounds weird, but that's the way it is.%Gallery-33889%

What's your favorite MMO?

As a lot of the other bloggers have noted, it's really hard for me to answer that question. Right now that dubious distinction falls on Lord of the Rings Online, which I'm playing with a group of podcasting buddies in a static group. The recent big news about Warhammer Online has me very enthused about that game again, and I'm trying out a Knight of the Blazing Sun. He's only about level 10, but already I'm impressed with the class.

I've played pretty much every commercially released game out there, a few that haven't come out yet, and a few that never did. The massively multiplayer genre is bar none my favorite kind of game, and I love playing these games as much as I love writing about them.

What games are you playing now, and what are your characters?

Already sort-of answered this, but here are my characters:

  • Warhammer Online: My main is a War Priest, but as I said above I'm getting very fond of the Knight. I also have an early T2 Rune Priest that may be the most viciously effective healing class I've ever played.

  • Lord of the Rings Online: My main is in his early 30s, a Dwarven Guardian. I have a Warden class alt I'm also very fond of that I hope will eventually make her way out of the teens.

  • EverQuest 2: I've got a higher level Inquisitor that it took me roughly two years to get to where he is now. Proud member of Revelry and Honor!

  • World of Warcraft: I've still got the Human Mage I played when the game launched hanging around in my stable of characters, but for the last year or so I've been primarily playing an Undead Rogue. She's cooling her heels at 74 while I take a break from Blizzard's Azeroth – which is not to say I didn't love Northrend!

  • City of Heroes: I've been playing an Elec/Elec Blaster called Jacob's Ladder in this game since it launched, and I'm still very fond of him.

  • Guild Wars: I had a Monk/Warrior bouncing around in-game since sometime early in the lifetime of this game. More recently I've really enjoyed playing a Dervish. Dig that crazy scythe action.

  • Dungeons and Dragons Online: I love clerics in D&D, and equally so in D&D Online.

  • Final Fantasy XI: It's been a while since I played this, but at one point I had a low-50s Taru Black Mage that I've used as my icon for years. The more recent Dancer class is one I really want to explore sometime.

Why do you like MMOs so much?

Innumerable reasons. I love playing with friends, stemming from my time as a tabletop gamer. I love participating in an open world, being able to see the achievements of others and allowing them to see mine. I'm a sucker for game lore, be it Tolkienien in depth or the nouveau-fantasy of Guild Wars. Since the advent of Achievements and the like in games I've absolutely loved checking those boxes off; I'm a sucker for gamerscore. I even tend to like solo quest grinding if the mood strikes me. There's little about MMOs I don't like, honestly.

What accomplishment in-game are you most proud of?

Snagging my epic flying mount in World of Warcraft ranks way up there, but there have been innumerable accomplishments I'm really proud of. Playing MMOs means you get to be a hero, right?

The social ones are obviously more important than the solo ones, and to that end I'm really happy about my participation in the guilds that have been short-sighted enough to take me in over the years.

If you had 10 more hours to play every week, what would you spend them doing?

I'd do more crafting and achievement/deed type content. I love both, but don't tend to have enough time in my normal play hours to give them the attention they deserve.

When you're not playing MMOs, what do you do?

Writing about them, thinking about them, or planning to play them. Aside from my MMO fixation I'm also a dedicated tabletop gamer and a fan of science fiction. I'm also married, and somehow manage to spend enough time with my wife that she hasn't beaned me across the head. Yet.