How D&D is like an MMO and why I don’t care

I found an interesting article today on Gamasutra, titled The Adventurer’s Guide to Thievery. Independent of this post, it’s a good read, talking to some extent about the ways in which D&D borrows from MMOs and to a greater extent the ways in which MMOs could learn a thing or two from D&D.

This got me thinking about a post I’ve half-written a couple of times since I started this blog: the frequent comparison of D&D 4th Edition to a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game. I’m mainly going to talk about World of Warcraft, here: World of Warcraft is one of the most— if not the most— popular MMOs out there, so it’s sort of pointless to discuss most other MMOs in any detail.