| A massive(ly) multiplayer online role-playing game or MMORPG is a multiplayer computer role-playing
game that enables thousands of players to play in an evolving virtual
world at the same time over the Internet. MMORPGs are a specific type of
massive(ly) multiplayer online game
(MMOG).
Overview
Players run a client to connect to an MMORPG and someone else, usually the game's publisher, hosts the game world. The virtual worlds they create are called "persistent worlds", meaning that the world continues regardless of who is
logged in or not. When a player logs in, they are represented in the game world by an avatar — a graphical representation of the
character they play.
Most MMORPGs run several identical copies of the virtual world, called "shards", "sub-worlds", "continents", "servers" or
"realms", that the player can choose from. They strive to allow the player to shape their own experience by providing multiple
(or customizable) avatars that the player can use. Once a player enters the world, they can engage in a variety of activities
with other players who are accessing the game the same way from all over the world. MMORPG developers are in charge of
supervising the virtual world and offering the users a constantly updated set of new activities and enhancements to guarantee the
interest of players.
One MMORPG that differs from the "shard" concept is EVE Online
(2001). Eve uses only one server for all players and, unlike most popular MMORPGs,
it uses a sci-fi theme.
Most MMORPGs are commercial in that a user must pay money for the client software and/or a monthly fee, in order to
continually access the virtual world. Still, some totally free-of-charge MMORPGs may be found on the Internet, although the
quality of their production values is generally lower compared to commercial MMORPGs.
Some of the most popular commercial MMORPGs report over 200,000 subscribers, including Ultima Online (1997), EverQuest (1999), City of Heroes (2004), Dark Age of Camelot (2001), Final Fantasy XI (2002),
Star Wars Galaxies (2003), and World of Warcraft (2004). South Korean MMORPGs claim the highest
subscription numbers by far: Nexus:
The Kingdom of the Winds, Lineage,
and Ragnarok Online report millions of registered users. There
are also several projects in development to create high-quality free MMORPGs, such as PlaneShift and Daimonin, and a free game engine for MMORPGs, such as Arianne.
See list of MMORPGs for more.
Most MMORPGs provide support for large in-game groups of players, commonly called clans but also sometimes called "guilds" or other names depending on the game. A clan can be a
social group or have a specific game-related purpose, ranging from helping newbies to
teaming up in player versus player combat. Most newer
MMORPGs feature "raids", challenging encounters designed for one or more clans to participate in.
History
MMORPGs are computer games that can be traced back to the 1970s to non-graphical online MUD games, to text-based
computer games such as Adventure and
Zork, and to pen and paper role-playing games like Dungeons
& Dragons. Habitat, a graphical MUD
from the mid 1980s, predated the modern notion of MMORPG by a decade.
The first modern MMORPG is now mostly credited as Meridian 59
(1996), but it was Ultima
Online (1997) that popularized the genre. Both of these games featured a flat
monthly subscription fee instead of the traditional per-hour plan. This new pricing model can be seen as the business motivation
to shift from the hardcore gamer audience (who racked up massive fees) towards a broader, massive market. M59 and UO also
arbitrarily set the benchmark at $10 USD a month, a figure that would later gradually increase across the genre. These were the
first games that used and spread the term "massively multiplayer".
Meanwhile, commercial online games were becoming extraordinarily popular in South Korea. Nexus:
The Kingdom of the Winds, designed by Jake Song, began commercial service in 1996 and eventually gained over one
million subscribers. Song's next game, Lineage (1998), was an even bigger success.
Lineage reached millions of subscribers in Korea and Taiwan, and gave developer
NCsoft the strength to gain a foothold in the global MMORPG market in the next few
years.
Launched in March 1999 by Sony Online Entertainment, EverQuest drove
fantasy MMORPGs into the Western mainstream. It was the most commercially successful MMORPG in the United States for five years and was the basis for a series of expansions and related games.
TIME magazine and other non-gaming press featured stories on EQ, often focusing on
the controversies and social questions inspired by its popularity. Asheron's Call launched later in the year and was another hit, rounding out what is sometimes called the
original "big three" (UO, EQ, AC). Yet another fantasy game, it at least featured an original universe. The future continued to
look bright as Origin revealed it had started developing Ultima Online 2.
By the late 1990s the concept of massively multiplayer online games expanded into new video game genres. Many of these games, such as the "massively
multiplayer online first-person shooter" World War II
Online (2001) brought some of the RPG heritage with them.
For fans of the genre, 2000 was a relatively quiet year, but developers and investors were buzzing to jump into the
continually expanding market. Dark Age of Camelot
launched in 2001 and can be seen as a successful post-big-three fantasy game: It launched
smoothly, required less time to gain levels, and had an integrated
player versus player system. Critics dismissed the sci-fi
MMORPG Anarchy Online while it suffered through its rough first
month in June. Growth of the big three nearly plateaued during 2001 as well and UO2 was cancelled while still in development,
indicating that the market possibly had been saturated.
Academic attention
MMORPGs have begun to attract significant academic attention, notably in the fields of economics and psychology. Edward Castronova specializes in the study of virtual worlds (MUDs, MMOGs, and similar concepts). Most of his writings, including "Virtual Worlds: A
First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier" (2001), have examined relationships between real world
economies and synthetic economies.
With the growing popularity of the genre, a growing number of psychologists and sociologists study the actions and
interactions of the players in such games. One of the more famous of these researchers is Sherry Turkle. Nicholas Yee has surveyed thousands of
MMORPG players over the past few years in studying the psychological and sociological aspects of these games.
Browser-based MMORPGs
With the success of the MMORPG genre in recent years, several multiplayer games played in web browsers have also begun using the MMORPG moniker. This largely text-based sub-genre developed from old
BBS games and predates the modern idea of MMORPGs.
Browser-based MMORPGs are usually simpler games than their graphical counterparts, typically involving turn-based play and simple
strategies of "build a large army, then attack other players for gold", though there are many interesting variations on the
popular theme to be found. Many of these games are more like turn-based strategy games or wargames than role-playing games. In Kings of
Chaos, for example, the player commands an army rather than a single player character.
One of the earliest examples of a browser-based MMORPG is Archmage, which
dates back to early 1999. A currently extremely popular browser-based MMORPG, with players
numbering in the hundreds of thousands, is Kings of Chaos.
Kings of Chaos' popularity is primarily fueled by a reciprocal link clicking system where users give each other more
soldiers by clicking on their friends' unique links, taking advantage of the small world phenomenon to spread word of the game across the world. A good example for a click based
MMORPG is Legend of the Green Dragon,
whose code is open source, allowing anyone to create their own game server. There also exists a browser-based MMORPG which is largely a parody of others,
Kingdom of Loathing. Some of the more popular of these
have become profitable using user subscriptions.
Not all browser-based MMORPGs are turn-based text games. More recently, faster computers and Java have allowed the introduction of graphical browser-based MMORPGs such as RuneScape which are more similar to standalone MMORPGs.
Genre challenges
Most MMORPGs require significant development resources to overcome the logistical hurdles associated with such a large
production. These games demand virtual worlds, significant hardware
requirements from the developer (e.g., servers and bandwidth), and dedicated support staff. Despite the efforts of developers cognizant of these issues, reviewers
often cite non-optimal populations (such as overcrowding or under-populated worlds), lag, and
poor support as problems of games in this genre. These problems, especially lag, are a bigger problem for free MMORPGs. Peer-to-peer MMORPGs would scale better because peers share the resource load, but
they can also be more vulnerable to other problems, such as cheating. Free MMORPGs usually rely on the spare-time efforts of a small team of programmers, artists, and game designers.
Several MMORPGs have suffered through technical difficulties through the first few days or weeks after launch. Early successes
such as Ultima Online and EverQuest managed to pass through this stage with little permanent damage. Later games
such as Anarchy Online and World War II Online struggled to regain good press after their
first month. Nevertheless, Dark Age of Camelot and
City of Heroes hardly showed any signs of such difficulties.
In addition to the challenges faced in making an MMORPG, designers also must face problems largely unique to the genre:
World state
It is impossible for each player to significantly affect the overall state of the world. In a normal RPG, the player or party
is the hero and single-handedly saves the world. In an MMORPG, every player can't save the world. In A Tale In The Desert,
however, the game world does end when certain criteria are met by the players, as well as technology advancing. This seems to be
an exception to the rule.
Inflation
In many MMORPGs, the economy becomes unbalanced over time due to inflation and can reduce meaningful interaction between
players of varying level (i.e., newbies versus more powerful players). This is
primarily due to the gradual accumulation of wealth and power within the game. Some MMORPGs have addressed this with varying
degrees of success. Asheron's Call for example uses a guild
system where lower level characters swear allegiance to higher level players, and generate additional experience points for them. The theory being that it is in the interest of
higher level players to assist the lower players and thus increase the reward they receive. Ultima Online used to have
items wear out gradually, so that there is a constant demand for crafting resources, but this need has lowered with additional
items which supplement item durability over time. Many games will create items referred to as "money sinks" that might add to
character customization, or give a small positive effect. Examples include houses, clothes, or collectibles.
Bots
In many MMORPGs, a user can set up scripts (also known as bots or macros) to play the game, performing a simple task over and over again, and reap huge rewards. This lets users
build up a powerful character just by letting their computer run unattended. This flaw is built into almost the very essence of a
RPG "leveling", that your character becomes more powerful primarily by repeatedly performing actions.
These macros are forbidden in many of these games, and developers are now fighting back by working on automation detection
systems. One tactic is to 'nerf' the game aspects
related to the botting. These are easier to implement than actual anti-automation code and are thus favored by developers. Their
effectiveness is dubious, however, in that they affect legitimate players and botters alike.
Another way to speed up the character progress is using multis.
Griefers
As with all online multiplayer games, there is a problem of intentionally rude players (termed "griefers"). Problems mostly specific to MMORPGs include kill
stealing (killing a monster someone else is fighting for the reward with little risk), and ninja looting (improperly taking
the loot from a defeated monster). The term also applies for the situation where higher level players pick on lower level
players, and thus make the questing and adventuring impossible for those players. Players can do this by killing the NPC where the lower level characters have to turn in their
quest or by killing lower level players themselves (in a PvP environment) over and over again (also known as corpse-camping).
Some MMORPGs discipline griefers by ensuring that responsible administrators or support personnel are online at all times.
Aware of the annoyance these actions bring forth, developers have taken further steps to prevent these things from happening. For
example, EverQuest II locks encounters so that other players cannot
join a fight without the original combatant's consent. World of
Warcraft 'marks' the reward (be it experience or loot) for the player or group that initiated the fight.
Player killing
Most players desire fun player versus player (PvP)
combat, but unrestricted PvP can be very discouraging to new players, who can be easily slaughtered by more advanced characters
played by experienced players. Many MMORPGs handle this dilemma by making PvP optional or consensual. Some, such as Blizzard's
World of Warcraft, offer players the choice of playing on
a PvP server or on a PvE (player versus
environment) server, where PvP combat is limited to special circumstances. Player Killing was once unadultered and only
limited by the confines of ones imagination, like in early Ultima Online, but there has since been a consensus that those early
laissez faire rule systems were far too lax and hurt the bottom line, hence, every PvP system has rule sets and limitations.
Time commitment
A character's power usually represents how much time is invested in playing, rather than skill. Casual players are interested
in playing a few hours a week, but many hardcore gamers play more than 40 hours a week. Some games require so much commitment
that players have resorted to buying powerful virtual characters and items on eBay rather
than obtaining them through playing the game.
Health risks
A controversial study was comissioned by the NIH in 2003 to assess the long term health risks associated with extended play of
MMORPG's. While the study is not yet accepted by the general medical community (pending further results), it showed that
participants who play more than 20 hours per week of MMORPG's suffer from increased obesity and nutritional imbalance as well as
an increased propensity for bone loss, muscle atrophy and impotence. It has been suggested that this is due to the sessile nature
of game play, and the replacement by MMORPG's of more traditional games involving exercise. It has not yet been conclusively
determined if people with these problems are simply more likely to play MMORPG's, or if these conditions evolve from play.
Pay to play, pay even more to win
Due to the problems just mentioned, one can receive a great advantage in game by buying another persons' already powerful
character. It is also possible to buy memberships or special items such as those offered by games such as Runescape and Elysaria. Some
games such as Roma Victor and Project Entropia take this incentive a step further, allowing players to convert real-world
currency to in-game currency such as "Sesterces" or "Project Entropia Dollars",
which can then be spent on better equipment, and even houses, for their character. Houses in Project Entropia have been
auctioned for hundreds of dollars, and recently one Australian gamer bought a
virtual island for USD$26,500 (€20,000) in real-world currency. [1] (https://www.project-entropia.com/Content.ajp?id=1346)
Other game companies frown on this practice. In April 2000, Sony Online Entertainment became the first prominent
MMORPG company to change an End User License
Agreement (EULA) to forbid players from buying or selling in-game "characters, items, coin" (in EverQuest). [2] (http://news.com.com/2100-1017-239052.html?legacy=cnet) This was followed up in January 2001
by the removal of EverQuest virtual item sales on the popular online
auction site eBay. [3] (http://news.com.com/eBay%2C+Yahoo+crack+down+on+fantasy+sales/2100-1017_3-251654.html?tag=st.rn)
In-game scamming
Scamming can also be a problem in many of these games, as players try to break the rules to further enhance their characters.
Typically this occurs by manipulating bugs in the game code or by taking advantage of new players' lack of familiarity with the
details of game mechanics. Scammers might lie about the value or use of an item to sell it at a higher price to new players.
Scammers might also simply ask for a password (or whatever they want), claiming to be a representative of the game's developer
or someone who can attain massive wealth, but requires the player's password. Some companies that run MMORPGs have a policy that
they will never ask a player for their password. Others also apply a special in-game appearance to staff members, such as making
their character look different or changing the color of their name in the chat box.
Uber guilds and zerg guilds
Sometimes, the most powerful characters on a server form a single, influential association popularly called an uber
guild (first appearing in Ultima Online). In addition, some guilds mass recruit players to be large enough to have an
advantage, nicknamed zerg guild after the Zerg race in the popular real-time
strategy game Starcraft that was only effective in large numbers.
These groups can use their influence to affect gameplay by, for example, "owning" areas of the world, controlling the economy, or
using tactics like zerging. Such forces discourage casual players.
Related topics
References
External links
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