Massively multiplayer online game

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World of Warcraft, the world's most popular MMO

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EverQuest II, a slightly less popular MMORPG

A Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG or MMO) is a computer game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously, and is played on the Internet. Typically, this type of game is played in a giant persistent world.

MMOs can enable players to compete with and against each other on a grand scale, and sometimes to interact meaningfully with people around the world. Most MMOs shits can be played for free on the internet such as: RuneScape or Subspace.

Overview and history

The most popular type of MMOG, and the sub-genre that did much to pioneer the category, is the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). MMORPG's descend from university mainframe computer MUD and adventure games such as Rogue on the PLATO System and Dungeon on the PDP-10 that pre-date the commercial games industry.

The first graphical MMOG, and a major milestone in the creation of the genre, was the multi-player flight combat simulation game Air Warrior by Kesmai on the GEnie online service, which first appeared in 1987.

Commercial MMORPGs gained early acceptance in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The genre was pioneered by the GemStone series on GEnie, also created by Kesmai, and Neverwinter Nights, the first such game to include graphics, which debuted on AOL in 1991.

As computer game developers applied MMO ideas to other computer and video game genres, new acronyms started to develop, such as MMORTS. MMOG emerged as a generic term to cover this growing class of games. These games became so popular that a magazine, called Massive Online Gaming, released an issue in October 2002 hoping to cover MMOG topics exclusively, but it never released its second issue.

The debuts of Meridian 59 (The first 3D MMOG), Ultima Online, Underlight and EverQuest in the late 1990's popularized the MMORPG genre. The growth in technology meant that where Neverwinter Nights in 1991 had been limited to 50 simultaneous players (a number that grew to 500 by 1995), by the year 2000 a multitude of MMORPG's were each serving thousands of simultaneous players.

Despite the genre's focus on multiplayer gaming, AI-controlled characters are still common. NPCs and mobs who give out quests or serve as opponents are typical mostly in MMORPGs. AI-controlled characters are not as common in action-based MMOGs.

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Vanguard: Saga of Heroes has a Q1 2007 forecast

The popularity of MMOGs was mostly restricted to the computer game market until the sixth-generation consoles, with the launch of Phantasy Star Online on Dreamcast and the emergence and growth of online service Xbox Live. There have been a number of console MMOGs, including EverQuest Online Adventures (PlayStation 2), and the multiplatform Final Fantasy XI (PC, PS2 {except in Europe} and now Xbox 360 as well as Playstation 3 {with a downloaded patch}).

On PCs, the MMOG market has always been dominated by successful fantasy MMORPGs. In addition to Neverwinter Nights, Ultima Online and EverQuest, major entrants have included Asheron's Call, Ragnarok Online, Dark Age of Camelot, City of Heroes/Villains, Final Fantasy XI, and Lineage/Lineage II and nowadays World of Warcraft.

Science fiction has also been a popular theme, featuring games such as Anarchy Online, Eve Online, Star Wars Galaxies and The Matrix Online.

Several of the most recent successful MMORPG titles are Everquest2, Lineage 2, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, and Final Fantasy XI.

Some upcoming MMO titles that show promise are Tabula Rasa, The Lord of the Rings Online and Vanguard:Saga of Heroes.

Blurred Boundaries

MMOs (or MOGS, MMORPGs, etc) often blur real and virtual worlds resulting in Virtual Economies interacting with Real World economies. This practice (Economy Interaction) is most seen in this genre of games. The two seem to come hand in hand with even the earliest MOGs such as Ultima Online having this kind of trade, real money for virtual things.

Comparing MMOGs to other computer games

There are a number of factors shared by most MMOGs that make them different from other types of computer games. MMOGs create a persistent universe where the game continues playing regardless of whether or not anyone else is. Since these games strongly or exclusively emphasize multiplayer gameplay, few of them have any significant single-player aspects or client-side artificial intelligence. As a result, players cannot "finish" MMOGs in the typical sense of single-player games. Some MMOGs, such as Star Sonata, do have an end condition that includes awarding a "winner" based on a player's standing in the game at the finale.

Most MMOGs also share other characteristics that make them different from other multiplayer online games. MMOGs host a large number of players in a single game world, and all of those players can interact with each other at any given time. Popular MMOGs might have thousands of players online at any given time, usually on a company owned server. Non-MMOGs, such as Battlefield 1942 or Half-Life usually have less than 50 players online (per server) and are usually played on private servers. Also, MMOGs usually do not have any significant mods since the game must work on company servers. There is some debate if a high head-count is the requirement to be a MMOG. Some say that it is the size of the game world and its capability to support a large number of players that should matter. For example, despite technology and content constraints, most MMOGs can fit up to a few thousand players on a single game server at a time.

To support all those players, MMOG's need large-scale game worlds, and servers to connect players to those worlds. Sometimes a game features a universe which is copied onto different servers, separating players, and this is called a "sharded" universe. Other games will feature a single universe which is divided among servers, and requires players to switch. Still others will only use one part of the universe at any time. For example, Tribes comes with a number of large maps, which are played in rotation (one at a time). In contrast, the similar title PlanetSide uses the second model, and allows all map-like areas of the game to be reached via flying, driving, or teleporting.

MMORPGs usually have sharded universes, as they provide the most flexible solution to the server load problem, but not always. For example, the space sim Eve Online uses only one large cluster server peaking at over 32,000 simultaneous players.

There are also a few more common differences between MMOGs and other online games. Most MMOGs charge the player a monthly or bimonthly fee to have access to the game's servers, and therefore to online play. Also, the game state in an MMOG rarely ever resets. This means that a level gained by a player today will still be there tomorrow when the player logs back on. MMOG's often feature ingame support for clans and guilds. The members of a clan or a guild may participate in activities with one another, or show some symbols of membership to the clan or guild.

However, the boundaries between multiplayer online games and MMOG's are not always as clear or obvious. Neverwinter Nights (2002) and Diablo II are usually called online role-playing games, (RPGs) but are also sometimes called MMORPGs (a type of MMOG). Guild Wars has been called an MMORPG, but most of its gameplay involves small groups of players in private areas. The game's developer prefers the term "competitive online role-playing game".

See also

• List of MMOGs

External links

• MMOGCHART.COM - Bruce Sterling Woodcock's tracking of MMOG subscription data.
• mmmog.blogspot.com - A chart of online sport managers, based on their number of users.
• TSOZone.com - A large free community of MMOG fans where you can meet the real person behind the characters they play.
• Flash Based MMORPG