Massively multiplayer online game

"MMO" redirects here. For other uses, see MMO (disambiguation).

File:Eternal-Lands-Tutorial-NPC.jpg

Eternal Lands, a MMORPG

Massively multiplayer online game (also called MMOG or simply MMO) is a video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and feature at least one persistent world.

MMOGs can enable players to cooperate and compete with each other on a grand scale, and sometimes to interact meaningfully with people around the world. They include a variety of gameplay types, representing many video game genres. Many MMOGs require players to invest large amounts of their time into the game. Most MMOGs require a monthly subscription fee, but some can be played for free.

Overview and history

The most popular type of MMOG, and the sub-genre that pioneered the category, is the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), which descended from university mainframe computer MUD and adventure games such as Rogue and Dungeon on the PDP-10. These games pre-date the commercial gaming industry and the Internet, but still featured persistent worlds and other elements of MMOGs still used today.

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 The Realm Online, Meridian 59 (the first 3D MMOG), Ultima Online, Underlight and EverQuest in the late 1990s 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 MMORPGs were each serving thousands of simultaneous players and in August 2007 EVE Online achieved a new record with 35,313 concurrent accounts logged on to the same server.

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.

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 multiconsole Final Fantasy XI. On PCs, the MMOG market has always been dominated by successful fantasy MMORPGs.

MMOGs have only recently begun to break into the mobile phone market, beginning with CipSoft's TibiaME, which is the first MMORPG to arrive on a mobile device. SmartCell Technology is in development of Shadow of Legend, which will allow gamers to continue their game on their mobile device when away from their PC.

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

MMOGs emerged from the hard-core gamer community to the mainstream strongly in December 2003 with an analysis in the Financial Times measuring the value of the virtual property in the then-largest MMOG, Everquest, to result in a per-capita GDP of 2,266 dollars which would have placed the virtual world of Everquest as the 77th wealthiest nation, on par with Croatia, Ecuador, Tunisia or Vietnam.

Xiah is a Korean MMORPG epic, with the Korean version very popular in Korea. It uses client to server system and is made in 3d graphics.

World of Warcraft is currently the dominant MMOG in America. and with 9 million monthly subscribers worldwide, is the most popular Western title among MMOGs. The biggest MMOG in the world is Lineage 2 from South Korea, with over 14 million registered gamers, mostly in various Asian countries.

See also: History of MMORPGs

Virtual economies

Within a majority of the MMOs created, there is virtual currency where the player can earn and accumulate money. The uses for such virtual currency are numerous and vary from game to game. The virtual economies created within MMOs often blur the lines between real and virtual worlds. The result is often seen as an unwanted interaction between the real and virtual economies by the players and the provider of the virtual world. This practice (economy interaction) is mostly seen in this genre of games. The two seem to come hand in hand with even the earliest MMOGs such as Ultima Online having this kind of trade, real money for virtual things.

The importance of having a working virtual economy within a MMOG is increasing as they develop. A sign of this is CCP Games hiring the first real-life economist for it's MMOG EVE Online to assist and analyze the virtual economy and production within this game.

The results of this interaction between the virtual economy, and our real economy, which is really the interaction between the company that created the game and the third-party companies that want to share in the profits and success of the game. This battle between companies is defended on both sides. The company originating the game and the intellectual property argue that this is in violation of the terms and agreements of the game as well as copyright violation since they own the rights to how the online currency is distributed and through what channels. The case that the third-party companies and their customers defend, is that they are selling and exchanging the time and effort put into the acquisition of the currency, not the digital information itself. They also express that the nature of many MMOs is that they require time commitments not available to everyone. As a result, without external acquisition of virtual currency, some players are severely limited to being able to experience certain aspects of the game.

The practice of acquiring large volumes of virtual currency for the purpose of selling to other individuals for tangible and real currency is called gold farming. Many players who have poured in all of their personal effort resent that there is this exchange between real and virtual economies since it devalues their own efforts. As a result, the term 'gold farmer' now has a very negative connotation within the games and their communities. This slander has unfortunately also extended itself to racial profiling (since Asians are commonly the farmers) and to in-game and forum insulting.

The reaction from many of the game companies varies. In games that are substantially less popular and have a small player base, the enforcement of the elimination of 'gold farming' appears less often. Companies in this situation most likely are concerned with their personal sales and subscription revenue over the development of their virtual economy, as they most likely have a higher priority to the games viability via adequate funding. Games with an enormous player base, and consequently much higher sales and subscription income, can take more drastic actions more often and in much larger volumes. Blizzard Entertainment and their wildly successful World of Warcraft are not afraid to publicly announce that tens of thousands of accounts have been banned due to violations regarding currency selling. This account banning could also serve as an economic gain for these large games, since it is highly likely that, due to demand, these 'gold farming' accounts will be recreated with freshly bought copies of the game.

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.

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, MMOGs 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 (which is not an MMO) 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 37,000 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. MMOGs 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 MMOGs 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 incorrectly called MMORPGs (a type of MMOG).

Types of MMOGs

There are several types of massively multiplayer online games.

MMORPG

Main article: Massively multiplayer online role-playing game

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games, known as MMORPGs, are the most famous type of MMOG. See list of MMORPGs for a list of notable MMORPGs. Some MMORPGs are designed as a multiplayer browser game in order to reduce infrastructure costs and utilise a thin client that most users will already have installed. The acronym BBMMORPGs has sometimes been used to describe these as browser-based.

MMOFPS

Main article: Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter

Several MMO first-person shooters have been made. These games provide large-scale, sometimes team-based combat. The addition of persistence in the game world means that these games add elements typically found in RPGs, such as experience points. The first MMOFPS, 10SIX (now known as Project Visitor) released in 2000. World War II Online, released in 2001, is often quoted with the same honour, because it more closely fits the traditional FPS mold, and was more widely published. Another popular MMOFPS game is Sony Online Entertainment's PlanetSide. For building one's own MMOFPS, there are also now free MMOG game engines.

File:Shattered Galaxy screenshot.jpg

Shattered Galaxy has been one of the few MMORTS games.

MMORTS

Main article: Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy

Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy, known as MMORTS, are games that combine real-time strategy (RTS) with a large number of simultaneous army commanders in resource competition like Shattered Galaxy , Boundless Planet and Dreamlords. However, most of these are disputed as they do not include the main requirement to qualify for MMO status, which is one persistent world.

MMODG

Massively Multiplayer Online Rhythm Games (MMORGs), sometimes called Massively Multiplayer Online Dance Games (MMODGs) are MMOGs that are also Music video games. This idea was influenced by Dance Dance Revolution.

MMOMG

MMOMGs, or massively multiplayer online manager games, are considered easy to play and don't take much time. The player logs in few times per week, sets orders for the in-game team and find how to defeat human opponents and their strategies. The most popular MMOMG is Hattrick.

MMOR

Massively multiplayer online racing. Massive online versions of racing games. Currently there are only a small number racing based MMORs, including Kart Rider, and Upshift StrikeRacer. The Trackmania series comes close to being a MMOR. Although Auto Assault and Darkwind: War on Wheels are more combat based than racing, they are also considered a MMOR. "Test Drive Unlimited" is also considered a MMOR.

MMOP

See the main article MMOP

MMOPS are just like MMORPGS, but platformers.

MMOTG

Massively multiplayer online tycoon game. Online versions of tycoons games. Mainly, MMOTG's are browser based though there are two client based games, Starpeace and Industry Player.

MMOSG

MMOSG may stand for "Massively Multiplayer Online Sports Game" or "Massively Multiplayer Online Strategy Game" or "Massively Multiplayer Online Social Game".

Massively Multiplayer Online Social Games focus on socialization instead of objective-based gameplay. There is a great deal of overlap in terminology with "Online Communities" and "Virtual Worlds".

One example that has garnered widespread media attention is Linden Labs' Second Life, emphasizing socializing, world-building and an in-world virtual economy that depends on the sale and purchase of user-created content. It is technically an MMOSG by definition, though its stated goal was to realize the concept of the Metaverse from Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash. Instead of being based around combat, one could say that it was based around the creation of virtual objects, including models and scripts. In practice, it has more in common with Club Caribe than Everquest. It was the first game of its kind to achieve widespread success (including attention from mainstream media); however, it was not the first (as Club Caribe was released in 1988). Competitors in this relatively new subgenre (non-combat-based MMORPG) would come to include There, Entropia Universe and Dotsoul.The PlayStation HOME coming soon is also another MMOSG of sorts.

Before the RTS games appeared, strategic games, like Empire, were turn-based and offered PBeM modes to compete with others. Nowadays turns can be processed on central (web)servers, allowing massive amounts of players.

Real-world simulations

Some MMOGs have been designed to accurately simulate certain aspects of the real world. They tend to be very specific to industries or activities of very large risk and huge potential loss, such as rocket science, airplanes, battle tanks, submarines etc. Gradually as simulation technology is getting more mainstream, so too various simulators arrive into more mundane industries.

The MMOG genre of air traffic simulation is one example, with networks such as VATSIM and IVAO striving to provide rigorously authentic flight-simulation environments to players in both pilot and air traffic controller roles. In this category of MMOGs, the objective is to create duplicates of the real world for people who cannot or do not wish to undertake those experiences in real life. For example, flight simulation via a MMOG requires far less expenditure of time and money, is completely risk-free, and is far less restrictive (fewer regulations to adhere to, no medical exams to pass, and so on).

Another specialist area is mobile telecoms operator (carrier) business where billion-dollar investments in networks are needed but marketshares are won and lost on issues from segmentation to handset subsidies. A specialist simulation was developed by Nokia called Equilibrium/Arbitrage to have over a two day period five teams of top management of one operator/carrier play a "wargame" against each other, under extremely realistic conditions, with one operator an incumbent fixed and mobile network operator, another a new entrant mobile operator, a third a fixed-line/internet operator etc. Each team is measured by outperforming their rivals by market expectations of that type of player. Thus each player has drastically different goals, but within the simulation, any one team can win. Also to ensure maximum intensity, only one team can win. Telecoms senior executives who have taken the Equilibrium/Arbitrage simulation say it is the most intense, and most useful training they have ever experienced. It is typical of business use of simulators, in very senior management training/retraining.

Others

A large amount of games categorize under MMOBBG (very similar to MMOBBRPGs), having the entire game primarily made up of text and descriptions, although images are often used to enhance the game.

Most other MMOGs are apparently simulation games, such as Motor City Online, The Sims Online (though this is often called an MMORPG), and Jumpgate.

In April 2004, the United States Army announced that it is developing a massively multiplayer training simulation called AWE (asymmetric warfare environment) that was expected to begin operation among soldiers by June. The purpose of AWE is to train soldiers for urban warfare and there are no plans for a public commercial release. Forterra Systems Inc. is developing it for the Army based on the There engine. [1]

Alternate reality games (ARGs) can be massively multiplayer, allowing thousands of players worldwide to co-operate in puzzle trails and mystery solving. ARGs take place in a unique mixture of online and real-world play that usually does not involve a persistent world, and are not necessarily multiplayer, making them different from MMOGs.

Considered by some to be a MMORPG, Castle Infinity was the first MMOG developed for children. Its gameplay, however, is somewhere between puzzle and adventure, making it more like a massively multiplayer platformer than a MMORPG.

"Quick fix" MMOGs, such as Racing Frogs are MMOGs that can be played with only a small amount of time every day.

There are also Massively Multiplayer Collectible Card Games: Magic: The Gathering Online, Astral Masters and Astral Tournament, sometime abbreviated MTGO or MODO. Other MMOCCGs might exist (Neopets has some CCG elements) but are not as well known.

Some recent attempts to build peer-to-peer (P2P) MMOGs have been made. Outback Online may be the first commercial one [2], however, so far most of the efforts have been academic studies [3]. A P2P MMOG may potentially be more scalable and cheaper to build, but notable issues with P2P MMOGs include security and consistency control, which can be difficult to address given that clients are easily hacked.

See also

• List of MMOGs

External links

• / Video Interview - An Interview With Shavaun Scott Psychotherapist About video gaming part 1 of 4
• / Video Interview - An Interview With Shavaun Scott Psychotherapist About video gaming part 2 of 4