
A massively (or massive) 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 massively multiplayer online game (MMOG). ==Overview== [[Image:WoWScrnShot 090404 231112.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A large group of players in ''World of Warcraft'' are gathering for a raid.]] MMORPGs follow a client-server model. Players, running the clients, are represented in the game world by an avatar (virtual reality) — a graphical representation of the player character they play. Providers (usually the video game publisher), host the persistent worlds these players inhabit. This interaction between a virtual world, always available for play, and an ever-changing, world-wide stream of players animating individualized avatars characterizes the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. [[Image:Daimonin Stoneglow night indexedto256.png|thumb|left|''Daimonin'' is one of the efforts to create a free MMORPG.]] 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. Most MMORPGs are commercial in that a player must either purchase the client software or pay a monthly fee in order to continually access the virtual world. Still, some totally free-of-charge games may be found on the Internet, although the quality of their production values is generally lower compared to their "pay-to-play" counterparts. Games of this type are immensely popular, with several commercial MMORPGs reporting over 200,000 subscribers. South Korea claims the highest subscription numbers by far, with millions of registered users for a few popular games. See Wikipedia's list of MMORPGs for many examples. ==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 ''Colossal Cave Adventure'' and ''Zork'', and to pen and paper role-playing games like ''Dungeons & Dragons''. ''Habitat (video game)'', a graphical MUD from the mid 1980s, pre-dated 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 (computer game)'' (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 ten expansions (as of May, 2005) and several derivative 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 Systems 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 computer role-playing game 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 experience point, 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 economy. 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 == [[Image:Runescape222.jpg|right|thumb|Implemented in the port (computing) Java programming language, ''RuneScape'' is an example of a popular browser-based MMORPG.]] 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 bulletin board system games and pre-dates 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 ''Dark_galaxy_(OLG)'' players control planets and fleets of ships, in ''Kings of Chaos'' the player commands an army rather than a single player character. One of the earliest examples of a browser-based MMORPG is ''Archmage (MMORPG)'', 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 fuelled 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 platform 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 could theoretically scale better because peers share the resource load, but practical issues such as asymmetric network bandwidth and CPU-hungry rendering engines that leave little processor power for anything else make peer to peer MMORPGs a difficult proposition. Additionally, they become vulnerable to other problems such as cheating in online games. Free MMORPGs usually rely on the spare-time efforts of a small team of computer programmer, 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. Few games may have significant failures, leading ultimately to its demise, if they launch too early as frequent bug fixes, downtime, and structural game changes may discourage players from continuing to play the game. Later games such as ''Anarchy Online'', ''World War II Online'' and ''World of Warcraft'' 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 very uncommon in an MMORPG for an individual player to significantly affect the overall state of the world. There are clear difficulties involved in storylines where hundreds or thousands of players are simultaneously "the chosen one" or "the ring-bearer".
These difficulties give rise to an important difference between RPG and MMORPG. In the classic "high fantasy" plots shared by most RPGs, the player is the hero and single-handedly saves (or conquers) the world. MMORPGs, on the other hand, typically are set in the realm of "low fantasy", where every player is a relatively minor character in a story involving a vast nation, tribe or clan of other players of approximately equal importance.
In spite of the obvious problems, "high fantasy" subplots are often featured in MMORPGs. In ''RuneScape'', for example, these subplots are called "quests". Quests may be done only once per player, but every quest can be done by every player. This requires a certain collective suspension of disbelief on the part of the players as each player takes a turn repeating a common (and frequently well known) subplot in the story. While NPCs and other game elements may react differently to players depending on the individual status of their quests in these situations, no major change affecting all players occurs.
There are some notable exceptions. In ''A Tale In The Desert'', the game world ends when certain criteria are met by the players. Similarly, in Nationstates, it is possible for a small group of players to effectively control the entire game world by controlling certain territories.
===World composition===
Several games handle their world composition differently. Games like ''EverQuest'', ''Ultima Online'', ''Anarchy Online'', and ''Final Fantasy XI'' are composed of regional zones. Transition from one part of the world to the next requires a process known to players as zoning, where data is effectively loaded for that one particular "zone". As a result of zoning, monsters can not follow players into the next zone.
Other games decide to make their world continuous (otherwise known as "seamless"). Games like ''Asheron's Call'', ''Toontown Online'', and ''The Matrix Online'' have opted to make it possible to travel from one point of the gaming world to the other point of the gaming world without the transition of zones.
Both have their technical limitations, and present unique problems, mostly in regard to memory requirements for the game client to operate smoothly, bandwidth usage by the client computer, as well as how the world is managed by the game servers.
====Data compression effects====
Most MMORPG data is stored in a compressed format to save space on the client computer. As the game is played, sections of the data are decompressed and made ready to use. This decompression takes time and slows the computer down.
Zone-based games optimize game speed and memory usage by doing the decompression all at once before the player enters a new zone. It may take some time to enter the zone as the data is prepared, but once decompressed and ready, the game is quick and responsive.
Seamless environments have no transitional moments to do the decompression, and so the work must be done continuously in small pieces as the player moves about the world. This takes time, and can occasionally cause the game world to freeze for a moment as the system tries to decompress large amounts of data needed for the new region.
====Server management effects====
A zone-based game world can be extremely large and accommodate a huge number of players, because each individual zone can be managed by a single server, with a server_farm of servers working together to form the entire game world. Transitioning from one zone to the next involves actively moving the player from one game server to the next.
Zone-based games can experience what is known as a zone-crash, where the server supporting that region of the game world stops functioning. The rest of the zones making up the game world continue to function normally around this one inactive area, and can still be populated by players.
Seamless environments tend to have the entire game world managed by a single server. If that server crashes, everyone is disconnected at once and none of the game world is accessible.
''Anarchy Online'' is zone-based and accommodates thousands of players with only three primary game worlds (or dimensions, as they call it). The ''World of Warcraft'' environment is continuous, but needs more than 50 separate game worlds to accommodate all its players.
====Social impacts of world composition====
Seamless environments have a negative social effect in that there need to be a large number of copies of the same game world to accommodate all game players.
It is common for people on MMORPGs to form long-lasting friendships, which often continue as the players move on to new games. But because seamless environments can typically only accommodate a limited number of players, sometimes not everyone is able to play on the same server, and these social bonds become fragmented.
===Inflation===
In many MMORPGs, the economy becomes unbalanced over time due to Inflation (economics) 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 scripting programming languages (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 an RPG "levelling", 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 (computer games)' the game aspects related to the botting. These are easier to implement than actual anti-automation code and are thus favoured by developers. Their effectiveness is dubious, however, in that they affect legitimate players and botters alike, and they negate the fun factor in playing an MMORPG. Another way to speed up the character progress is using multis.
Both of these methods of cheating often backfire or are rendered unusable by the sophistication of certain games that require a human intellect little effort to comprehend yet will render artificial intelligence hampered or completely unusable in certain cases. Such games include [http://www.eve-online.com/ Eve Online], which comprises of a 3D environment in space with a complex and fluid game structure that most programs cannot cope with, as well as the abolition of the standard experience-level concept used in most of today's MMORPGs.
===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), 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 Non-player character where the lower level characters have to turn in their quest or by killing lower level players themselves (in a Player versus player environment) over and over again (also known as corpse-camping).
The term also applies when higher level players attack a higher level monster and brings the monster to a lower level player area. In some games, dragging a monster may bring several other monsters along, forming what players usually refer to as a "train". In these situations, where PvP may not be present, higher level players are actually attempting to kill other players through the action of leading monsters to do the job for them. A typical situation might have a higher level player dragging a monster to a lower level player then using some kind of teleportation device or magic which allows the disappearance of the higher level player to a different area and leaving the lower level player to deal with the monster(s).
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 consent of the initiating combatant. World of Warcraft 'marks' the reward (be it experience or loot) for the player or group that initiated the fight.
One other method, used by the game Clan Lord, drafts random players as jurors in a virtual court system to identify and punish griefers with a brief "time-out".
RuneScape uses a system where the winnings appear to the killer instantly as a monster dies, and then appears to everyone else after a minute or so. Also, only certain areas, called "multi-combat zones", allow multiple players to fight the same monster.
===Player killing===
Many 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 unadulterated 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. ''World of Warcraft'' made an attempt to alleviate this problem by rewarding casual players with double experience points relative to the amount of time they do not play the game.
===Health risks===
A controversial study was commissioned by the National Institutes of Health (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 Wiktionary:en:sedentary 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. Many gamers justify their excessive play time with the reasoning that the time they spend playing is time they would otherwise spend watching TV or engaging in other, similar, non-productive pastimes. See also Computer_addiction.
===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 United States dollar26,500 (Euro20,000) in real-world currency. [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''). [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. [http://news.com.com/eBay%2C+Yahoo+crack+down+on+fantasy+sales/2100-1017_3-251654.html?tag=st.rn]
Through the past years, sales of virtual property such as items, currency and accounts have bloomed. Companies dedicated to MMORPG#Farming or acquiring the virtual property of players and then selling them to other players have established themselves and have created a virtual market that is [http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2004/10/secondary_marke.html said to be worth $880 million US dollars]. Whether the so called "Secondary Market" operates within legal constraints or not has yet to be determined by an original precedent, but it is more or less clear that the companies involved do shady business. One of the major players in this act has just recently bought several fan sites of popular upcoming game ''Vanguard: Saga of Heroes'', the Online Gaming Network (OGaming) and popular ''World of Warcraft'' database "Thottbot". No connections between any of these websites and the "Secondary Market" have been established as of now. The intentions behind these sales remain unclear and extreme amount of speculations has spawned throughout the World Wide Web shortly after these happenings became public.
Since the original banning of virtual EverQuest property sales and adoption of the policy by many major MMORPG Developers, Sony Online Entertainment continues to be active on this front. In 2005 they announced their [http://stationexchange.station.sony.com/ own in-game auctioning service] titled "Station Exchange". Initially this service will only allow for sales within the EverQuest II Universe, but as the name of it is rather generic it is very likely SOE will integrate other games into the system sooner or later.
The opening of "Station Exchange" is likely to mark the dawn of a new age for virtual property sales in games originally not designed to support this sort of market (e.g.: not using a Real-world Money Model like Project Entropia for example). Services like this will be more widely used and will also be far more secure for both buyer and seller. Previously if you have purchased virtual property from a third party in exchange for real money you had no securities whatsoever (except of course the reputation of the third party service you are using, that would always be questionable).
===In-game scamming===
:''Main article: Virtual crime''
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 colour 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 (fantasy) in the popular real-time strategy game ''Starcraft'' that was only effective in large numbers. These groups can use their influence to affect game play by, for example, "owning" areas of the world, controlling the economy, or using tactics like zerging. Such forces discourage casual players.
==="Noobs"===
As opposed to ''newbies'', who are simply new to the game, a noob (or noobie) is a derogatory term used to categorize a player who is ignorant, and often annoying, having little or no skill. Also spelt as "nub" or "n00b" but it still serves the same function, mainly to insult.
However, it also has been used as an extent by arrogant players who see themselves as above true newbies. Despite this, it has become part of etiquette with other characters on MMORPGs.
===Farming===
''Farming'' is a form of hunting where a player kills monsters in the game for the money and items that the monster carries. Players who farm usually camping (computer gaming) an area, kill monsters as they spawn, collect the loot, and later sell the items to others. Players often dislike this practice because many farmers sell the virtual loot for real money. Farmers can also dominate areas that were intended to be lucrative hunting grounds for lower-level players.
Some cyber cafés allow people to play for free as long as they give a percentage of what they earn in-game to the owner of the café. The owner of the café then sells the items for real money. There are even online sweatshops, mainly in China, where people actually work with collecting ingame items for their employer who then sell them. It is reported that one can make up to United States dollar100 a day, which is actually better pay than many other jobs in China.
Games where the emphasis is on acquiring resources and items tend to have farming problems.
===Twink===
Twinking is a term in the MMORPG community refers to outfitting a new character or player with items or other resources that are not normally available at that characters level. The term derives from early MUSH slang, where it was insult given to a player implying that they lacked skill in role-playing or in social graces. Twinking is somewhat rarer now as most of the newer MMORPGs have level limits on equipment preventing low level players from using high level armor - the result, however, has been to drastically inflate the price of exceptionally powerful low-level gear in game.
== Private Servers ==
Single-client based graphic MMORPGs may have private servers or server emulators. Private servers are mostly run by volunteers, therefore most of them are free. However, some private servers may wish for people to donate money, sometimes in exchange for a bonus in the game. Private serves remain markedly less popular then the official servers, with player numbers in the hundreds, not thousands. ''EQEmu'' is a server emulator for ''EverQuest'', others exist for ''World of Warcraft'', ''Lineage II'', ''Ultima Online'', and many other MMORPGs.
In People's Republic of China as well as many other Asian countries the use of private servers is more prevalent. Most Chinese MMORPG players are aware of the existence of private server, and according to statistics more people prefer private servers than official servers. The reasons for this are the relatively high fees for official servers and the availability of 100MB/s fiber optic Internet connections, which can be as cheap as US$30 a month. Also, the costs of running a server in China are also remarkably low. In one instance, a private server had more than 50 000 players registered.
== MMORPG Terms ==
* PvP - Player vs Player, used for describing when two players engage in combat or a system that allows this.
* PvE - Player vs Environment, used for describing player interaction with the environment, usually combating NPCs.
* PK - Player killer, a player who kills another in PvP. PK can often refer to a player who aggressively kills others without being provoked.
* KS - Kill stealing, when a player engages and kills a NPC that was being fought by another player, thus receiving any benefits.
* KoS - Kill on Sight, when a player adds another player to a virtual "kill list". Also used of an aggressive NPC.
* GM - Game Master, a person employed by the developer of the game to offer in-game technical support, and assume a policing role.
* PC - Player character, a character in the online world who is controlled by another human player.
* NPC - Non-player character, meaning that this character is controlled by the game.
* WTB - Want to buy, when a player want to buy a specific item from another player.
* WTS - Want to sell, when a player want to sell a specific item to another player.
* WTT - Want to trade, when a player want to trade a specific item for another one.
* DPS - Damage per second, a standard way to calculate the damage dealt to others (500 damage in 2.5 seconds = 200DPS).
* AoE - Area of effect, meaning that a spell or item will deal damage in a given area (as opposed to swords and other items that deal damage to a single enemy).
* TNL - To next level, how many experience points are needed for a player to reach the next level.
* Mob - A mob (computer gaming) is an NPC enemy.
* Class - Character class represents a character's archetype and career (e.g. fighter, rogue, bard, paladin, necromancer, etc.)
* Buff - A buff (EverQuest terminology) is a term generically used to describe an effect (usually cast as a spell) which beneficially enhances the recipient.
* Debuff - The opposite of buff, or the act of removing a buff.
* Level - A way to measure the power of a player, see experience points.
* Party - A group of player, preferably with different abilities.
* Role - The role of a player is related to their class, or example, a priest's role is to heal their party.
* Aggro - A player has aggro when one or more mob (computer gaming) are focused on attacking the player.
* Tank - A player who intentionally aims to keep all of the mob's aggro, by doing so, protecting other party members who can heal the tank or damage the mob more effectively. A tank should generally have high hit points and armor class.
* Incoming or Inc - A message denoting the arrival of NPCs for the party to fight, after aggroed by a player.
* Add - A message denoting the arrival of additional NPCs for the party to fight, arriving usually of their own accord.
* Grind - To repetitively kill mobs in a area.
* Farm - To repetitively gather resources in a area. May mean ''grinding'' when the resources are held by mobs.
* Instance - An instance dungeon is a part of the world (normally a dungeon) of which a copy is made and reserved for a player or group of players. If two groups access the zone simultaneously, they will be in two separate though identical zones.
* Zone - Any subdivision of the virtual world; usually accompanied by loading of new content or some other transition.
* Zoning - The act of entering a Zone or other transition between divisions
== Related topics ==
* Computer role-playing game
* List of MMORPGs
* MUD
* Online Wedding
* Virtual crime
== References ==
* Kent, Steven (September 23, 2003). "[http://archive.gamespy.com/amdmmog/week1/ Alternate Reality: The history of massively multiplayer online games]". GameSpy.
* Richard Bartle (2003). ''Designing Virtual Worlds''. Indianapolis: New Riders. ISBN 0-1310-1816-7.
== External links ==
* [http://www.ogaming.com/ Online Gaming "OGaming" Network]
* [http://www.onrpg.com/ onRPG]
* [http://www.mmorpg.com/ MMORPG.com] - News and info on the major MMORPGs.
* [http://terranova.blogs.com/ Terra Nova] - A collaborative blog about "virtual worlds" like MMORPGs.
* [http://www.mmogchart.com/ MMOGChart.com] - Bruce Woodcock's analysis of MMOG subscription counts based on figures reported by the games' developers.
* [http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus The Daedalus Project] - Nick Yee's ongoing survey study of MMORPG players. Demographics, narratives and essays.
* [http://dmoz.org/Games/Video_Games/Roleplaying/Massive_Multiplayer_Online/ Open Directory Project: Roleplaying/Massive Multiplayer Online] - A directory of more than 2,000 weblinks relating to MMORPGs.
* [http://www.ige.com IGE]
* [http://www.moghouse.net Source for Final Fantasy XI]
* [http://www.playonline.com Playonline - Final Fantasy XI]
* [http://solipsis.netofpeers.net Solipsis] - An open-source platform for peer-to-peer scalable MMORPGs.
Computer and video game genres
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games
Computer and video game terminology
==Everyone favorite MMORPG== --22:59, 13 May 2005 (UTC) I strongly suggest that we move to a policy of deleting phrases like: such as \[\[my favorite game\]\] unless there is something particularly compelling or unique about the referece. *Come on, this article would be useless without working examples of different MMORPGs. User:Grue 06:48, 14 May 2005 (UTC) ==Pronounciation== How do you say "MMORPG"? I got em-mor-a-peg from here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/computergames/story/0,11500,1103918,00.html, but personally I say em-mor-peg. I don't know where the "a" sound comes from in Gardian's pronounciation. -- User:Ktheory 20:29, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC) I just say "Ememmoh-Arpeegee".--User:162.24.9.213 20:32, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC) ::Yeah, I just read the acronym one word at a time. M M O R P G. --User:Wcd 04:09, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC) :::That's "letter." And I say it the same way as you.—User:68.204.253.187 01:03, 2 May 2005 (UTC) ==Article move== I don't entirely agree with the article move. #The first letter of every word shouldn't be capitalized. #Should it be "massive" or "massively"? Both are about as common, though Google favors -ly. --User:Mrwojo 22:37, 10 Mar 2004 (UTC) :I concur. I never thought the article should've been it's abbreviation, but it didn't bother me much. I couldn't decide which expanded version to move it to. If Google favors -ly, let's go with that and make the other version into a redirect. Whichever version we use, only the first letter should be a capital as User:Mrwojo notes. Anyone else? —User:Frecklefoot 16:37, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC) ::It's a name of a category, no one refers to an MMORPG as "massive multiplayer online role-playing game", everyone uses "Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game". The same thing happens with Arecibo Observatory, it's a name and no one refers to it as "Arecibo observatory". ::Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game is OK, just make sure the redirects point to it. ::--User:Maio 20:21, Mar 11, 2004 (UTC) :I don't agree. What do you mean "everyone uses "Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game"? Who is "everyone"? First-person shooter and Computer role-playing game are categories too and they are not all capped. I think we should move it to be consistent with the other genres. —User:Frecklefoot 21:16, Mar 11, 2004 (UTC) :: Everyone in the gaming community, including gamers and developers. --User:Maio 21:53, Mar 11, 2004 (UTC) :::In my experience, that's not true. --User:Mrwojo 23:46, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC) :::: That's what I can tell you from my experience. IIRC it was Brad McQuaid who coined the phrase; maybe we could [http://www.sigilgames.com/forums/member.php?userid=7 ask him]? :::::It's more likely it was a product of EA's marketing dept. for UO. [http://www.kanga.nu/archives/MUD-Dev-L/2000Q4/msg00441.php] I recall reading that it might've been used by M59 even earlier. --User:Mrwojo 14:42, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC) I've always seen "massively." I think we're safest going with MMORPG and dodging the capitalization issue all together. - User:Calmypal 21:57, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC) :'''I'm a developer''', but I always just use MMORPG--I never have to spell out the whole thing (everyone here knows what it stands for). Maybe we should just go with the initials... —User:Frecklefoot 22:00, Mar 11, 2004 (UTC) ::MMORPG may not be the greatest page title, but MMORPG seems to be the most common name for the genre and it's easier to link to (without redirects from the many permutations). --User:Mrwojo 23:46, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC) :::Agreed. This page and -ly ought to be a redirect to MMORPG. FTR, I've almost always seen it spelled with the -ly, and capitalized. -User:Gtrmp 00:37, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC) :::: I kindof disagree with you. The main article should be Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game while MMORPG redirects to it. --User:Maio 01:50, Mar 12, 2004 (UTC) ---- You really think its of big importance if its massive or massively? i think it was a cool article to read and since i never played a mmorpg i'd be more than happy to play it and not to discuss the massivity of it Loomy ==Vote== Why don't we take a vote? Please vote on your favorite title below—be sure to sign your vote. Note captilizations of each version. Please add any that you think bear mention. MMORPG * Best compromise, probably most widely used. :-) —User:Frecklefoot 18:21, Mar 12, 2004 (UTC) * User:Mrwojo 18:40, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC) * User:Gtrmp 06:15, 17 Mar 2004 (UTC) Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game Massively multiplayer online role-playing game Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game Massive multiplayer online role-playing game Holy cow, no one except User:Mrwojo cares about the name of this article? What was the whole previous discussion over? If no one else votes in the next few days, I'm going to go ahead and move this to MMORPG since that is the only proposed name that got any votes. —User:Frecklefoot 14:27, Mar 16, 2004 (UTC) * In the interests of basic literacy, it should not be a title that feeds the computer-science culture that requires every word to begin with a capital letter. User:Michael Hardy 20:16, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC) ==BBC== This article was listed by theBBC today. User:Mark Richards 19:41, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC) :Got a link? User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 20:25, Oct 7, 2004 (UTC) ::Looks like its this one: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3683260.stm]. --User:Mrwojo 14:34, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC) == Article Duplication? == Isn't the article Massively multiplayer online game exactly the same thing? User:Grunners 05:02, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC) :No. See Talk:Massively multiplayer online game. --User:Mrwojo 13:18, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC) == Another BBC link == http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4104731.stm User:Tom k&e 14:56, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC) == Griefer == I've created a stub for a new article to define the term Griefer. Please have a look - it needs expanding! Also, any ideas on the most appropriate way to link to the article from MMORPG? --User:AjAldous 15:47, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC) :I re-added a section on rude players, but this time it's expanded and more specific to MMORPGs. Also, griefing should be merged into griefer. By the way, thanks for filling a Wikipedia:Requested articles/Social Sciences and Philosophy. You can remove the link to griefer from there. --User:Mrwojo 16:25, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC) ---- ==External links expanding== I just noticed that an anon user, User:24.8.68.200, just added an external link to guildportal.com (at the ''top'' of the list, no less!). Exploding external links sections have occured on other pages I watch and in those cases, some users have added notes such as: :~~~ or ~~~~ ). Thanks! User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 19:30, Apr 19, 2005 (UTC)
::Thanks for the tip, I'll remember to sign my posts. And yea, from a "broad variety" standpoint, Stratics and Warcry are not exactly the best examples as they tend to ignore a lot of the "underdogs". Same with MMORPG.com though, and all the other sites that are around. I always like to give readers (may they be here or on MM Hell) the widest possible variety of information. Lots of people also prefer the smaller indie-developed MMOGs before the "Major" titles as the interaction between developer and community is far more open. I'm not really in a hurry, I just didn't know how the entire discussion process should go so I assumed of no one objects, I would be free to add them. I'll wait some more this and next time to see what people think. User:Fyrn 20:43, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)
#REDIRECT MMORPG
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with MMORPG:
MMORPG
MMORPG
Mmorpg
MMORPGs
MMORPG
A massively (or massive) 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 massively multiplayer online game (MMOG). ==Overview== [[Image:WoWScrnShot 090404 231112.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A large group of players in ''World of Warcraft'' are gathering for a raid.]] MMORPGs follow a client-server model. Players, running the clients, are represented in the game world by an avatar (virtual reality) — a graphical representation of the player character they play. Providers (usually the video game publisher), host the persistent worlds these players inhabit. This interaction between a virtual world, always available for play, and an ever-changing, world-wide stream of players animating individualized avatars characterizes the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. [[Image:Daimonin Stoneglow night indexedto256.png|thumb|left|''Daimonin'' is one of the efforts to create a free MMORPG.]] 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. Most MMORPGs are commercial in that a player must either purchase the client software or pay a monthly fee in order to continually access the virtual world. Still, some totally free-of-charge games may be found on the Internet, although the quality of their production values is generally lower compared to their "pay-to-play" counterparts. Games of this type are immensely popular, with several commercial MMORPGs reporting over 200,000 subscribers. South Korea claims the highest subscription numbers by far, with millions of registered users for a few popular games. See Wikipedia's list of MMORPGs for many examples. ==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 ''Colossal Cave Adventure'' and ''Zork'', and to pen and paper role-playing games like ''Dungeons & Dragons''. ''Habitat (video game)'', a graphical MUD from the mid 1980s, pre-dated 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 (computer game)'' (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 ten expansions (as of May, 2005) and several derivative 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 Systems 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 computer role-playing game 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 experience point, 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 economy. 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 == [[Image:Runescape222.jpg|right|thumb|Implemented in the port (computing) Java programming language, ''RuneScape'' is an example of a popular browser-based MMORPG.]] 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 bulletin board system games and pre-dates 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 ''Dark_galaxy_(OLG)'' players control planets and fleets of ships, in ''Kings of Chaos'' the player commands an army rather than a single player character. One of the earliest examples of a browser-based MMORPG is ''Archmage (MMORPG)'', 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''
MMORPG
==Everyone favorite MMORPG== --22:59, 13 May 2005 (UTC) I strongly suggest that we move to a policy of deleting phrases like: such as \[\[my favorite game\]\] unless there is something particularly compelling or unique about the referece. *Come on, this article would be useless without working examples of different MMORPGs. User:Grue 06:48, 14 May 2005 (UTC) ==Pronounciation== How do you say "MMORPG"? I got em-mor-a-peg from here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/computergames/story/0,11500,1103918,00.html, but personally I say em-mor-peg. I don't know where the "a" sound comes from in Gardian's pronounciation. -- User:Ktheory 20:29, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC) I just say "Ememmoh-Arpeegee".--User:162.24.9.213 20:32, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC) ::Yeah, I just read the acronym one word at a time. M M O R P G. --User:Wcd 04:09, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC) :::That's "letter." And I say it the same way as you.—User:68.204.253.187 01:03, 2 May 2005 (UTC) ==Article move== I don't entirely agree with the article move. #The first letter of every word shouldn't be capitalized. #Should it be "massive" or "massively"? Both are about as common, though Google favors -ly. --User:Mrwojo 22:37, 10 Mar 2004 (UTC) :I concur. I never thought the article should've been it's abbreviation, but it didn't bother me much. I couldn't decide which expanded version to move it to. If Google favors -ly, let's go with that and make the other version into a redirect. Whichever version we use, only the first letter should be a capital as User:Mrwojo notes. Anyone else? —User:Frecklefoot 16:37, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC) ::It's a name of a category, no one refers to an MMORPG as "massive multiplayer online role-playing game", everyone uses "Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game". The same thing happens with Arecibo Observatory, it's a name and no one refers to it as "Arecibo observatory". ::Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game is OK, just make sure the redirects point to it. ::--User:Maio 20:21, Mar 11, 2004 (UTC) :I don't agree. What do you mean "everyone uses "Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game"? Who is "everyone"? First-person shooter and Computer role-playing game are categories too and they are not all capped. I think we should move it to be consistent with the other genres. —User:Frecklefoot 21:16, Mar 11, 2004 (UTC) :: Everyone in the gaming community, including gamers and developers. --User:Maio 21:53, Mar 11, 2004 (UTC) :::In my experience, that's not true. --User:Mrwojo 23:46, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC) :::: That's what I can tell you from my experience. IIRC it was Brad McQuaid who coined the phrase; maybe we could [http://www.sigilgames.com/forums/member.php?userid=7 ask him]? :::::It's more likely it was a product of EA's marketing dept. for UO. [http://www.kanga.nu/archives/MUD-Dev-L/2000Q4/msg00441.php] I recall reading that it might've been used by M59 even earlier. --User:Mrwojo 14:42, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC) I've always seen "massively." I think we're safest going with MMORPG and dodging the capitalization issue all together. - User:Calmypal 21:57, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC) :'''I'm a developer''', but I always just use MMORPG--I never have to spell out the whole thing (everyone here knows what it stands for). Maybe we should just go with the initials... —User:Frecklefoot 22:00, Mar 11, 2004 (UTC) ::MMORPG may not be the greatest page title, but MMORPG seems to be the most common name for the genre and it's easier to link to (without redirects from the many permutations). --User:Mrwojo 23:46, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC) :::Agreed. This page and -ly ought to be a redirect to MMORPG. FTR, I've almost always seen it spelled with the -ly, and capitalized. -User:Gtrmp 00:37, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC) :::: I kindof disagree with you. The main article should be Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game while MMORPG redirects to it. --User:Maio 01:50, Mar 12, 2004 (UTC) ---- You really think its of big importance if its massive or massively? i think it was a cool article to read and since i never played a mmorpg i'd be more than happy to play it and not to discuss the massivity of it Loomy ==Vote== Why don't we take a vote? Please vote on your favorite title below—be sure to sign your vote. Note captilizations of each version. Please add any that you think bear mention. MMORPG * Best compromise, probably most widely used. :-) —User:Frecklefoot 18:21, Mar 12, 2004 (UTC) * User:Mrwojo 18:40, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC) * User:Gtrmp 06:15, 17 Mar 2004 (UTC) Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game Massively multiplayer online role-playing game Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game Massive multiplayer online role-playing game Holy cow, no one except User:Mrwojo cares about the name of this article? What was the whole previous discussion over? If no one else votes in the next few days, I'm going to go ahead and move this to MMORPG since that is the only proposed name that got any votes. —User:Frecklefoot 14:27, Mar 16, 2004 (UTC) * In the interests of basic literacy, it should not be a title that feeds the computer-science culture that requires every word to begin with a capital letter. User:Michael Hardy 20:16, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC) ==BBC== This article was listed by theBBC today. User:Mark Richards 19:41, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC) :Got a link? User:Frecklefoot— User:Frecklefoot | User talk:Frecklefoot 20:25, Oct 7, 2004 (UTC) ::Looks like its this one: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3683260.stm]. --User:Mrwojo 14:34, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC) == Article Duplication? == Isn't the article Massively multiplayer online game exactly the same thing? User:Grunners 05:02, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC) :No. See Talk:Massively multiplayer online game. --User:Mrwojo 13:18, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC) == Another BBC link == http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4104731.stm User:Tom k&e 14:56, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC) == Griefer == I've created a stub for a new article to define the term Griefer. Please have a look - it needs expanding! Also, any ideas on the most appropriate way to link to the article from MMORPG? --User:AjAldous 15:47, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC) :I re-added a section on rude players, but this time it's expanded and more specific to MMORPGs. Also, griefing should be merged into griefer. By the way, thanks for filling a Wikipedia:Requested articles/Social Sciences and Philosophy. You can remove the link to griefer from there. --User:Mrwojo 16:25, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC) ---- ==External links expanding== I just noticed that an anon user, User:24.8.68.200, just added an external link to guildportal.com (at the ''top'' of the list, no less!). Exploding external links sections have occured on other pages I watch and in those cases, some users have added notes such as: :
Mmorpg
#REDIRECT MMORPG
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
M
MA | MB | MC | MD | ME | MF | MG | MH | MI | MJ | MK | ML | MN | MO | MP | MR | MS | MT | MU | MW | MX | MY | MZ |Words begining with MMORPG:
MMORPG
MMORPG
Mmorpg
MMORPGs
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