Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game: MMORPG

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (commonly abbreviated MMORPG) is a genre of computer role-playing games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world. The term MMORPG was coined by Richard Garriott,[citation needed] the creator of Ultima Online, the game credited with popularizing the genre in 1997.
As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a fictional character (often in a fantasy world), and take control over many of that character's actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player RPGs by the number of players, and by the game's persistent world, usually hosted by the game's publisher, which continues to exist and evolve while the player is away from the game.
MMORPGs are very popular throughout the world. Worldwide revenues for MMORPGs exceeded half a billion dollars in 2005, and Western revenues exceeded US$1 billion in 2006. In 2007 and 2008 the virtual goods buying and trading has increased dramatically[citation needed]. Next to the more traditional subscription model, virtual goods are a second source of revenues for publishers. In 2008, Western consumer spending on subscription MMOGs grew to $1.4 billion. The most popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft, has had over 11 million paying subscribers as of 2009.


Common features

Themes: The majority of popular MMORPGs are based on traditional fantasy themes, often occurring in an in-game universe comparable to that of Dungeons & Dragons. Some employ hybrid themes that either merge or substitute fantasy elements with those of science fiction, sword and sorcery, or crime fiction. Still others use more obscure themes, including American comic books, the occult, and other recognizable literary genres. Often these elements are developed using similar tasks and scenarios involving quests, monsters, and loot.


Progression: In nearly all MMORPGs, the development of the player's character is a primary goal. Many MMORPGs feature a character progression system in which players earn experience points for their actions and use those points to reach character "levels", which makes them better at whatever they do. Traditionally, combat with monsters and completing quests for NPCs, either alone or in groups, are the primary ways to earn experience points. The accumulation of wealth (including combat-useful items) is also a way to progress in many titles, and again, this is traditionally best accomplished via combat. The cycle produced by these conditions, combat leading to new items allowing for more combat with no change in gameplay, is sometimes pejoratively referred to as the level treadmill, or 'grinding'. The role-playing game Progress Quest was created as a parody of this trend.
Also, traditional in the genre is the eventual demand on players to team up with others in order to progress at the optimal rate. This sometimes forces players to change their real-world schedules in order to "keep up" within the game-world.


Social Interaction: MMORPGs almost always allow players to communicate with one another. Depending on the other interactions allowed by the game, other social expectations will be present.


Teamwork: Many MMORPGs exploit their players' social skills and offer support for in-game guilds or clans (though these will usually form whether the game supports them or not). As a result, many players will find themselves as either a member or a leader of such a group after playing an MMORPG for some time. These organizations will likely have further expectations for their members (such as intra-guild assistance).
Even if players never join a formal group, they are still usually expected to be a part of a small team during game play, and will probably be expected to carry out a specialized role (such as healing). In combat-based MMORPGs, usual roles include the "tank", a character who absorbs enemy blows and protects other members of the team, the "healer", a character responsible for keeping up the health of the party, the "DPS (Damage Per Second)," a character specializing in inflicting damage, and sometimes the "CC (Crowd Control)," a character who temporarily controls the opponent, such as the "NPC" (Non-Player Character), and making the opponent lose its control of actions and abilities. Other common roles include being a dedicated "buffer" or "debuffer", using abilities that affect the team or the opponents in other ways. Any given MMORPG might allow players to take on all of these roles, additional hybrid roles, or none of them. Despite the variability, some players might enjoy one role over others and continue to play it through many different MMORPG titles.


Roleplaying: Some MMORPGs also may expect players to roleplay their characters – that is, to speak and act in the way their character would act, even if it means shying away from other goals such as wealth or experience. MMORPGs may offer "RP-only" servers for those who wish to immerse themselves in the game in this way.
MMORPG's generally have Game Moderators or Game Masters (frequently abbreviated to GM), which may be paid employees or unpaid volunteers who attempt to supervise the world. Some GMs may have additional access to features and information related to the game that are not available to other players and roles.


Culture: Since MMORPGs have so many elements in common, and those elements are experienced by so many people, a common culture of MMORPGs has developed which exists in addition to the culture present within any given game. For example, since MMORPGs often feature many different character "classes", the games must be balanced in order to be fair to all players, and this has led players of many games to expect "buffing" or "nerfing", which is a term describing the strengthening or weakening of a subset of players, respectively.
As another example, in many older MMORPGs the fastest way to progress was simply by killing the same monsters over and over again, and as this is still common in the genre all MMORPG players know the process as "grinding", or "camping" (sitting at a monster's spawn point in order to attack it as soon as it respawns). The importance of grinding in MMORPGs, and how much "fun" it contributes to the experience, is constantly debated. Many MMORPGs have taken steps to eliminate or reduce grinding, but few such attempts have met with success, and it is generally accepted by players and developers alike that some amount of 'grind' is required to maintain a stable playing experience.
MMORPG addiction, which has been a source of concern for parents, dead link also affects the culture. Some players might look down on those who invest huge amounts of time and or money into a game, while others might scorn those who can't put in the time to "play properly". The validity of such viewpoints is heavily debated, with both sides of the issue being discussed frequently on most games' forums.



System architecture: Most MMORPGs are deployed using a client-server system architecture. The software that generates and persists the "world" runs continuously on a server, and players connect to it via client software. The client software may provide access to the entire playing world, or further 'expansions' may be required to be purchased to allow access to certain areas of the game. EverQuest and World of Warcraft are two examples of games that use such a format. Players generally must purchase the client software for a one-time fee, although an increasing trend is for MMORPGs to work using pre-existing "thin" clients, such as a web browser.
Some MMORPGs require payment of a monthly subscription to play. By nature, "massively multiplayer" games are always online, and most require some sort of continuous revenue (such as monthly subscriptions and advertisements) for maintenance and development. Some games, such as Guild Wars, have disposed of the 'monthly fee' model entirely, and recover costs directly through sales of the software and associated expansion packs.
Depending on the number of players and the system architecture, a MMORPG might actually be run on multiple separate servers, each representing an independent world, where players from one server cannot interact with those from another; World of Warcraft is a prominent example, with each separate server housing several thousand players. In many MMORPGs the number of players in one world is often limited to around a few thousand, but a notable example of the opposite is EVE Online which accommodated around 20,000 players in the same world as of August 2007 and 51,675 users online in February 2009. Some games allow characters to appear on any world, but not simultaneously (such as Seal Online: Evolution), others limit each character to the world in which it was created.



Trends as of 2008

As there are a number of wildly different titles within the genre, and since the genre develops so rapidly, it is difficult to definitively state that the genre is heading in one direction or another. Still, there are a few obvious developments. One of these developments is the raid group quest, or "raid",which is an adventure designed for large groups of players (often twenty or more).


Instance dungeons

Instance dungeons, sometimes shortened to "instances", are game areas that are "copied" for individual players or groups, which keeps those in the instance separated from the rest of the game world. This reduces competition, while also reducing the amount of data that needs to be sent to and from the server, reducing lag. The Realm Online was the first MMORPG to begin to use a rudimentary form of this technique and Anarchy Online would later take it to another level by creating a robust instance-based game experience. Since then, instancing has become increasingly more common. The "raids", as mentioned above, often involve instance dungeons.


Solo play

Although these games are multiplayer, and intended to be played in groups for the best experience, most now provide solo content, or adventures a player character can do on their own. It can be difficult to find a group to adventure with, and this allows people to play the game without waiting around in safe areas like cities for a long period of time. This change turned out to be popular, and some of the older MMORPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons Online were retrofitted to make solo play easier. Adding to the popularity is a side effect: some people prefer to solo. To encourage players to continue grouping, many games reward grouping by giving grouped players bonuses such as more experience points than they would otherwise get soloing.


Player-created content

Increased amounts of "Player-created content" may be another trend. From the beginning, the Ultima Online world included blank 30-page books that players could write in, collect into personal libraries and trade; in later years players have been able to design and build houses from the ground up. Some non-combat-based MMORPGs rely heavily on player-created content, including everything from simple animations to complete buildings using player-created textures and architecture like A Tale in the Desert. However, these games are very different from the far more popular "standard" MMORPGs revolving around combat and limited character trade skills. Player-created content in these games would be in the form of areas to explore, monsters to kill, quests to carry out and specific in-game items to obtain. The Saga of Ryzom was the first of these "standard" MMORPGs to offer players the ability to create this type of content.
City of Heroes and Villains released Issue 14: Mission Architect (April 8, 2009), which added completely player-created missions. A problem popped up immediately: Some players were taking advantage of user-created content by designing easy missions that offer an unfair risk-to-reward ratio. Dealing with such problems is an ongoing issue in many MMORPGs.

Use of Licenses

The use of intellectual property licensing, common in other video game genres, has also appeared in MMORPGs. 2007 saw the release of The Lord of the Rings Online, based on J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. Other licensed MMORPGs include The Matrix Online, based on the Matrix trilogy of films, Warhammer Online, based on Games Workshop's table top game, Star Trek Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Champions Online and Age of Conan. Additionally, several licenses from television have been optioned for MMORPGs, for example Stargate Worlds, which is currently in development. The process is also apparently being applied in reverse, with James Cameron designing an MMORPG that will precede the film (Project 880) to which it is tied.


Console-based MMORPGs

The first console-based MMORPG was Final Fantasy XI for the Sony PlayStation 2, but only in Japan; EverQuest Online Adventures, also on the PlayStation 2, was the first console MMORPG in North America. While both games were pre-dated by the release of Phantasy Star Online for the Sega Dreamcast, this game is not considered to be an MMORPG due to the very small occupancy limit of any individual game space (the "lobbies" used to interconnect players could hold up to 15 players each, whereas an individual game supports up to four simultaneous players). Due to this, in addition to its more action-oriented gameplay, Phantasy Star Online is classified as an online Action RPG.
Although console-based MMORPGs are considered more difficult to produce, the platform is gaining more attention. Funcom's Age of Conan is to be released on the Xbox 360 in 2009,Turbine, Inc. announced they are working on a console-based MMO, and Sony Online Entertainment is working on DC Universe Online for the PC and PS3. Final Fantasy XI was originally released for PlayStation 2 and PC, but was later extended to Xbox 360, and later emulated as a PlayStation 2 game on the PlayStation 3. Also, Cryptic Studios will release Star Trek Online and Champions Online to both PC and console. Finally, Final Fantasy XIV will be released for both PlayStation 3 and PC.