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MMOExposed's defining what a MMO is! Changing the Acronym! I knew this day would come. Finally End
MMOExposed
Member RarePosts: 7,400
MMOExposed came up with a definition of what a is considered a MMO and what isnt.
I knew this day would come, when Developers are trying to change the meaning of MMO, to use it as a buzz word for selling their products, and justifying a Itemshop/Sub fee for a game that shouldnt need one.
It was only a matter of time. MMOExposed noticed this a few years ago, and pointed this out back then.
Its a Scam, and we all know MMOExposed doesnt like scams and exploits of MMO Consumers.
But now not only are Developers doing this exploit, but formerly highly rated MMO gaming sites are joining into this marketing exploit scam.
So now days anything that has Online in the title, or features any form of Online gameplay is considered a MMO by gaming sites now.
Call of Duty is considered a MMO, same with Hello Kitty Online, and Diablo 3. its getting crazy now with this.
So before I explain what MMOExposed's definition for the genre, its also suggested that the whole Acronym that we know of as "MMO" or "MMORPG" be eliminated from our vocabulary.
Why?
Well because no matter how many times we as a community fix this definition of MMO,
If the Developers continue to use their own meaning of the Acronym as will the MMO gaming sites like Massively, will also be using their own meaning of what is a MMO.
And like we know, in every argument about this subject, Developers/Sites use the following argument to justify why every Online game is a MMO:
1) Is it Massive? (this could mean popularity, or number of sells, or how big the game world is)
2) Is it Multiplayer ( well 1 more player then single player is considered Multiplayer here to these people)
3) Is it Online (this could mean simply if it allows Online play. Doesnt even need to always be online anymore with these new age definition)
So no matter how much we change what MMO means, they will change it back as long as MMO still stand for Massively, Multiplayer, Online.
Some of you may be thinking this isnt a big deal.
But it really is. When we go to a MMOsite, or a MMODeveloper site looking for a MMO, we expect a MMO. Not a CORPG/Singleplayer game/MOBA/ or some other non-MMO game.
Its like going to a Farmer, looking to buy a Orange, but the farmer sells you a Peach because its the color Orange. Its exploitation now. And like MMOExposed explained before, something needs to be done about it.
============================================================
Now to the MMOExposed's suggestion on fixing this issue:
two New genres Acronyms:
HCMOG - Hard Cap Multiplayer Online Game
&
SCMOG - Soft Cap Multiplayer Online Game
I will explain what each means.
I will start with HCMOG.
*HCMOG- is a game that has a fixed cap on population limits based on gameplay. For example, Call of Duty has a fixed 24 player cap for multiplayer. 12 vs 12 hard capped. Adding to that would break the game mode and the design of the game. League of Legends, Guild Wars 1, Call of Duty, Diablo 3 all fit this category. And seperates them from the other genre by the cap design instead of the original "Is It Massive, is it Multiplayer, Is it Online" bah bah bah.
*SCMOG- like all games, have some form of cap on population, but with this subgenre, the cap is expandable without breaking the game design. The softcap is only limited by the hardware/Tech. So a game like World of Warcraft has a Softcap that is built for a server limit based on tech restrictions in its game world, not based on a fixed population like its instanced content which is considered an addition to its game world.
And these above would be broken down into smaller subgenres of course
like for example HCMORPG, or HCMOFPS, etc.
Same for SCMORPG like World of Warcraft and Rift or SCMOFPS like Planetside 2, etc.
Its not perfect, and has flaws I am sure. Which is why I shared it to find ways to patch the flaws in this suggestion up. Because I feel its a better idea using these above acronyms than to continue to use the acronym MMO.
share your opinion.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Comments
I voted no. You can't bring more than 5 people in Deadmines. You can't bring more than 40 people in Molten Core. And have you seen people do 30 man Molten Core when that just released? Absolutely not.
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You need another option for the poll.
Something along the lines of, "I don't respond to polls where the OP refers to himself in the third person."
But does it have a game world?
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Ok, in the name of not being so long-winded I am going to put up a first response that is fully trollable, able to be responded to, and does not require a lot of reading and then I'm going to put up what I really think, which is no less more thought out than the other thing but just made me happy to let my mind wander on the subject.
Ok so the first response.
If they want to turn their industry into the Tower of Babel I say let em!
Feel free to think of that as the only thing that I said or, if you are bored and feel like reading, continue on to the way more wordy response below.
Here's the thing. I'm all for using the right name to describe the right product but the problem all along with acronyms has been that they are colloquialisms that are generally only known by that relatively small population of people who use them on a regular basis.
Anybody who has ever played an MMORPG can tell you that there is nothing more annoying than getting into a game for the first time and having someone spam a bunch of acronyms at you while you are still trying to learn how to make your character move. Still, most of us hang in there and take the time to learn because we WANT to play that game.
People who go internet searching for something to do on the other hand don't have any idea what they want to do, and here is where the whole point of infringing on the MMORPG or MMO acronym is based. See, that acronym, particularly in its abbreviated form "MMO" is a pretty well known set of letters. Most people who hear it immediately equate it to a certain kind of game, and when they type those letters into an internet browser they expect that certain kind of game to come up.
When I get bored and go looking for online games that can be played by multiple players I DO NOT type MMO or MMORPG into the browser, I type "Multiplayer Online Game" into the brower, along with any variable that I can think of "Multiplayer Online Browser Game", "Multiplayer Online Shooter", etc... that I can think of to get what I am looking for to pop up.
In my belief then, and this is only my opinion, Infringement upon the MMORPG or MMO acronym then, although I 100% agree that it is a ploy to market and advertise non-MMORPG styled games, is more because there is no other acronym under which advertise that is more popular. Not so much because they are trying to phase MMORPG's out.
Each genre must stand or fall on its own merits. Calling one thing another is not going to make the other thing go away, it's just going to annoy all of us who know that the one thing is not the other, and honestly, that's stupid on the part of the marketer because I know for a fact that there are a lot of people out there are aren't playing certain games not because they are bad games but because they represent something that those people don't care for, i.e. a MOBA in MMORPG clothing, etc...
Coming full circle though, my point is that making up new acronyms is probably not the answer as it further removes the layman from what the layman needs in order to find what he wants. And since the industry is already all about giving the layman exactly what the layman wants it would likely just be an uphill battle to try to fight them on it with a solution that just makes things more complicated.
In other words, I type "Multiplayer Online Game" into a browser and I get some MMORPGs, a couple of MOBA's and a 3rd Person Shooter that's a lot better than not getting anything because I don't know the secret code.
Better then that we, as the insiders and regular users of the terms try to come to some agreement of what the terms we already have mean and keep hammering those home to everyone we run into until there can be no mistake. That way, at least, we open the door for more informed conversations on the subject instead of people rolling in here talking about how Roleplaying is being good at being a tank and all the other nonsense that we see happen here all the time.
Some tells you that the sun is bright you could easily say, "Well of course, he takes after the old man" and pat your boy on the head, but you probably wouldn't, because you know the syntax in which that term was used is more likely to mean that the person using it is talking about the celestial body and not your 10 year old. At least you should.
What the industry does is inconsequential as long as we, the community, can stick together and continue to teach one another what is needed to know as we go.
Remember, ultimately, even though their job is to make it seem like we do what they say, they really do what we say. If we start calling the crap Monkeyshines tomorrow they will be advertising Monkeyshines within a year because they want to get that Monkeyshines money.
We wouldn't do that though cause Monkeyshines would not make any sense, and then we would have to acquit. (Yes, I am going to wear that out every time it makes sense to say it because right now it's kind of funny to me).
This battle's probably already lost, OP. As far as I'm concerned once WoW starts selling high level characters (and LOTRO/EQ2/TERA as well) they are barely RPGs anymore as the whole main point of an RPG is to progress your character from weak to strong.
There are already a lot of traditional MMORPGs that aren't really massive (actually hard to think of one that is other than EVE)
They'll keep using the acronym because of marketing but it really doesn't fit most of the games anymore (and I'm not even touching on games like LoL and DOTA that some people claim are MMORPGs now)
It's not a scam though. "Scam" means they are doing something illegal not just misusing a buzzword for marketing reasons.
yet another try to invent an acronyme.
Why not invent 1000 more? For each taste, you know.
MOEAVGNRPG: Massive Online East Asia Very Grindy Non Role Playing Game
MOTPG: Massive Online Tank Playing Game
MOCPAG: Massive online Childish Pokemon Anime Game
MOHPG: Massive Online Hentai Pr0n Game
NPOHPG: Non Popular Online Hentai Pron Game
HMAOG: Half-Massive, Almost Online Game
and so on, and so on. The more acronymes, the better (and who cares if they are needed?).
http://www.mmoblogg.wordpress.com
I voted no simply because the acronyms are already there, they just aren't being used. A suggestion if I may is that you post the standard ones:
MMO
MMORPG
MMOFPS
MMORTS
MOG
MOBA
etc. and list some titles in their appropriate categories and see if people agree. It is out of our hands I fear because the industry uses easily recognizable terms even if they are technically wrong.
Is it that serious though? It's just a sub genre classification. When it's all said and done a game IS what it IS.
Massively Multi-player Online. If you're going to be extra about it, just define a number of persistent players that satisfies the term "massive".
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
actually, i think you could be on to something with most of those acronyms
This forum have shaped up to be the standard of online gaming Acronym on all the internet!
And I mean all the internet!
Yes but for example, if you read that Massively article,
you would see that Call of Duty is now being defined as a MMO.
So that would classify it as a MMOFPS even though that may not be what you were searching for on the internet when looking for a new MMOFPS to play.
Explain to me how that isnt exploitation and scamming please.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Scamming is offering something that is impossible to deliver or contradicts description. Example: I propose you buy a Ferrari from me for just 1000 $ and I give you an Opel with text "Da Big Ferrari" on it. I scammed you, because you received Opel, not Ferrari.
If the game is Massive, it is Multiplayer and if it is Online, it should be called MMO. And players can roleplay there, hence RPG.
Why invent new acronymes when there are enough standard ones? To bring more confusion? To act like a smart person ("you noobs, I created nine thousand twenty four acronymes and you created zero")?
As one player told - there already are enough acronymes, let us just stick to them.
http://www.mmoblogg.wordpress.com
How about making an acronym with a number?
1000+ Online Player Game:
K-OPG
1000+ Player Game:
KPG
Of course the best thing right is still defending the current acronym "MMO", but we're losing the battle.
If I ask for a MMO, and you give me Demon Soul, how is that not a scam. Its Massive, its has multiplayer, it has online right?
based on that article, its a MMO. So thats not a scam?
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
from Wikipedia:
"A scam or confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence."
There is no actual defrauding going on here. They aren't claiming the game has features it doesn't have. If you jump to that conclusion that's your fault.
The simple answer is you should never buy anything online just because of an acronym. It takes 2 minutes to find out what type of game CoD actually is before you buy it. If you won't do that you deserve to waste money. You don't think every product out there uses borderline misleading terminology in their marketing to try to make it sound better than it is? Don't trust marketing. Ever. They're almost always lying to you at least as much as they can get away with.
you would see that Call of Duty is now being defined as a MMO.
So that would classify it as a MMOFPS even though that may not be what you were searching for on the internet when looking for a new MMOFPS to play.
Explain to me how that isnt exploitation and scamming please.
I wouldn't go quite as far as calling it "exploitation and scamming", since most people misusing the term aren't misusing it because they're trying to trick people, per say...
This is just my opinion, but I think the reason the term is misused (by people who should know better) is because there are people who believe that they can do whatever they want, say whatever they want, and define words and phrases to mean whatever they want. And they believe that everyone else in the world needs to accept what they think and cater to them.
What's the difference between a lobby with 3-d avatars, and a functionally irrelevant world that just gets used as a fancy lobby?
IMO.. I think it would be better if we can just change out one letter in MMORPG to accommodate us old vets that grew up on AD&D and EQ (or similar).. Instead lets call games like EQ MMORPS., the "S" standing for simulation.. Cause isn't that what we are really doing or pretending.. We are simulating a fantasy life in a fantasy world? Crafting? Housing? Exploration? I'm just not logging on and clicking to take a spot in a 12v12 arena battle, I'm actually wanting to fulfill a role in this fantasy realm..
Just thinking while having coffee..
Need to rename those lobby games.
How about
LOBA (lobby online battle arena)
LMORPG (lobby multiplayer online role playing game)
LMOFPS (lobby multiplayer online first person shooter)
I just try to hold the line on the term MMORPG, but then again, few are really making them anymore according to the designs I am familiar with and prefer.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
MMOs don't have to include worlds.
Not sure what all the fuse is about... MMORPG = Ultima, EQ, WoW, EVE, GW2, SWTOR, LOTRO etc.
What do they all have in commun ? A PERSISTANT WORLD. Ok so that's not included in the name but we all know it. CoD, World of Tank or Mario Kart Online don't. Simple.