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Newsletter, Issue #9: Gamer to English
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
This time in gamer to English, we toyed witht he question "What is an MMORPG?" Let us know what you think!
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Double post
Or in WoW's case, make all the best drops and fastest leveling in an instance.
This is just sad. Instancing is sad. Its all going downhill, fast. Please tell me these new games coming out are instaned-free.
Sorry, yes, that should have said (in the newsletter) Massively (or massive) multiplayer (or multiple) Online Role Playing Game.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
I think the real point of contention should be about the "RP" of the MMORPG. Massive(ly) Multiplayer Online Game or "MMOG" can apply to nearly every online game, but the idea of to what extent a player is Role Playing in each game is debatable. Some people have even argued that some games with a notable directedness towards action and little in the way of story, lore or quest-type "RP" elements may not be properly called an MMO_RP_G at all.
I was stunned, shocked, and perplexed when I first discovered instancing in Guild Wars. How could this be? How could it possibly be called an MMORPG if I'm playing completely by myself with not a chance in the world to be caught out here by someone else until I head back to town?
This must be some sort of trick question. Let me provide a straightforward answer. Since when does an instanced game qualify as "Massively Multiplayer Online"?
The notion of "Massively Multiplayer Online" is emphatic. It means that a massive number of people are logged into the same server at once. When you break off into a little sub-game with a few buddies, it becomes simply "Multiplayer".
But no one ever considered Quake to be "Massively Multiplayer Online" action game when Gamespy was released to the world, nor did they consider Starcraft to be "Massively Multiplayer Online" strategy game when Battle.net introduced itself to the world. These games were always considered multiplayer, nothing more. Neither should an RPG pretend to qualify itself as "MMO" just because they have big chat rooms where people can start up new games and ladders are supported. Disguise them all you want by integrating the chat rooms with the game's map, but that's all the cities really are--non-playable chat rooms.
MMORPG Hmmm....
Played anytime, anywhere, people all over the world, every time you log in theres people about, ongoing updates to improve the community or expand upon features, not always containing PvP.
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~~~White Butterfly~~~
/*\
The Sword Knight, Signum.
I Am The Soul,
And The Fiery Demonic Sword Is
Levantine!
~*~
Soar Forth, My Falcon!
MMOG is a game that allows for thousands of players to be online at the same time and on the same server.
I don't use MMORPG as a collective label for these games for the simple reason that I find quite a lot of them have little or no RPing appeal/ potential.
Of course, you could argue, that RP is what you make of it (and I've argued that a lot *smiles wryly*) but some games are more appealing RP wise, with higher level of customization character wise, equipment wise (clothes, armour, utilities), visually (animations) and emote wise. NPC buildings are easily possible to RP in, but a high level of customization within housing is definitely a plus, as well.
I've played a couple of MMOGs, and tried out a lot, but only found one that really appealed to me, RP wise. And now there're rumours it's closing :P
I can only hope Fallen Earth is all they way it is *crosses her fingers*
"So I contend that the player stories will always be more powerful than the scripted stories that we try to tell the players."
- Will Wright
Hmm... won't let me edit.
Anyways - forgot to add to my perception of an MMOG that it's a continuing world. Things keep moving, even if you're not there.
"So I contend that the player stories will always be more powerful than the scripted stories that we try to tell the players."
- Will Wright
I like the instanced approach but only to the degree that it respects the need to balance the instant with persistance in the on-line world. To really be a MMORPG you need a world that a massive number of people can influence and change and see the effects of their actions days or weeks into the future. Persistance.
A pure instanced game (Guildwars for example) is a blast to play but does not, and does not advertise itself as such, have any long term role for the player since it lacks any sort of persistance. Dark Age of Camelot with it's keeps and relics does a great job at delivering persistance. WoW? Blizzard better get their coders busy because imo that's it's big flaw - little to no persistance and thus has little to no right to consider itself an on-line role playing game.
Ooops, sry, ... I thought the mage was healing.
You know .. i took some time to think this one out.
I have been playng RPGs since .. Diablo 1. So i belive i can say that I know the RPG genere.
A massive multiplayer online rpg .. now that's a little bit different ... but not so different after all.
In my oppinion people got the RPG concept all wrong. A RPG is a game where you (the player) assume the identity of a character and you play and work and develope your skills just as in real life (and no i'm not talking about a sim.), doing quests and everything, not a game where you kill monsters to find gold and items and pwn other players.
So i belive that a masive multiplayer online rpg is a game in which a player assumes the role of a character and develops it the best way he can think of doing whatever he wants to do in the (usualy) huge world the game offers and interact with (thousands of) other players.
To uphold what i just said i will offer as an example one of the best MMORPGs (in concept) i have ever played - Runescape.
This is a game where a player is able to do whatever he /she wishes. Fishing, cooking, mining, smithing, fletching, adventurinig, woodcuting, treasurehunting, be a mage, a warior, an archer, and the game offers a large variety of well thought multiplayer quests. Think about it the possibilities are endles. If this game were to have a .. let's say Lineage 2 kind of graphics it would kill everything out there.
I haven't got to test World of Warcraft just yet ... but from what i got to read about it .. i think that this is the game i have been waiting for, like the ultimate MMORPG.
That's about all i have to say.
Chani's Rants - http://chanichtau.wordpress.com
*cough* WoW is a glorified cartoon *cough*
Anyways - I agree with Chanicthau for a good part, I just don't think a lot of people actually assumes the role.
Most games labelled RPG today are either Adventure or just not ... RPed. A game like Diablo, for instance (I or II, take your pick) is great, and I love playing it, but the RP appeal/ possibility is near zero.
A game I'm looking forward to is Fallen Earth. That seems to have an obscene amount of RP appeal/ possibilty. Another game would be the NwN online game I've rumours about. I enjoyed RPing in the NwN persistent worlds a lot, as those were usually populated with RPers who put thought into their chars and their actions.
Only problem with those were, they were very limited in how many players they could support at the same time. But that's an entirely different discussion *blushes as she realizes she drifted*
To get back to the RPG labelling. This seems to be used pretty indiscriminately at the moment, in single player/ multiplayer games, as well as in MMOGs. Most of the time is mislabelling.
In my humble opinion, of course *smiles wryly*
"So I contend that the player stories will always be more powerful than the scripted stories that we try to tell the players."
- Will Wright