Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games -- MMORPG


The internet brought a new genre to computer gaming. "Massively multiplayer online role-playing game", or MMORPG for short. You interact with thousands of other players online in a dynamic fantasy or futuristic universe. While MMORPGs provide endless hours of fun (and addiction) most require you to pay a monthly fee to keep playing.
The MMORPG has its roots in another acronym -- MUDs. Multi User Dungeons predated the MMORPG. MUDs had no graphics but rather relied on pure text and the gamer's imagination. Ironically text only gaming has several advantages over graphical gaming. Most importantly, there is no need to have artists spend hours creating single items. With 3D games an artist may spend hours to a full day to design a single weapon graphic. With a text-based game all the game designer must do is specify a word -- sword. Of course, a decade or more ago 3D graphics were not even options. Other computer role playing games such as Diablo also owe their inspiration to these text-based games. MUDs and their cousins (MUCKs, MUSHes, MOOs, etc.) still exist today.
Ultima Online was one of the first true MMORPGs (To be fair, Meridian59 and others came before it.) Just like most other MMORPGs, Ultima Online suffered a buggy release. Due to the subscription-based nature of MMORPGs there is a strong incentive for publishers to continue to support these games for years. Ultima Online is still releasing new expansion packs to this day.
Ultima Online was quickly followed by other hits such as Sony's Everquest and Microsoft's Asheron's Call. The past couple of years have seen an explosion of new MMORPGs, with more to come. MMORPG.com lists over 60 MMORPGs which have been announced, some of which are already in beta.
Today, the MMORPG battle is getting hotter then ever. The release of Everquest II and World of Warcraft almost simultaniously left many wondering -- but WoW emerged on top. Game publishers are betting millions of dollars that their MMORPG will be the next hit -- but few will reach this high goal.
One of the biggest challenges facing MMORPG developers today is growing the market. Final Fantasy Online has only a fraction of players in comparison with the mega sales its single-player predecessors had. There are million of computer and video game players in the world yet only a fraction of them play MMORPGs. The Sims was the best selling computer game of all time. The Sims brought an entirely new audience to computer gaming. Its creators sought to capitalize on the MMORPG market by creating an online versions of the Sims -- yet The Sims Online was a relative flop. Whoever manages to bring a new market segment into the MMORPG world -- and the pay-per-month pricing scheme -- will make millions.


RECOMMENDED


Guild Wars

"...created by ex-Blizzard employees -- the guys behind Diablo and the original Warcraft games. In many respects Guild Wars is the real World of Warcraft."

Ultima Online: Age of Shadows
"Ultima Online: Age of Shadows is yet another of Ultima Online's five expansion packs in over half a decade. "

World of Warcraft

"Having been out for over a year already, Star Wars Galaxies has definitely had time to mature and get some wrinkles ironed out. ."




More MMORPGs
Anarchy Online: Shadowlands
Dark Age of Camelot: Trials of Atlantis
Dark Horizons: Lore
EVE Online: The Second Genesis
Final Fantasy XI Online
Guild Wars
Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle
Horizons: Empires of Istaria
Planetside
PlanetSide: Core Combat
Second Life
Shadowbane
Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided
The Matrix Online
Time of Defiance
Want to play RPGs offline? Try Counterfrag's RPG guide.