MMO Gaming

Let’s start off these articles with the first thing that people would probably ask. What is an MMO(RP)G? The Wikipedia entry goes into more depth than I plan to, but if you are actually interested in finding out, that is probably a good place to check first.

I will quote the first paragraph from that entry though, as it explains things very succinctly, more so that I feel I could do. Now then, onward:

MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) is a genre of online computer role-playing games (RPGs) in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world. As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a fictional character (most commonly in a fantasy setting) 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.

So, from that paragraph there is quite a bit of information, first being what the acronym MMORPG stands for. Also important, is the difference mentioned between single and small multi-player games compared to the large number of people that can play the game together in an MMORPG. And finally the persistent world, hosted by the game’s publisher that continues to exist while players are away is important as well.

Let’s break that down a bit more. What exactly constitutes a Massive(ly) Multiplayer Online Game? Some people seem to get confused between MMOG and normal online games. If we were to use something like Halo 2 as an example for XBox Live, it becomes more apparent. Chances are you are playing with a few dozen people at any given time, at best. An MMOG supports thousands of people online at any given time. It’s the difference between the number of people you may have over for a party, and the number of people that live in a small town (or large town, as the case may sometimes be).

The persistent world probably brings up some questions, but is generally answered by the last part of the sentence where it mentions that the world continues to exist and evolve while the player is away. In essence, it is a lot more like real life. If a person doesn’t go to work on a given day it doesn’t mean the entire company takes off and nothing happens. Life still goes on without that person being there. This is of course a big selling point for a lot of people, and at the same time a big turn-off for others. Of course, I’ll leave the selling of MMO gaming to other entries and try to keep this one more informative.

Now moving on to another point, and a bit of explanation of a term I may use often is the “hosted by the publisher” part of the Wikipedia text. MMO games are played on servers, usually multiple servers. For those that don’t know what a server is, the simplest way to think of it is a powerful computer which holds the game’s information. I’ve probably mentioned server problems or server crashes before (and if not I surely will in the future) and it is important to realize that the term server, singularly, does not accurately describe things.

Let’s back up a minute though. Usually there are multiple servers for any game. In a game, World of Warcraft for example, there are multiple servers all with different names. When I wish to create a character in the game I have to choose a server. By putting a character on that server I can access that character only from that server. If I wish to play on a different server, I have to start a new character. This is because each server represents one independent group playing the game. Each server plays the same game, and each server can hold thousands of players, but it’s not usually possible for all players of the game to play all together. This may seem odd, but remember these servers do have limits, and they can only take so much information at any given time, so multiple “instances” of the game have to be run simultaneously for all players to be able to participate.

Now, as I mentioned, the term server is a bit of a misnomer, because it isn’t actually singular even for a given “instance” of a game. Each game server is actually multiple servers in itself, more accurately described as a “server-cluster”. This group of servers working together power the game world and there are many different server-clusters which make up all the different “instances” of the game worlds.

That isn’t as important as just knowing that when I say the term server, in the singular sense, I am most often referring to the server-cluster.

So, that covers some of the basics of what an MMO is and how it works and compares to a small multi-player game. We’ll try and get more into some typical phrases used by players in the next installment.