Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
A massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game.
As in role-playing games, the player assumes the role of a character and takes control over many of that character's actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player online RPGs by the number of players able to interact together, and by the game's persistent world, which continues to exist and evolve while the player is offline and away from the game.
MMORPGs are played throughout the world. Global revenues for MMORPGs exceeded half a billion dollars in 2005, and the western world's revenues exceeded a billion dollars in 2006. In 2008, the spending on subscription MMORPGs by consumers in North America and Europe grew to $1.4 billion. World of Warcraft, a popular MMORPG, had over 10 million subscribers as of November 2014. World of Warcrafts total revenue was $1.04 billion US dollars in 2014. Star Wars: The Old Republic, released in 2011, became the world's "fastest-growing subscription MMO in history" after gaining more than 1 million players within the first three days of its launch.
Common features
Although modern MMORPGs sometimes differ dramatically from their predecessors, many of them share the same basic characteristics. These include several common features:- persistent game environment
- some form of level progression
- social interaction within the game
- in-game culture
- membership in a group
- character customization.
Themes
Progression
In nearly all MMORPGs, the development of the player's character is the primary goal. Nearly all 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 non-player characters, either alone or in groups, are the primary ways to earn experience points. The accumulation of wealth is also a way to progress in many MMORPGs. 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. Eve Online, a space-based MMORPG, uses an alternative method of progression where users train skills in real-time rather than using experience points as a measure of progression.In some MMORPGs, there is no limit to a player's level, allowing the grinding experience to continue indefinitely. MMORPGs that use this model often glorify top ranked players by displaying their avatars on the game's website or posting their stats on a high score screen. Another common practice is to enforce a maximum reachable level for all players, often referred to as a level cap. Once reached, the definition of a player's progression changes. Instead of being awarded primarily with experience for completing quests and dungeons, the player's motivation to continue playing will be replaced with collecting money and equipment.
Often, the widened range of equipment available at the maximum level will have increased aesthetic value to distinguish high ranking players in game between lower ranked players. Colloquially known as endgame gear, this set of empowered weapons and armor adds a competitive edge to both scripted boss encounters as well as player vs player combat. Player motivation to outperform others is fueled by acquiring such items and is a significant determining factor in their success or failure in combat-related situations.
Social interaction
MMORPGs almost always have tools to facilitate communication between players. Many MMORPGs offer support for in-game guilds or clans, though these will usually form whether the game supports them or not.In addition, most MMOGs require some degree of teamwork in parts of the game. These tasks usually require players to take on roles in the group, such as protecting other players from damage, "healing" damage done to other players or damaging enemies.
MMORPGs generally have Game Moderators or Game Masters, who 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.
Relationships formed in MMORPGs can often be just as intense as relationships formed between friends or partners met outside the game, and often involve elements of collaboration and trust between players.
Roleplaying
Most MMORPGs provide different types of classes that players can choose. Among those classes, a small portion of players choose to roleplay their characters, and there are rules that provide functionality and content to those who do. Community resources such as forums and guides exist in support of this play style.For example, if a player wants to play a priest role in his MMORPG world, that player might buy a cope from a shop and learn priestly skills, proceeding to speak, act, and interact with others as their character would. This may or may not include pursuing other goals such as wealth or experience. Guilds or similar groups with a focus on roleplaying may develop extended in-depth narratives using the setting and resources similar to those in the game world.
Culture
Over time, the MMORPG community has developed a sub-culture with its own slang and metaphors, as well as an unwritten list of social rules and taboos. Players will often complain about 'grind', or talk about 'buffs' and 'nerfs'.As with all such cultures, social rules exist for such things as invitations to join an adventuring party, the proper division of treasure, and how a player is expected to behave while grouped with other players.
Infrastructure and Monetization
System architecture
Most MMORPGs are deployed using a client–server system architecture. The server software generates a persistent instance of the virtual world that runs continuously, and players connect to it via a 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 Guild Wars 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.Depending on the number of players and the system architecture, an MMORPG might 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 accommodates several hundred thousand players on the same server, with over 60,000 playing simultaneously at certain times. Some games allow characters to appear on any world, but not simultaneously ; others limit each character to the world in which it was created. World of Warcraft has experimented with "cross-realm" interaction in player vs player "battlegrounds", using server clusters or "battlegroups" to co-ordinate players looking to participate in structured player vs player content such as the Warsong Gulch or Alterac Valley battlegrounds. Additionally, patch 3.3, released on December 8, 2009, introduced a cross-realm "looking for group" system to help players form groups for instanced content from a larger pool of characters than their home server can necessarily provide.
Business models
MMORPGs today use a wide range of business models, from free of charge, free with microtransactions, advertise funded, to various kinds of payment plans. Some MMORPGs require payment or a monthly subscription to play. By definition, "massively multiplayer" games are always online, and most require some sort of continuous revenue for maintenance and development purposes. 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. Still others adopt a micropayment model where the core content is free, but players are given the option to purchase additional content, such as equipment, aesthetic items, or pets. Games that make use of this model often have originated in Korea, such as Flyff and MapleStory. This business model is alternately called "pay for perks" or "freemium", and games using it often describe themselves with the term "free-to-play".- Free-to-play means that there is no cost to purchase the software and there is no subscription charge. Variably applies to traditionally bought and forever available games. Most newer MMOs that fall under this category now includes microtransactions however, which causes them to overlap with the Freemium model.
- Freemium means that the majority or all of the game's content is available for free but players can pay for extra content, character customization, added perks or faster advancement into the game via microtransactions. Freemium thus overlaps with both the free-to-play and pay-to-play models.
- Buy-to-play means that the MMO can only be played by purchasing the game, but there is no subsequent subscription fee for playing the game. These games may or may not include additional microtransactions, or may sell additional content in the form of expansions instead of asking for an ongoing subscription fee.
- Pay-to-play means that the MMO requires a monthly subscription fee or other ongoing fee in order to continue playing the game. It may also require an up-front purchase of the game in addition to the monthly subscription fee, though many of these up-front purchases include a month of game time. This was once the most common way for MMOs to finance themselves, but has fallen out of favor in recent years as an increasing number of games have switched to other business models due to difficulty in retaining a stable playerbase.