STEPPING INTO THE WORLD OF THE MMO
The most popular games today aren’t on any console, they’re made for the PC. Massively Multiplayer Online games are considered persistent entity games, games where the characters continue to exist even when you stop the game. Rather than starting at a save game point, the character played retains the skills and abilities that were last given to it when the player last played the game. In addition to this concept of the persistent entity, the MMO genre has created the concept of community within a video game. At any time during the day or night players are in the game interacting with one another.
One of the first games to create this sense of community was Neverwinter Nights, originally created as an addition to AOLs offerings to its customers. NWN sits firmly within the subset of MMOs called roleplaying games, and as such connected fantasy roleplayers fond of games such as the Legend of Zelda and King’s Quest were able to explore within a Dungeons and Dragons based game environment. Because of the large base of D&D players already existing worldwide, NWN had an immediate player base from with which to draw. It’s interesting to note that the majority of popular MMOs are actually MMORPGs set in fantasy settings. I believe this is because of the deep culture built with decades through tabletop roleplay. Neverwinter Nights eventually branched off onto it’s own title, still maintaining the basic roots of the fantasy MMO, but no longer tied to the AOL client.
Another reason for the
prevalence of the RPG within the MMO genre would be the
origin of the game type. The first MMOs were actually
text-based games called Multi-user Dungeons, or MUDs. These
games were created by users all over the world, and were
usually fantasy themed. In fact, many of the future famous
designers of MMOs got their start as MUD creators.
The next major game to claim the title of Master of the MMO
was Ultima Online, RicharD Garriott’s masterpiece. UO was
known as a completely PvP environment, where players
maintained the freedom to attack each other at any time, to
the point where they could also steal their possessions.
Much about the game set the standards for future games, and
it was also set in the fantasy genre. In 1997 this MMORPG
took the gaming community by storm, so popular that it even
spawned a commercial gaming culture in South Korea that is
still prevalent to this day. Ultima still sports a very
strong player community, and through them illustrates the
power of the MMO. Not only are they popular during their
time, the rabid players will still play the game years
later, irregardless of advancements in the industry. Some
could argue that the games should attempt to upgrade their
graphics engines, their content to stay current. However,
it is the nostalgia and the purity of the older games that
keeps them alive.
Not all MMOs are fantasy-based. Anarchy Online, Star Wars Galaxies, and City of Heroes/City of Villians are all great examples of science fiction MMOs. The particular allure of SWG was the power of the Star Wars brand and fan base. Finally players were allowed to live within the worlds they had been watching on the movie screen all their lives.
Currently, the most powerful MMORPG is World of Warcraft. This game is not only fantasy-based, but also brings the popular RTS Warcraft series into the persistent world gaming genre. Combined with its easy of play, WoW holds the distinction of bringing millions of non-gamers to the online gaming community. To day WoW had 8 million players, and their largest player base is actually in China. The WoW team at Blizzard continues the legacy of the MMORPG. It only remains to be seen who will next step up and claim the throne they currently hold.