MMO Understanding

[anonymous_user_6462397c]

@;20371

What I find strange in the traditional type MMO’s you seem to interact more with NPC’s and AI than the actual other players online. Most of the literal interaction is text based. I find this to be odd for a game type that is suppose to pride itself in Online user interaction.

It’s just another intuitive game mechanic used to channel users toward progression. Don’t think anything of it, there are plenty of offline games out there that do this.

@Daydreamer;20359

…] I suspect most users would probably expect potential interaction with hundreds or thousands once that second “M” is added to the description. From their perspective, it doesn’t matter how many other people are playing at home – that has no impact on their game. What matters to them, per the expectation of an “MMO” experience, is how many people are playing in their world.

What people have come to expect from an ‘MMO’ far exceeds what ‘MMO’ actually describes itself to be in bare bones, logically speaking. That’s what this whole thread/debate is about. I’m reasonably certain anyone discussing the topic could tell you what the public has come to expect from a modern MMO and closely resemble your opinion among many countless others; But again, that isn’t the sole point of our discussion. Review the OP.

From what I’ve gathered, the purpose of this thread was to point out an issue in public perception. It’s been addressed. Now what?

Naturally this is where the conversation should have started.

[TechLord]

[TABLE]

I suspect a few folks use the abbreviation MMO to imply massive scale to their game’s design, game world, mythos, story, anticipated player base, etc. At one-time or another, I fantasized over the 100,000 monthly subscribers that I would have in my imaginary game world. Developing a MMO appeared very tempting. Sigh. Today, I wouldn’t use the abbreviation MMO if you paid me (even though my game is geared to support a 256 or more concurrent players). Simply too many preconceptions and expectations associated with it. I’ve seen MMO Thread after MMO Thread instantly decimated with negative and discouraging comments.

I’ll just stick with terms Multiplayer, Cooperative, and Open World. I anticipate all future Game Dev Engines will support large scale networking out-of-box, if they’re not doing so now. When that time comes, MMO will resume its original understanding for nostalgia’s sake. With social media integration, one can achieve the social aspects of the MMO Forerunners without large scale network support in-game. In fact, I would encourage some form of WWW integration even in a Single Player Game. I’m personally looking forward to newer multiplayer paradigms such as HLA and Multi-Genre/One-World Multiplayer games.

[CENTER]

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[anonymous_user_665c87da]

Yes, as I mentioned we have learned a ton on 3 letters in this thread and got a nice debate going and even gained some new insight. This thread gained more than I thought it would I think we need more of these type threads. They are off topic on the forum overall, but informative and we managed to keep cooler heads about us.

[anonymous_user_16c6c95f]

I’ve worked on a couple of MMO’s, one a 3rd person RPG and another a sporting one (yes, really, and don’t ask it was rubbish!).

Just because a lot of people are playing a games does not mean that game is an MMO. Take the example of an FPS game from the original post, these are a “Multiplayer Online Games” but not “Massively Multiplayer Online Games” and the reason is simple.

With that FPS you load the game, get to the menu, open the lobby browser, set what gameplay type you’re looking for, find a server (or it matchmarkes or whatever) then you connect to that server with a fixed limit to the number of players in it. You play, you win/lose, you finish and you disconnect. So you weren’t online, you found a server and went online, you played online, you disconnected going offline again.

With an MMO you load the game, and go online into a central connected world where you character data is stored persistently online in that - and only that - online world. Once you’re there the online world might be broken up into pieces based on distance (for example) but at any time it’s possible for you to travel from where you are to anywhere else in that world and encounter other players without too many artificial boundaries. There’s no logging off and finding another server for example, you’re not limited to 32 or 64 other players, the number you see will fluctuate based only how many there happen to be within that particular area. When you logoff you character is (usually) no longer instanced in the world and it’s state, your equipment/health/details, are persistently stored in the games database. It is the authority regarding who you are and what you’ve got, not the slim copy which might be cached locally on your machine.

That’s the basic difference for an FPS or 3rd person type of game. Other game type blur the boundaries and allow for offline progression, but even then it’s usually a requirement to be online at the same time so that the data can be persisted/synced online.

Just my thoughts on it having worked on a couple and dealt with the server, gameplay and database tech’ behind them, it’s how we differentiated them and from speaking to others it’s how I think a lot of people would.

[TechLord]

@AJCopland;21390

I’ve worked on a couple of MMO’s, one a 3rd person RPG and another a sporting one (yes, really, and don’t ask it was rubbish!).
With an MMO you load the game, and go online into a central connected world where you character data is stored persistently online in that - and only that - online world.

I agree that a Persistent World is a key factor for MMOs. I’m adding Persistent to my list of alternative MMO words - hehe. I believe that Persistent Worlds or Persistent Level Maps can also be implemented for games of smaller network scale and this is what I aim to achieve in my game.

[TK-Master]

I’m not sure that a persistent world is required to call a game an MMO.
What if there was a game like battlefield for example… but with larger maps and with massive 1000 vs 1000 player battles that would only last for a few hours (I know that’s kinda crazy… but let’s just say that exists for the sake of the argument).
Wouldn’t you say that’s some kind of MMO?

To me it seems like it completely depends on how many players you can potentially see (and interact with) on your screen at the same time in the same world. If it’s under 100 then I personally wouldn’t call it an MMO.

[anonymous_user_665c87da]

But remember once you leave the game after whatever team wins your still connected online. You still see the other rooms opened, and can chat with everyone in lobby or in game if you PM them. So you never disconnect. You also can chat with thousands of player while in the lobby depending on how many are online or in game. i also happened to notice these type games anymore have factions, clans, guilds, or whatever you want to call them. these terms are well known for games related to MMO’s.

[TK-Master]

Nope I disagree… you are not necessarily connected to the game server anymore once the game session is over.
Chatting doesn’t mean much. First of all the chatting thingy could be separate/independent from the actual game server and secondly you cannot do anything else than chatting in a lobby… you are clearly not in the “game world”, you cannot see, shoot or do anything else so therefore doesn’t really count if you ask me :rolleyes:.

[anonymous_user_665c87da]

@TK-Master;21871

Nope I disagree… you are not necessarily connected to the game server anymore once the game session is over.
Chatting doesn’t mean much. First of all the chatting thingy could be separate/independent from the actual game server and secondly you cannot do anything else than chatting in a lobby… you are clearly not in the “game world”, you cannot see, shoot or do anything else so therefore doesn’t really count if you ask me :rolleyes:.

It is the game world. You also check your inventory, use the online shops, chat, setup rooms on lobby, etc. This is all still connected to a server. Your connected as soon as you select a server and join. The game world would be everything that revolves around the game once turned on. So yes the lobby itself and all the features on it is still the game world. The menus just are not in game like traditional MMO’s you have to be at the lobby.

[TK-Master]

How is that the game world? there are games that you can access your inventory and online shop even from a webpage, without even running the game client… so what? that’s not what I would consider the “game world” at all I mean you can’t actually use your character or do much of anything.
The lobby is not the game world! it’s a place to prepare before actually getting into the game world.

[anonymous_user_665c87da]

I reckon once I log into the game I am already in the game world.