MMOG

Massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) is a computer game capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and feature at least one persistent world. Some argue that small player-count games, with 200 and fewer players, are also part of the genre; the persistent world is probably the only "hard" requirement.

MMOGs can enable players to cooperate and compete with each other on a grand scale, and sometimes to interact meaningfully with people around the world. They include a variety of gameplay types, representing many video game genres. Many MMOGs require players to invest large amounts of their time into the game. Most MMOGs require a monthly subscription fee, but some can be played for free.


The first graphical MMOG, also a major milestone in the creation of the genre, was the multi-player flight combat simulation game Air Warrior by Kesmai on the GEnie online service, which first appeared in 1987.

The first 3D MMOG, Meridian 59 is an online computer role-playing game first published by the now defunct 3DO Company and now run by Near Death Studios. It was first launched online in an early form on December 15, 1995 and released commercially in September 1996 with a flat-rate monthly subscription, Meridian 59 is often credited as the first 3D graphical "MMOG" or MMORPG.

MMOGs emerged from the hard-core gamer community to the mainstream strongly in December 2003 with an analysis in the Financial Times measuring the value of the virtual property in the then-largest MMOG, Everquest, to result in a per-capita GDP of 2,266 dollars which would have placed the virtual world of Everquest as the 77th wealthiest nation, on par with Croatia, Equador, Tunisia or Vietnam.

World of Warcraft, currently the most dominant MMOG in America has 9 million monthly subscribers worldwide, is the most popular Western title among MMOGs.
The biggest MMOG in the world is Lineage 2 from South Korea, with over 14 million registered gamers, mostly in various Asian countries.


Comparing MMOGs to other computer games

There are a number of factors shared by most MMOGs that make them different from other types of computer games. MMOGs create a persistent universe where the game continues playing regardless of whether or not anyone else is. Since these games strongly or exclusively emphasize multiplayer gameplay, few of them have any significant single-player aspects or client-side artificial intelligence. As a result, players cannot "finish" MMOGs in the sense of single-player games. Some MMOGs do have an end condition that includes awarding a "winner" based on a player's standing in the game at the finale.

MMOGs host a large number of players in a single game world, and all of those players can interact with each other at any given time. Popular MMOGs might have thousands of players online at any given time, usually on a company owned server. Non-MMOGs, such as Battlefield 1942 or Half-Life usually have less than 50 players online (per server) and are usually played on private servers. Also, MMOGs usually do not have any significant mods since the game must work on company servers.

There is a debate if a high head-count is the requirement to be a MMOG. Some say that it is the size of the game world and its capability to support a large number of players that should matter. For example, despite technology and content constraints, most MMOGs can fit up to a few thousand players on a single game server at a time.

MMOGs need large-scale game worlds and servers to connect players to those worlds to support all those players.

There are also a few more common differences between MMOGs and other online games. Most MMOGs charge the player a monthly or bimonthly fee to have access to the game's servers, and therefore to online play. Also, the game state in an MMOG rarely ever resets. This means that a level gained by a player today will still be there tomorrow when the player logs back on. MMOGs often feature ingame support for clans and guilds. The members of a clan or a guild may participate in activities with one another, or show some symbols of membership to the clan or guild.

However, the boundaries between multiplayer online games and MMOGs are not always as clear or obvious. Neverwinter Nights (2002) and Diablo II are usually called online role-playing games, (RPGs) but are also sometimes incorrectly called MMORPGs (a type of MMOG).


There are different types of MMOGs:

• MMORPG
• MMOFPS
• MMORTS
• MMODG
• MMOMG
• MMOR
• MMOTG
• MMOSG
• MMOVSG
• MMCAP
• Real-World Simulations

Information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_game

Story vs Gameplay

"That is true because story is the antithesis of game. The best way to tell a story is in linear form. The best way to create a game is to provide a structure within which the player has freedom of action. Creating a "storytelling game" (or a story with game elements) is attempting to square the circle, trying to invent a synthesis between the antitheses of game and story. Precisely because the two things--game and story--stand in opposition, the space that lies between them has produced a ferment of interesting game-story hybrids. And yet the fact remains: game and story are in opposition, and any compromise between the two must struggle to be successful."

The above was what I got from http://www.costik.com/gamnstry.html

To me, I feel that an interesting story will make me feel more urged to continue with the 'mission' in games like WoW (it will make me know what happened in the past, why is something happening, what is the prophecy, does it affect my next quest? will i get more powerful weapons from this prophecy, what will happen next after they collect this particular item etc).

On the other hand, gameplay will only be more important to me than a game's storyline when the game is a, for eg, a puzzle game, first person shooter game, online (non-fantasy) game etc.


So should future storylines in games be created based on player's experience?
no, in this case, i think that gameplay should be derived from a player's experience in playing a game. Because only through knowing what a player wants/enjoys then a company can successfully create a game that ppl wil love. People can imagine their own storyline. Thus, game developers do not need to know what stories gamers would like to hear.

It's the same as putting a fantasy storyline into a game like any puzzle game (eg:bejweled) & just make it sound good with it. But the bottomline is the gameplay will still remain the same.

History of Video Games

Video games were introduced as a commercial entertainment medium in 1971, becoming the basis for an important entertainment industry in the late 1970s/early 1980s in the United States, Japan, and Europe. After a disastrous collapse of the industry in 1983 and a subsequent rebirth two years later, the video game industry has experienced sustained growth for over two decades to become a $10 billion industry rivaling the motion picture industry as the most profitable entertainment industry in the world.




1948 – The first known concept for an electronic game was a device called the Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device patented in the United States by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann

1951 - The earliest programs created to run a game on a computer appear to be a checkers program created by Christopher Strachey

1952 - tic-tac-toe program called OXO created by A.S. Douglas

1958 - Perhaps the first true electronic game not a representation of a pen-and-paper or board game was created on an oscilloscope by William Higinbotham and named Tennis for Two.

Higinbotham never attempted to patent or market the device, which was taken apart in 1959. Whether one of the concepts above, or another one entirely, counts as the first video game, none of them received wide distribution or had an impact on the industry.

3 major facets of the market, computer games, home console games, and arcade games were all in place by the beginning of the 1970s.


1961 - The landmark game that eventually led to the launch of both the college mainframe tradition and the video arcade game was conceived at MIT by a group of friends including Steve Russell, Wayne Witanen, and J. Martin Graetz, members of an organization called the Tech Model Railroad Club, interested in science fiction novels and movies.

MIT replaced its aging TX-0 mainframe computer with a DEC PDP-1, which had a built-in monitor

1962 – Space wars the final product featured two ships dubbed the "Wedge" and the "Needle" for their shapes that two players controlled and moved around the screen while firing torpedoes at each other until one ship was destroyed was finished

1966 - Ralph Baer, the head of the Equipment and Design Division of defense contractor Sanders Associates was able to pursue an idea he came up - the idea of playing a game on a television set. he assembled a small team to make his concept a reality

1967 - they came up with a chase game in which a player represented by a dot chases another player represented by a dot through a maze. Next, a light gun was designed to shoot at a dot on the screen, and then paddles were added to manipulate the dot to create a tennis game. The final prototype was soon created that could play several games by using a series of switches to change the screen output and demonstrations were held for all the major television companies

There was little advancement in computer games for the rest of the 1960s.

While it is likely that other innovative games were created during this time period, no reliable method existed to distribute them across the country, as there was little standardization across computers and no good way to port games from one system to another. Spacewar! itself would likely not have become a national phenomenon (in university computer labs at least) if not for DEC’s decision to bundle the game with its computers. In the end, these games disappeared into oblivion as old machines broke down and old tape was erased.


1971 - two Stanford University Students exposed to Spacewar! became the first individuals to release a commercial video game product when they hooked up a PDP-11 computer running Spacewar!

Magnavox ended up buying the system (refer to 1967) and distributed it as the Magnavox Odyssey starting in 1972

1972 – game named Pong, the game featured simple yet entertaining game play and therefore became an immediate success upon release (Read above details on wikipedia)

1973 - Atari founded a rival company called Kee Games headed by Bushnell’s second-in-command at Atari, Joe Keenan, that created clones of Atari products

1974 – Game named Tank was created

December 1974 – Kee games & Atari relationship uncovered. A lot of new versions of previous games was created.

1975 - Atari’s first big hit after Pong, however, was Breakout, essentially a single-player version of Pong in which the paddle is at the bottom of the screen and the player bounces a ball off the paddle to destroy bricks arrayed at the top of the screen. Released in 1975, Breakout sold 15,000 units.

1975 - Midway had its first big hit in 1975 with Gun Fight. Gun Fight was also the first Japanese video game imported into the American market, with Taito being the original creator of the game

1976 – Dave Nutting designed seawolf. (read below in wikipedia for more info on other games created)

There was a downturn in games market after protest was held for Death Race, a game that runs over Gremlins.


Golden Age of Video Gaming

After a brief period of decline, the arcade industry entered its greatest period of creativity and popularity in 1978 to begin what has commonly been dubbed the golden age of arcade games

1979 – Star fire, a game that was slow seller in Japan initially but led to an increase in demand for 100yen coins & chnaging of small shops to row houses with tons of gaming cabinets.

A new invention called trackball was used as a controller for 1 of the 1st few sport’s game, Atari Football.

Soon after, many new companies embraced video gaming & other companies joined as well.

With important golden age games including Namco’s Galaxian (1979, a Space Invaders clone that was the first game with true three-channel RGB color graphics) and a sequel.

SNK's Ozma Wars (1979, the first shoot 'em up with multiple stages or levels)

Amstar’s Phoenix (1980, another Space Invaders clone that was the first arcade game to include a final boss fight)

Taito's Front Line (1982), innovative as being one of the earliest military-themed games and the earliest in which the player kills actual humans rather than spaceships, robots, aliens, etc.

it was a 1980 game from Namco that elevated the video game firmly into American popular culture

Deciding to base the game around taberu, the Japanese word meaning "to eat," Iwatani came up with a maze game in which the player had to collect all 240 dots in the maze while avoiding a group of enemy ghosts. It is known as today’s Pac-Man.

A new craze for maze games that partially displaced the shoot them up, resulting in video games moving out of the arcades to locations such as convenience stores, drug stores, hotels, and airports, and resulted in Pac-Man himself becoming the first identifiable video game character and mascot. Also taking the attention away from Shoot em’ up games.

Namco was also responsible for the 1982 racing game, Pole Position, considered the first great racing game by providing the most realistic racing action yet seen in the arcade as well as being one of the earliest to feature full color graphics and helping to pioneer the "rear-view racer" format that became standard in the genre

1980 – Release of new genre games (Space Panic) that requires climbing of ladders & collecting items.

1981 - Donkey Kong, the continuation following Space Panic

After which, Mario came about from nintendo.