Actually, the title “Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games” would have been more accurate, but it just seemed like too many words. Of course they’re also called MMORPGs, which is shorter but makes less sense. As you may have already figured out, they involve lots and lots of players, playing roles in games played not just on your game system, but against people all over world via the magic of the internet.
Wikipedia explains, “As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a character (often in a fantasy world) 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.”
Searching for the minimum requirements for internet speed seems to have stopped being an issue for most people now that broadband connections are readily available.
Wikipedia tells us that Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft dominates as the largest pay-to-play MMORPG (where players must pay to maintain a playing account), alongside earlier such titles like Final Fantasy XI and Phantasy Star Online, though an additional market exists for free-to-play MMORPGs (also known as F2P or FTP) which are supported by advertising and purchases of in-game items.
They’re growing in popularity to the point that YouTube has video clips of games in progress. There are even comedy spoofs like the very popular Leeroy Jenkins that’s been viewed over 18 million times. Not only that, the spoof has been spoofed too, and even included as a question on the game show Jeopardy! Now that’s popularity!
Tags: Internet Speed, Online Gaming, YouTube
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