Can Someone Explain MMORPG's to me?
 

The concept has always intrigued me, but I don't quite understand how they work. I used to think they were pretty much like a chat room except everybody had a character or something. Then I learned they actually have stories and things to go with them. That's where it gets confusing for me.

I know there is a superhero type mmorpg where you can go around the city with the other people and fight cpu controlled villians to level up, but are the cities really big enough where you don't have like 100's of people fighting the same 3 monsters? Are there individual servers like in fps online games where each one is entirely seperate, or do they (i.e. does the story) link up all together somehow? I can't even begin to comprehend how the story thing works with more than 1 person, is it like a free roaming thing then you decide to start the story together with some people? If you sign off can people finish the story without you? I can't imagine that they expect the same people to always be on at the same time right?

There's too much here I don't understand, if anybody is willing to try to explain ANY of it to me, I'd appreciate it.

There are usually anywhere between 2000-3000 people on one server in MMO's, and to get idea of the size, it would take anywhere between 7 and 8 hours to run from one end of the 'world' to the other.

That helped quite a bit. I still don't understand some things, but that's a start.

This site says that there are always new events and tasks being added, that makes sense. However, I saw a review that said the Final Fantasy XI story was predictable. I don't really understand how something like that could be predictable. Maybe I need to actually play one to understand it more :-\

Pretty much an RPG online with thousands of people and, usually, every month they add new content and expand the game to keep the story going. The game is a huge online world that would probably take you at least a day or two to run through on foot. Each MMORPG starts out with a basic storyline before the game is released. Then every month they just add on to the story. The FFXI story was a story in itself at the start so people could jump to conclusions on it and make a reasonably good guess.

god damn, that is one game right to be called "WORLD" :D

... there better be quick ways to get around the world :mad:

Depends on the game HH, in some you can teleport, others there are vehicles, just depends on the type of MMO.

Yeah, depending on the genre of the game it will have different things that correspond to it.

alright, cool.

I wouldn't want to spend hours just to get to an area because i forgot something or i want to do something :-\

if you just wanted to try a free MMORPG you could goto www.runescape.com its by far not the best but its free

Have you ever played a Final Fantasy game, or just a regular rpg? Take that, and then add thousands of other people trying to be better than you are. Its like an awesome game with a built in chat room. I played dark age of camelot for a while, it was pretty sweet.

Yea, I 've played a couple regular RPG's like Crono Trigger, Finaly Fantasy 7 and 8, etc. I was just confused because if there are thousands of people in the same world trying to find the jade monkey, there should be a BIG crowd of people waiting in line outside the one shop that sells the jade monkey. I guess the objectives factor in something like that and they design them to avoid such problems.

It sounds like a really cool concept, but I don't think I could devote that much time to a game. I probably play any one game once or twice a week. By the time I logged back in to the MMO people would be ages ahead of me.

Anyway, thanks for the help guys.

It's not like that at all, and actually a lot of games are trying to devote resources into balancing the game for people that -can't- log on as much as others.
Most all MMORPGs come with a free month trial. You should check some of em out and just try em for the free month.

Some that I have played are:
Asheron's Call (4 years)
Asheron's Call 2 (didn't care for it)
Everquest (a few months, still playing it)
Star Wars: Galaxies (one month, piece of shit game)

I would reccomend Asheron's Call, possibly Anarchy Online (I've heard good things after they fixed it), or just wait for something like Everquest 2 or World of Warcraft to come out.
Lineage 2 has also been said to be a good game.

The reason I started this topic was because I saw some trailers for Everquest 2. I'm thinking about giving it a shot when it comes out, but I wanted to clear up any of my misunderstandings about the genre first. I think I'll check out some of these other ones first to see if I like it. Thanks again.

I believe quite a bit of the users here on TPWW are going to play World of Warcraft when it comes out. :y:

that is pretty fun, I spent a while baking bread at the start :$

btw runescape's graphics sux... i suggest priston tale.. eng.pristontale.com

or gunbound.. www.gunbound.net

Gunbound isn't an MMORPG.

they made it 3d now

I tried UO once when it was free

It made me sick. I'm looking forward to Shenmue Online purely because of all the mini-game shit like the real Shenmue and instead of hack+slash, it has a full Shenmue beat-em-up system in it (with some magic, which sounds kinda shitty, but hopefully you can just be a warrior)

Either way, out of the ones I played, MMORPGs have been pretty shit. I really wanna get into this WoW beta though because I've been told it will change my mind :P

I wouldn't mind being proved wrong about a MMORPG.

Some of my friends no longer live in the same state, and it'd be nice to still be able to play the occasional video game.

So i welcome the next big thing, that mind blowing, innovative game. It's just that most of the time, these games are merely called that, and put a new skin on an old, tired, game concept.

Same, me and my closest friends are parting ways in a few months so we're all getting XBox Live. A small intimate game with friends > big massive game with people you don't know. The only reason I wasn't on live before is that I don't want to pay to play a bunch of strangers when I have a few friends, TVs and XBoxes/Gamecubes for link-up play :)

"I don't want to pay to play a bunch of strangers"

Yeah, I hate that feeling too, cause you don't know what to say to them when you win, with friends you can say phrases that the both of you know, I.e. "Have It OVeN" etc. :$

also there is no bragging factor after the game has finished, you know, have a game of something, you beat your mate, you talk to him later talk about some moves/shots you pulled off, share screenshots and all that. :$

One thing that really interested mewith live was those XSN sports games where you could make leagues and track them on a website.

Shame those games pretty much all sucked. Hopefully either Sega or EA will use the idea :)

Great concept, shit execution.

Bumping this because I tried out RuneScape earlier today. It seemed promising until I got off of the tutorial island. It wasn't long before there was someone else trying (and succeeding) to kill me every few steps I took. I was expecting a bit more of a friendly co-op type atmosphere, which I'm still assuming other games or possibly other servers in RuneScape have.

I don't think I'll be logging back in to that game, but maybe I'll try a different one someday.

Most other games have 'white' servers, and 'red' servers. White servers usually have optional PK (player killing) where you're safe from it, unless you choose to be a PK. Red servers are when PK is always on, and everyone can be killed, regardless of wether you want to or not.

Some games, like Dark Age of Camelot, and the up and coming World of Warcraft, have 'kingdom', or 'realm' PvP. WoW has Horde vs. Alliance PvP, while DAoC is divided into three realms, which can fight against eachother.

Also, some games have what are called safe zones. In these areas, PK is disabled, but in other areas it's free game. (ie. Rallos Zek server in Everquest)

Also, in Everquest and other games there is usually a level limit. For example, my level 65 in EQ can only attack/be attacked by people within I believe 6 levels of him.

This helps prevent certain things from happening like what happened to you in Runescape.


Whew, I'm hard to stop once I get going about MMORPGs.. They are by far my favorite gaming genre.

That sounds like a good system. I don't mind fighting other players or anything, its just sad that I was being attacked within a minute or so of teleporting into the main world. I had one person trying to kill me and another standing by, watching, and asking to trade with me. Not sure what he expected me to have, other than a few burnt shrimp.

The guy who killed me thought he was cool or something, spouting the phrase "Stand and Deliver!" as I died. :|

Yep, some people are just playing MMORPGs for the griefing factor.. just like some people in FPS games.

You can't get away from them no matter what game you go to, but just find a community of gamers that you like, and stick with them.

In Everquest, a group of real life friends of mine are all in a group. We basically look out for eachother, since we play on the PK server. Once you get into the genre, it's hard to not be addicted.

You'd be surprised how monthly costs can weed out the "l4merzzzz". I mean, whos gonna wanna do something to get kicked off the game for good when they've worked at it?

I've never played them either, but that Super hero one does sound pretty cool. If it was free I'd play it, seems like a nice time-passer during some downtime when I'm at school.

I'm not interested enough to pay though.

i think it was a computer that killed you in runescape players can only fight other players in the north part of the map.

Do they have computer generated players? He had a user name and a level, etc.

Computer generated players = NPC (non player character)

They have them in all MMORPGs. Most of them are vendors, where you can buy/sell items.

Yea, I knew they had vendors and guides, etc that are computer controlled. I was just asking about actual warriors and whatnot, like the guy that killed me. Dan26 said that he thinks a computer killed me, but I didn't think they had computer conrolled players that could kill, other than the ogres and such of course.

Those would be known as mobs (the name given in MMORPGs to any hostile NPC types.. or some just call them monsters).
In some games, (I'm not sure about Runescape) like Asheron's Call, the mobs had levels and such, as well as stats similar to others. It's very possible that a mob did kill you, as there are sometimes 'named' mobs in games.

I've played a few. I continue to play Asheron's Call even after 4 years. I tried FFXI, but it was just way too controlled. Asheron's Call 2 deviated too much from what made AC1 so great, customization.

In FFXI it's like... if your a lvl 30 Black Mage your stats can only be so high. Like 3 or 4 points for every level. So the max your elemental magic could be at for lvl 30 was like 98 or so.

In AC, you raise whatever you want. If your like "Damn, if I raise creature magic up 10 points I wouldn't fizzle (fail to cast) as much". Well, you can take your experience you get and put it into creature. The only cap on your skills is the max level cap, which is pretty high. Although the devs have made the game easier over the years. They are bringing out a new exspansion pack sometime though, it will have a month free so I highly suggest atleast a try. And they are raising the max level cap with it too :D

As much as I enjoyed Asheron's Call, I would not suggest playing it for a first time MMORPG. With as many exploits as were in the game before they fixed them, it is nearly impossible to catch up if you don't know what you're doing.

Yeah, I would have to agree there. They just recently opened a new server, I went to play on it, people were hitting max level in about 2-3 weeks. They shoudl just axe vassal exp all together.

Not to mention UCMs. They hardly even crack down on them...

I'd suggest just waiting for WoW to come out. I hear they've got very good all-around questing/leveling for noobs.. :)