Post by Morreion on Apr 15, 2010 7:09:49 GMT -5
Player Perspectives: A Game By Any Other Name (MMORPG.com)
Defining Massivity (That's A Terrible Idea)
I agree that definitions are important. A game can be good without being a true MMORPG, but it is misleading to say that you are a massive multi-player game when you only have 10-person instances that make up your world.
The virtual gaming world has exploded in recent years with the advent of social gaming and social networking sites. By proxy, so has the gaming market. Somehow – whether in search of a new label for a growing genre of games popping up across the Internet, or by creative planning by producers who want to join a bandwagon – many games and virtual worlds are getting labeled as MMOs and vying for attention from the press and consumers among more classically defined MMOs. The definition of MMO is being stretched...
My take is that the definition of an MMO is fluid. It has the certain properties discussed above, but those properties can conform to many shapes. Like water, the definition of an MMO can fill many differently shaped vessels. It's the vessels that can't hold the definition within that cannot be classified as MMOs. That means if a game doesn't offer true massively multi-player gameplay, or simply isn't a game, then it falls outside the definition of MMO and needs to fall under its own definition, whether that's virtual world, online multi-player game, or something else.
This isn't an effort to create a hierarchy of online games and worlds, where “true” MMOs come out on top and lesser games get shuffled off lower in the food-chain. Many of these online environments are enjoyable, classy, well-developed; many deserve awards over some of their MMO brethren. What it is an effort to do is to properly classify online games, to provide proper descriptions of games to prevent players from being misled or abused by advertising terminology. In a genre where every developer seems to want to jump in on the money-making MMO train, it might just be a protection we need.
My take is that the definition of an MMO is fluid. It has the certain properties discussed above, but those properties can conform to many shapes. Like water, the definition of an MMO can fill many differently shaped vessels. It's the vessels that can't hold the definition within that cannot be classified as MMOs. That means if a game doesn't offer true massively multi-player gameplay, or simply isn't a game, then it falls outside the definition of MMO and needs to fall under its own definition, whether that's virtual world, online multi-player game, or something else.
This isn't an effort to create a hierarchy of online games and worlds, where “true” MMOs come out on top and lesser games get shuffled off lower in the food-chain. Many of these online environments are enjoyable, classy, well-developed; many deserve awards over some of their MMO brethren. What it is an effort to do is to properly classify online games, to provide proper descriptions of games to prevent players from being misled or abused by advertising terminology. In a genre where every developer seems to want to jump in on the money-making MMO train, it might just be a protection we need.
Defining Massivity (That's A Terrible Idea)
We can have games without massivity. But we cannot have massivity without a virtual environment, specifically a virtual world.
I like to use a layered definition when talking about MMOGs: virtual world + game = MMOG. Most people can identify a game or at least hazily understand that there are game systems at work when they experience them. But everyone from bloggers to journalists to game designers seem to forget what a virtual world is.
I define a virtual world to be a globally-accessible simulated, persistent environment in which users interact through an avatar proxy. A virtual world is a virtual environment with the following constraints:
* The environment must contain the concept of location. It must be able to relate entities in the environment to the user with positional information. A chat room is not a virtual world.
* The environment must persist between play sessions. It must convey the notion of a "living world" which advances while the user is not engaged with it. Any instanced encounter with an end is not a virtual world.
* The environment must be globally-accessible and consistent, meaning all agents in the environment could potentially congregate at a location. This is technically impossible, but the impossibility must be transparent to the user. Any user understands that as long as he is a part of the virtual world, he can meet (intentionally or by happenstance) any other user in the world.
I like to use a layered definition when talking about MMOGs: virtual world + game = MMOG. Most people can identify a game or at least hazily understand that there are game systems at work when they experience them. But everyone from bloggers to journalists to game designers seem to forget what a virtual world is.
I define a virtual world to be a globally-accessible simulated, persistent environment in which users interact through an avatar proxy. A virtual world is a virtual environment with the following constraints:
* The environment must contain the concept of location. It must be able to relate entities in the environment to the user with positional information. A chat room is not a virtual world.
* The environment must persist between play sessions. It must convey the notion of a "living world" which advances while the user is not engaged with it. Any instanced encounter with an end is not a virtual world.
* The environment must be globally-accessible and consistent, meaning all agents in the environment could potentially congregate at a location. This is technically impossible, but the impossibility must be transparent to the user. Any user understands that as long as he is a part of the virtual world, he can meet (intentionally or by happenstance) any other user in the world.
I agree that definitions are important. A game can be good without being a true MMORPG, but it is misleading to say that you are a massive multi-player game when you only have 10-person instances that make up your world.
