MMORPG

From DmWiki

MMORPG is an acronym for "Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game". Some famous ones would be Everquest, Ashron's Call, Anarchy Online, Lineage II and especially World of Warcraft. There are many many more not quite as famous.

Originally the term was "MORPG" (Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game" but with the advent of thousands of people playing a game at once, they became "Massive" MORPGs.

Today MMORPG is used to refer to just about any online role playing game, no matter how many people actually play at any given time.

MMORPG Design

Working on an MMORPG is mostly looked upon as a dream. So, I'm going to be a bully and burst your bubble: Only a few MMORPG's get finished, and even fewer will reach a user-base of more than 1,000 active members.

This doesn't mean that you shouldn't try. I only stateted the above to help you understand that it's no easy task.

Who hasn't seen newbie posts like "I have the best MMO idea" or "Developing MMO, NEED TEAM!!". These kinds of post often mean that the person isn't at all aware of what kind of efforts there are going to be in the creation of an MMO.

Example:

• Development of 3D Engine (optional) - 1.5 to 2 years
• Assets (Models, Textures, Scripts) - 2 years (can be done on a basic level while the engine is in development)
• Networking Code - Few months to finetune everything, unless you plan every step in advance!
• ...

So that already adds up to 4 years. I haven't seen a single person who started, maintained and finished such a project as his first!

Hints, tips & tricks

There are some ways to get to a succesfull end of such a project:

• Prior knowledge of game design!
• A team that will last you for the whole development proces AND is willing to contribute to upgrades/patches/...
• Licensing a 3D Engine (shaves off nearly 2 years!)
• Stick to your plan. Changes in the game/documentation are possible, but you will need to finish your game once you start it! Make yourself!

A great tip that I once got when working on a project of my own, was to get outside! Whenever you don't feel like programming/modeling/..., just clear your head. Go outside to take a walk. Get away from your computer and read a good book. Just remember to get back to your job/deadline todo list after 10 to 15 minutes. DO NOT GO ONTO FORUMS OR BLOGS!! This will only waste your time when you could have finished that big bug you got in your server just a few days prior to an important testphase!!

Need to know a little trick?

-> Placeholders!

Instead of waiting for that texture from the 350,000 poly Woodelf model to put on your xxxwhatever poly ingame model, just use a square or rectangle to test gameplay!

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