Difference between revisions of "Massively Multiplayer Online Games"

Revision as of 19:10, 22 February 2011

Games which support hundreds or thousands of players to inhabit the same game world and interact with each others.

This pattern is a still a stub.

Examples

Depending on how one defines massively, text-based multiuser adventures such as DragonMud and Kingdoms are among the first Massively Multiplayer Online Games. These were however not explicitly designed and deployed to support concurrent players numbering in the thousands, examples of games that do this include Ultima Online, World of Warcraft, and Eve Online. While all these are Computer-based Roleplaying Games to a larger or smaller degree, other game genres are possible. World War II Online is a FPS-based example and Hattrick is one simulating Soccer Management.

See the category Massively Multiplayer Online Games for all examples on the wiki.

Using the pattern

Evolving Rule Sets

Persistent Game Worlds Invites Purchasable Game Advantages Construction Massively Single-Player Online Games

Instances

where several, sometimes even thousands, of players share the same Game World, which itself has an existence independent of the players themselves. The high level of Social Interaction that occurs in these games can over time give rise to both Social Statuses among the players and Social Organizations given some support through the game design.

For practical reasons, Massively Multiplayer Online Games need to have some features. First, they need computer programs as Dedicated Game Facilitators to handle the large game states and to mediate the gameplay and other interactions between players. This may be augmented with Game Masters to handle problematic Social Interaction between players and to collect information to develop Evolving Rule Sets.

Drop-In/Drop-Out Multiplayer Games Late Arriving Players

Events Timed to the Real World

Encouraged Return Visits

Social Organizations

Guilds

Some Live Action Roleplaying games do approach the same numbers of players as Massively Multiplayer Online Games but differ in many other ways and the two patterns have relatively little in common.

Diegetic Aspects

Interface Aspects

Narrative Aspects

Consequences

Putting many players into the same game make it more or less impossible for Social Interaction not to occur. Further, since they nearly always need updates to handle bugs, issues with Player Balance, or Events Timed to the Real World, they also have Evolving Rule Sets.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Social Interaction, Evolving Rule Sets

with ...

Can Modulate

Can Be Instantiated By

Dedicated Game Facilitators

Can Be Modulated By

Game Masters

Possible Closure Effects

Potentially Conflicting With

History

New pattern created in this wiki.

References

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Acknowledgements

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