Massively Multiplayer Online Games

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

While many games have several players, some games have very many players. This games, which for practical reasons need to be computer mediated to let many players share play sessions, are known as Massively Multiplayer Online Games.

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

For practical reasons, Massively Multiplayer Online Games need to have some features. First, they have several players so designing them includes considering the various options connected to Multiplayer Games. Of these, supporting Late Arriving Players and Drop-In/Drop-Out are necessary since one cannot demand that all players should have their play sessions completely synchronized. Further, they need computer programs as Dedicated Game Facilitators to handle the large game states and to mediate the gameplay and the Communication Channels 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.

Many Massively Multiplayer Online Games have Persistent Game Worlds but they do not need to - Hattrick suffices with players, teams, and leagues.

Most often, Massively Multiplayer Online Games are designed to have players spend many play sessions interacting with them. This may be due to the intended Emergent Gameplay or Social Interaction only can occur when enough players are active simultaneously or they have spent enough time in the game. Encouraged Return Visits in general can be used for this purpose but more specific ways include Evolving Rule Sets and Events Timed to the Real World. The encouraging of Social Organizations such as Guilds is another way to have Encouraged Return Visits and may over time be the most efficient; the use of Invites make players use their own social networks outside the game to populate these.

Purchasable Game Advantages Construction

Instances

Game-Induced Player Social Status

Value of Effort

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.

Although similarly named, Massively Multiplayer Online Games mainly share functionality outside the actual gameplay with Massively Single-Player Online Games.

Narrative Aspects

Massively Multiplayer Online Games often have problems maintaining Diegetic Consistency, either due to using Instances or to the practical problem of continuously generating enough context to support Never Ending Stories for large Persistent Game Worlds.

Consequences

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

Relations

Can Instantiate

Social Interaction, Emergent Gameplay, Evolving Rule Sets

Can Modulate

Multiplayer Games

Can Be Instantiated By

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with Dedicated Game Facilitators and Multiplayer Games

Drop-In/Drop-Out, Late Arriving Players

Can Be Modulated By

Communication Channels, Game Masters, Guilds, Invites, Persistent Game Worlds, Encouraged Return Visits, Events Timed to the Real World, Evolving Rule Sets, Social Organizations

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

Diegetic Consistency

History

New pattern created in this wiki.

References

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Acknowledgements

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