Lately, I have seen a lot of controversy over what is considered to be an MMOG. Now, I figured I would just throw in my two cents because I have experience with all types of games in the extremely large genre of MMOG. First off, I would like to point out what the acronym MMOG actually stands for, for the few people that don't know;

Massive(ly)
Multiplayer
Online
Game

You can also make the category more specific and turn it into MMORPG, MMOFPS, and a lot more. But they are all part of the MMOG group, as the common factor is the massively multiplayer online part, and of course the game part is implied. The part where people start to get confused is how is the acronym grouped? What I mean by this is that some people will say that a MMOG must be massive, multiplayer, online, and a game (Duh!).

Then there are people that think more specifically. That a MMOG must be massively multiplayer, multiplayer online, etc.

This is what it all comes down to. The acronym of massively multiplayer online games is a definite, but then there's the controversy over how to determine the reasoning behind the definitions.

Why does it even matter? Well, the whole point is really in the massively multiplayer part. Some people think that games which are divided into rooms that are connected to a central lobby are not massively multiplayer, because even though there's thousands of people on the server at the same time, you can only enter a room with say, eight people maximum to play with.

Now, here's my argument. Let's take the game Guild Wars for example. The game is divided into towns, suburbs, and quests. The towns are the lobby of the game. You can see tons of other players, communicate with them, make trades, join parties, and all of that good stuff. The suburbs are outside of the towns. These are basically how you level up. Think of these as the outskirts of town on any MMOG.

You go outside of town and train to level up. But here's the thing. In most games you can see thousands of other people training around you, and that's what some people consider to meet the 'massively multiplayer' part of the definition. But how is that multiplayer? In those games you still have to join a party to play with your friends, and you're still limited to 4-10 people in the party, sometimes less.

Therefore, it's basically the same as it is in Guild Wars, except they have taken out the communication part and removed the excess characters. This is turn also helps prevent lagging.

Therefore, in Guild Wars even though you essentially do the same thing as you do in room-based MMOGs, and that is forming a party in the lobby then going out and doing missions and quests to level up and progress. Another example would be Pi Story, which is the exact same system almost. But that's all you do in a normal game anyways, except that you can only communicate with your party members and guild members in Guild Wars.


So essentially, aren't they the same in terms of the multiplayer? Neither game model allows you to have a MASSIVE party to play with.

So, in conclusion, the definition of a MMOG should be left exactly as it is read. A massive (In terms of people on the server), multiplayer (In terms of being able to play with others), online (In terms of being able to play over the internet with friends elsewhere), game.

Thanks for reading, feel free to discuss.