MMORPG

De WiKidz

[Esta página está passando por uma reconstrução]

Como em todos RPGs online, o jogador assume o papel de um personagem, o MMORPG se define basicamente como um jogo de interpretar personagens onde muitos jogadores, online, participam.

Os MMORPGs se tornaram muito populares pela difusão dos jovens na internet, são jogos tão livres para se fazer o que bem quiser que a sensação de poder e liberdade juntas resultaram em um dos gêneros de jogos mais interessantes e populares do mundo.

Em 2005 os MMORPGs movimentaram meio bilhão de dólares, e isso não inclui o famigerado Second Life.

Conteúdo 1 Características Comuns 1.1 Temas 1.2 Pontos 1.3 Interação Social 1.4 Moderação 1.5 Cultura 2 História 3 Psicologia 4 Economics 4.1 Development 4.2 Trends as of 2007 4.3 Non-corporate development 5 Pop culture references 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

Características Comuns

Como os MMORPGs evoluíram consideravelmente, a maioria deles acaba se parecendo muito em alguns aspectos:

Temas

A maioria dos MMORPGs tem um tema medieval, que envolve espadas, arcos e muita magia, com cenários e monstros. Quase todos eles também tem uma história que pode envolver ou não o jogador.

Pontos

Em quase todos eles, há vários sistemas de pontos, como os de experiência (XP), Mana (MP) e Saúde (HP). Os pontos de experiência são ganhos ao realizar tarefas (vulgas quests) e ao derrotar monstros, entre outras coisas decididas pelo jogo. Os pontos de MP representam a energia mágica de cada um, e são gastos ao usarem magias ou habilidades. Os pontos de HP representam a saúde e são gastos quando o personagem apanha. Se os pontos de saúde forem reduzidos a zero, o personagem morre, oque na maioria dos MMORPGs também não é nenhum desastre.

Também há sistemas que ajuda os jogadores a evoluir mais rápido, como jogos recheados de quests (Metin 2), sistemas de bônus que podem multiplicar os pontos de experiência (Hero Online), e também há casos de itens que ajudam a evoluir, multiplicando os pontos de XP. Itens estes, que, na maioria dos casos, devem ser comprados na vida real.

Interação Social

MMORPGs sempre deixam que os jogadores se comuniquem, em alguns deles, é possível outras formas de comunicação social como movimentação do personagem demonstrando emoções(Hero Online) ou até os dois personagens interagindo em um romântico beijo (Metin 2).

Moderação

Estes jogos ainda contam com os famosos GMs, os Game Masters, moderadores que tem como dever manter todo cumprindo as regras e punir os que não o fizerem.

Cultura

Muitos RPGs levam em conta a cultura dos lugares onde é baseada a história, jogos que retratam um mundo medieval imaginário, jogos que retratam ambientes que realmente existem, jogos que retratam a antiga china ou jogos que simplesmente se baseiam em um ambiente tradicional e aconchegante para as batalhas e magias.

História

Os MMORPGs foram ficando populares com a expansão do jogo de RPG, um jogo de interpretação de personagens onde se usam dados, tabuleiros e anotações especiais.

A idéia de fazer isto sem o trabalho de rolar os dados ou apagar e escrever coisas ainda com o efeito visual que bate a imaginação, foi inovadora e muito popular.

Com a popularização da internet os MMORPGs foram ficando cada vez mais famosos e hoje em dia são um meio lucrativo, eficiente e divertido de ganhar dinheiro e jogar jogos de qualidade e complexidade interessantes.

Psicologia

Os MMORPGs envolvem uma questão social de conversas e emoções muito grandes, garotos arranjam namoradas no jogo, grandes amigos ou simplesmente pessoas com as quais gostam de conversar.

15% de todos os jogadores de MMORPG se tornam líderes de Clãs, mas a maioria acha o trabalho meio chato.

Muitos jogadores contam que as emoções que sentem ao jogar são muito intensas. 8.7% dos homens e 23.2% das mulheres que jogam, disseram que já tiveram um casamento online.

Economics

See also: Real-money trading

Many MMORPGs feature living economies, as virtual items and currency have to be gained through play and have definite value for players.^[1] Such a virtual economy can be analyzed (using data logged by the game)^[1] and has value in economic research; more significantly, these "virtual" economies can have an impact on the economies of the real world.

One of the early researchers of MMORPGs was Edward Castronova, who demonstrated that a supply-and-demand market exists for virtual items and that it crosses over with the real world.^[2] This crossover has some requirements of the game:

• The ability for players to sell an item to each other for in-game (virtual) currency.
• Bartering for items between players for items of similar value.
• The purchase of in-game items for real-world currency.
• Exchanges of real-world currencies for virtual currencies.

The idea of attaching real-world value to "virtual" items has had a profound effect on players and the game industry, and even the courts. Castronova's first study in 2002 found that a highly liquid (if illegal) currency market existed, with the value of Everquest's in-game currency exceeding that of the Japanese yen.^[3] Some people even make a living by working these virtual economies; these people are often referred to as gold farmers, and may be employed in game sweatshops.^[4]

Game publishers usually prohibit the exchange of real-world money for virtual goods. However, a number of products actively promote the idea of linking (and directly profiting from) an exchange. Some players of Second Life have generated revenues in excess of $100,000.^[5] However, in the case of Entropia Universe, the virtual economy and the real-world economy are directly linked. This means that real money can be deposited for game money and vice versa. Real-world items have also been sold for game money in Entropia.

Some of the issues confronting online economies include:

• The use of "bots" or automated programs, that assist some players in accumulating in-game wealth to the disadvantage of other players.^[6]
• The use of unsanctioned auction sites, which has led publishers to seek legal remedies to prevent their use based on intellectual-property claims.^[7]
• The emergence of virtual crime, which can take the form of both fraud against the player or publisher of an online game, and even real-life acts of violence stemming from in-game transactions.^[8]

Linking real-world and virtual economies is rare in MMORPGs, as it is generally believed to be detrimental to gameplay. If real-world wealth can be used to obtain greater, more immediate rewards than skillful gameplay, the incentive for strategic roleplay and real game involvement is diminished. It could also easily lead to a skewed hierarchy where richer players gain better items, allowing them to take on stronger opponents and level up more quickly than less wealthy but more committed players.^{[citation needed]}

Development

In general, the cost of developing a competitive commercial MMORPG title often exceeds ten million dollars.^[9] These projects require multiple disciplines within game design and development: 3D modeling, 2D art, animation, user interfaces, client/server engineering, database architecture and network infrastructure.^[10]

The front-end (or client) component of a commercial, modern MMORPG features 3D graphics. As with other modern 3D games, the front-end requires expertise with implementing 3D engines, real-time shader techniques and physics simulation. The actual visual content (areas, creatures, characters, weapons, spaceships and so forth) is developed by artists who typically begin with two-dimensional concept art, and later convert these concepts into animated 3D scenes, models and texture maps.^[11]

Developing an MMOG server requires expertise with client/server architecture, network protocols, security and relational database design. MMORPGs include reliable systems for a number of vital tasks. The server must be able to handle and verify a large number of connections; prevent cheating; and apply changes (bug fixes or added content) to the game. A system for recording the game's data at regular intervals, without stopping the game, is also important.^[12]

Maintenance requires sufficient servers and bandwidth, and a dedicated support staff. Insufficient resources for maintenance lead to lag and frustration for the players, and can severely damage the reputation of a game, especially at launch. Care must also be taken to ensure that player population remains at an acceptable level by adding or removing servers ("shards"). Peer-to-peer MMORPGs could theoretically work cheaply and efficiently in regulating server load, but practical issues such as asymmetrical network bandwidth and CPU-hungry rendering engines make them a difficult proposition. Additionally, they would probably become vulnerable to other problems including new possibilities for cheating. The hosted infrastructure for a commercial-grade MMORPG requires the deployment of hundreds (or even thousands) of servers. Developing an affordable infrastructure for an online game requires developers to scale to large numbers of players with less hardware and network investment.^[13]

In addition, the team will need to have expertise with the fundamentals of game design: world-building, lore and game mechanics,^[14] as well as what makes games fun.^[15]

Trends as of 2007

As there are a number of wildly different titles within the genre, and since the genre develops so rapidly, it is difficult to definitively state that the genre is heading in one direction or another. Still, there are a few obvious developments. One of these developments is the raid group quest, or "raid",^[16] which is an adventure designed for large groups of players (often twenty or more).

Another is the use of instance dungeons. These are game areas that are "copied" for individual groups, which keeps that group separated from the rest of the game world. This reduces competition, and also has the effect of reducing the amount of data that needs to be sent to and from the server, which reduces lag. World of Warcraft's "raids", mentioned above, are often instance dungeons, as are all of the combat areas in Guild Wars.

Increased amounts of "Player-created content" may be another trend.^[17] From the beginning the Ultima Online world included blank 30-page books that players could write in, collect into personal libraries and trade; in later years players have been able to design and build houses from the ground up. Some non-combat-based MMORPGs rely heavily on player-created content, including everything from simple animations to complete buildings using player-created textures and architecture like A Tale in the Desert. However, these games are very different from the far more popular "standard" MMORPGs revolving around combat and limited character trade skills. Player-created content in these games would be in the form of areas to explore, monsters to kill, quests to carry out and specific in-game items to obtain. The Saga of Ryzom was the first of these "standard" MMORPGs to offer players the ability to create this type of content. Again, whether or not this becomes mainstream is anyone's guess.

The use of licenses, common in other video game genres, has also appeared in MMORPGs. 2007 saw the release of The Lord of the Rings Online, based on J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. Other licensed MMORPGs include The Matrix Online, based on the Matrix trilogy of films, Warhammer Online, based on Games Workshops tabletopgame and Star Wars Galaxies. Additionally, several licenses from television have been optioned for MMORPGs, for example Stargate Worlds, which is currently in development. The process is also apparently being applied in reverse, with James Cameron designing a MMORPG that will precede a film (Project 880) to which it is tied.^[18]

The introduction of free trials, making titles into shareware, has also become more common, as developers expect that players will become "hooked" by their worlds and begin to pay for them. World of Warcraft, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar and EVE Online have all incorporated short free-play periods with the creation of game accounts, while others, like Anarchy Online, RuneScape, and Rappelz have unlimited free-to-play periods, though with caveats; these titles may display in-game advertisements to non-paying customers, or restrict some content.

Another trend that has shown great presence in MMORPGs is "player-driven" gameplay. Player-driven gameplay relies on the players themselves for events and wars, instead of having these things come from non-player characters (NPCs). Although all MMORPGs try to maximize player interactions, as it provides immersion, some take the concept to an extreme. One example is Shadowbane, which provides neither quests nor dungeons, and instead has players enlisting each other to control land, properties, provinces, and nations.

Non-corporate development

Though the vast majority of MMORPGs are produced by companies, many small teams of programmers and artists have attempted to contribute to the genre. As shown above, the average MMORPG development project requires enormous investments of time and money, and running the game can be a long-term commitment. As a result, non-corporate (or independent, or "indie") development of MMORPGs is less common compared with other genres. Still, many independent MMORPGs do exist, representing a wide spectrum of genres, gameplay types, and revenue systems.

Some independent MMORPG projects are completely open source, while others like PlaneShift feature proprietary content made with an open-source game engine. The developers of Endless Online have also released development information with details about their coding.^[19]

The WorldForge project has been active since 1998 and formed a community of independent developers who are working on creating framework for a number of open-source MMORPGs.^[20] The Multiverse Network is also creating a network and platform specifically for independent MMOG developers.^[21]

Pop culture references

MMORPGs were at the center of the plot of the Make Love, Not Warcraft episode of the Comedy Central TV series South Park, the Marge Gamer episode of the Fox TV series The Simpsons and the Primacy episode of the CBS TV series NUMB3RS (Season 4, episode 7).

See also

• History of MMORPGs
• List of MMORPGs
• List of free MMOGs
• List of text-based MMORPGs
• Comparison of MMORPGs
• MMOFPS
• MMORTS
• Private server

References

External links

• The Daedalus Project – Nick Yee's ongoing survey study of MMORPG players. Demographics, narratives and essays.
• Massively Multiplayer Online Games – A set of articles posted at Gamespy.com, concerning the past, present, and future of the genre.
• Evolution of MMORPGs – An article from Jiyan Wei on the role of the ordinary user in shaping MMORPGs.