Icarus Studios News

Eternal life, well-served masses, social groups…and a space-time continuum onion.

MMOGs have several unique aspects that distinguish them from other kinds of games. (Games are like snowflakes; they’re all so very special in their own ways.) A MMOG, though, always has a persistent universe; the game and programmed content inside the world goes on regardless of how many players are online. Which is not to discount the presence of players—in fact, players provide the entire foundation for this type of snowflake…er, game. MMOGs rely almost entirely on multi-player game-play; I can’t think of an MMOG that has tons of really involved, developed, single-player missions or experiences. And, unlike many other game types, MMOGs are eternal. You cannot “finish” an MMOG. Even if you complete dozens of mini-games and level up so high that you have to look down to see the virtual clouds, you still aren’t done with the game. Even after you rescue the princess or throw the ring into the fiery pits of Mount Doom or best the biggest boss in the deepest, darkest dungeon, your reason for being in the MMOG still exists. Why? Because other people are there—usually a lot of other people—and interacting with them in an ever-expanding world is what keeps the game interesting.

MMOGs host a large amount of players in a single game world (sometimes hundreds of thousands at once), and all of those players can see the same sky, groundcover, and interiors at the same time—but from their character’s unique point-of-view. To give you a basis of comparison, non-MMOG games, such as Half-Life, usually have about fifty players per server—and the servers are usually run by one of the players. For an MMOG to be an MMOG, you need a much higher head count. The size of the world and the game’s ability to support a massive amount of players are two critical components to a successful game. Large-scale game worlds make a persistent universe engaging to explore; mapping out all those virtual locations to be both realistic and diverse is an important part of a game designer’s job. On the other hand, no one will care how extensive and varied your game world is if they can’t connect to it; so, as essential as I like to believe I am to the industry, I also frequently make sacrifices to the server gods. While I’m busy chanting, the uber-techno-intelligent are constantly exploring server solutions.

One of the most popular solutions is called “sharding.” Sharding is when there’s one single universe that’s copied onto a bunch of different servers; the players are separated based on which server they use. So, maybe 60,000 players are all descending into the Cave of Unknowing to battle trolls, but, because they’re on different servers, some players see five other people in that area and some players see sixty other people, and so it goes. How is that even possible? Think of an onion. You cut an onion down the middle, and there are all these layers. The layers are all in the same place and exist at the same time, but they’re different—overlapping one another. That’s how game worlds work in your typical MMOGs; whether you’ve got a small number of players near the core of the onion or massive amounts of players on the outer onion ring, server solutions ensure they are all still on the same delicious vegetable of virtual reality. And, considering the human race has harnessed fire and invented the wheel only a few thousand years ago, I find the whole idea of a virtual space-time continuum onion pretty impressive.

While I’m giving mad props to the invention of the virtual multiverse, it should be noted that it’s a real challenge to develop the engines (or license the software) needed to run a successful MMOG with millions of players, such as World of Warcraft. A typical server can handle around 10,000 players—with roughly 5,000 players being simultaneously active—so that’s why dividing the game into shards has been the preferred solution thus far. (Sharding also limits delays, which are part of any Internet adventure.)

But I’ve been talking about servers for a long time, and there are plenty of other ingredients necessary when making an MMOG. For instance, most of MMOGs charge each player a monthly fee to access the game’s servers. Games that don’t rely on time spent online have an entirely different system of monetization and therefore a different set of goals; the goal of MMOGs is, you might have guessed by now, to keep players subscribed and spending more time on the Internet. That’s where the persistent universe element comes in: The state of the game (or at least your character) rarely if ever resets. You don’t have to work your way up from Level 1 every time you log in. When you log in on Monday, you’ll still have all the health, intelligence, strength, and possessions you had when you logged out on Sunday. But time hasn’t frozen—you didn’t press the pause button. Like real life, the game keeps going forward. As time progresses in the real world and the game world, changes do occur, but players do not need to invent a new identity or go through the same tests and trials every time. Instead, they explore, learn by doing, and—most importantly—meet other players. Eventually, you form friendships.

MMOGs almost always feature factions and guilds, which facilitate social grouping. Success in the game world usually depends on characters with different talents working together to achieve a particular goal of a faction or guild; faction or guild members can participate a variety of game activities in real time, which helps form social bonds. These bonds become part of their characters’ identities. Frequently, avatars will wear symbols (and players will sport paraphernalia in real life) that distinguish what group they belong to and what their group tends to stand for or enjoy. It’s like having your own virtual clique, but your posse is focused on adventuring and exploring, and, hopefully, conforming to good gaming etiquette.

Naturally, there are a lot of other factors that go into MMOGs. I’ll talk more about the different types of virtual worlds and the MMOs genres that are available in another blog post. For now, I just want to say that a persistent universe, a server solution for thousands (if not millions) of players, and group game-play are the essential ingredients for any MMOG.

And yes, you are all very special (and pretty) snowflakes.

-Kara Stambach, Virtual Worlds Team