When I see a "Massive Multiplayer" tag, I treat it as a game with a dedicated centralized server, with the consumer part containing only a client connecting to it but no program to host a new server, and with no way to launch the game without connection to the server.

I don't think number of simultaneous players needs to be big to call it massive multiplayer, but only the capacity of the server. That's at least how I see it.


And well, I have problems understanding what a game is when I see it listing MMO and single player tags at the same time.

I've always taken it to mean (a very large - as in far beyond the scope of some random FPS - group of) people playing together in the same game. That's playing together, not 'lobbying and then going off in smaller packs to play'.

If it's just a tag to use to label how many people the server can handle rather than how many are actually playing together, then it just becomes some pointless brag/tick-box about the hardware and logistics rather than meaningful information about the game itself.

Firstly of all, it's Massively Multiplayer... A mmo game is easy to recognize if you can see at least 100 people at once in a single area. This usually refers to a mmorpg mostly because they are the most popular of the mmos. But what about other kinds...?

I like to think a mmo is a game that can connect all players together at once, wherever it is in the game. Most real mmos are wide-scaled open world games or multi-mapped game but set in a single world where hundreds of players can journey around and explore. Here again I refer mostly to mmorpgs but they are the only games I've ever played. We could say it is that all players are in a single universe at once, hence massively multiplayer.

I don't really see FPS multiplayer games or such match games as mmos though since you only ever see like 20 or so people at once. There is nothing that really makes you see hundreds of people at once and no real thing between players other than "join a match, kill each others, win". If we considered all online multiplayer games as mmos just because a game can have more than a single match at once, it would be weird and unreal. There is a lot of online multiplayer games but not all of them are mmos.

Considering the way some games are made, you could have different opinions on the way tags are used. I am sure there are non-rpg games out there that use a certain mmo system but I can't really think of any right now. If I can see hundreds of people at once able to gather together and communicate directly with each others, trade and etc then I will likely consider it a mmo (but it really depends on the way the game is meant to be played anyway)

Skoardy lähetti viestin:

If it's just a tag to use to label how many people the server can handle rather than how many are actually playing together, then it just becomes some pointless brag/tick-box about the hardware and logistics rather than meaningful information about the game itself.

TL;DR of my post: what Skoardy said. lol... A mmo should refer to how many players play with each others, not to the capacity of the server itself. If hundreds of players can technically play with each others (like such games as WoW or Maplestory, not to name them all) then yeah, it's a mmo...

Yeah I think you need to be able to have a "massive" number of people playing the SAME game at the same time to get beyond regular "Multiplayer" and into "Massively Multiplayer." Just having a lot of small groups playing at the same time doesn't bridge that gap in my opinion. Even Dark/Demon's Souls games aren't considered to be MMO's because you can only have a very small group of people playing the "same" game at the same time, even though you have a lot of people playing the game itself simultaneously.

To me MMO means:
1) no lobby, no 8x8 (or whatever) no waiting for that final slot to click "ready"
2) All your hard work can be ruined by some [redacted] from half a world away just 'cause...

Ha and that guy is now deleting any comment pointing out his misuse of the term. Because he can definitely fool enough people into thinking it's an MMO. Right.

Sigh... And I did the mistake to check the Massively Multiplayer tag... Some devs are completely ignorant of what it means. When I search for a mmo, I expect to see a mmo...

wilco64256 lähetti viestin:

Ha and that guy is now deleting any comment pointing out his misuse of the term. Because he can definitely fool enough people into thinking it's an MMO. Right.

Didn't you know - deleting a comment actually solves problems. Like if someone points out you're never going to get your game on Steam due to massive copyright infringement issues or that maybe using Concepts to ask for Minecraft isn't a very good idea, just delete the comment and everything is fine!

Sera lähetti viestin:

Sigh... And I did the mistake to check the Massively Multiplayer tag... Some devs are completely ignorant of what it means. When I search for a mmo, I expect to see a mmo...

Can racing games be MMOs?
Wikipedia says they can although I haven't looked up the games in question so I don't know why they are considered MMOs :p

C0untzer0 lähetti viestin:

To me MMO means:
1) no lobby, no 8x8 (or whatever) no waiting for that final slot to click "ready"
2) All your hard work can be ruined by some [redacted] from half a world away just 'cause...

Haha c0untzer0 you grumpy old cynical bastard :p

wilco64256 lähetti viestin:

Ha and that guy is now deleting any comment pointing out his misuse of the term. Because he can definitely fool enough people into thinking it's an MMO. Right.

Meh, he is doing a rather poor version of a commonly known pen and paper game belonging to the common domain. I really don't see how he could possibly be greenlit, unless all the other games in Greenlight have already been accepted onto Steam. And now there is another game based on the same pen and paper game looking to get greenlit.

Are people submitting their very first attempt at making games?

I play Sonic & Sega all stars racing transformed often and while the multiplayer can host up to 10 people at once, it's nowhere near a mmo. Only an online game with a multiplayer feature. (No, don't search. It's not advertized as a mmo)

To your question, can a racing game be a mmo? Maybe... If a massive amount of players can group up, race, build levels and stats, become better, race with better and better people. Oh wait, that would be a racing mmorpg... (not sure if that even exists)

But actually. If we think of a setup like um... You're a racer in an open world (with thousands of other people) and travel to different places to race with different people then it's very possible to get a racing mmo.

I played a game before in which the mmorpg is simply built around a lobby (of a ship) in which you can see hundreds of other people get ranks, missions, equips, parts (yep parts, read on why). The game was a flying ship shooter mmo game and it did fit as mmo. Because once you set out flying in the world to complete your mission... All the flying field was an open world where hundreds of other players could fly as well. Truly ingenious... (Loved it but I wasn't attracted enough to play it forever)

So if we follow the same kind of idea, a racing mmo 'can' be possible. But I'd be very careful about what tags devs use anyway... If their idea of a mmo is simply "join a room and race with others" then no... I don't want to see that as a mmo. It's only an online multiplayer game for me and nothing else.

Edit note. I also like to see a mmo as a "Player VS npc" game since most of them pit players, alone or in party against computer npcs/human/etc... The flying ship game worked for me as a mmo because the flying field was open and monster (enemies rather) also flew freely and were out there to kill you. A racing game with only players would be nothing but a multiplayer online game, like Sonic all-star racing really... How they would really make a mmo racing game is, to be honest, unknown to me...

GorlomSwe lähetti viestin:

Can racing games be MMOs?
Wikipedia says they can although I haven't looked up the games in question so I don't know why they are considered MMOs :p

According to EA, the next iteration of "Need for Speed" is going to be a Cross-Platform MMO racer where you can drive around the open world challenging other players you meet etc.

GorlomSwe lähetti viestin:

Haha c0untzer0 you grumpy old cynical bastard :p

Surely you mean "worldly and experienced"?
Are people submitting their very first attempt at making games? [/quote]
Clearly. Some of them admit it, sometimes it just shows.