General Discussion

This classfication was posted by a fellow forumer, I have lost the thread and I'm sorry I don't remember his name. I just changed the description a bit and added another class for WAR, but I'm unsure about it yet.

1. No instances. (EVE, EQ Classic)

2. Bosses instanced (WAR?)

3. Dungeons instanced (WOW, LOTR)

4. Zones and Dungeons instanced (EQ2, AoC)

5. All instanced (GW)

Do you agree with this classificacion? For me 1 is the true MMORPG and 5 is not an MMORPG. Talking about what we have always considered to be a MMORPG, of course 5 is a Massive Multiplayer Online RPG. Maybe we need another acronym.

Also would consider 1, 2 and maybe 3 to be Open World MMOS, while 4 and 5 would be Closed World.

It will be great to have more examples too.

edit: scratched 2, since is not clear about WAR.

Do you keep this related to released games or adding the developed ones too?

You probably want to put WAR in 3 or 4, Spellborn in 4, Stargate in 4, Aion in 3, EVE in 1, LOTRO in 3.

Also, this classification lacks the fun factor, which is by definition the most important classification a game can have ;)

OMGZORS  MMO elitism.  If it's multiplayer, has public enough areas, and would be interesting to the sites user base it's going to get added to the site.

Disagrees. MMO definition isn't about instance or not like that. To me a mmo is more of being part of a persistent world, with high number different players interacting with each other. And has nothing to with instances.


Reference to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMORPG
"As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a fictional character and take control over many of that character's actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player CRPGs by the number of players, and by the game's persistent world, usually hosted by the game's publisher, which continues to exist and evolve while the player is away from the game."

Reference to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_world
"A persistent world (PW) is a virtual world that continues to exist even after a user exits the world and that user-made changes to its state are, to some extent, permanent. The term is frequently used in the definition of the massively multiplayer online video games and can be considered synonymous with that class of games."

Originally posted by Leemeg

Disagrees. MMO definition isn't about instance or not like that. To me a mmo is more of being part of a persistent world, with high number different players interacting with each other. And has nothing to with instances.


Reference to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMORPG
"As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a fictional character and take control over many of that character's actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player CRPGs by the number of players, and by the game's persistent world, usually hosted by the game's publisher, which continues to exist and evolve while the player is away from the game."

Reference to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_world
"A persistent world (PW) is a virtual world that continues to exist even after a user exits the world and that user-made changes to its state are, to some extent, permanent. The term is frequently used in the definition of the massively multiplayer online video games and can be considered synonymous with that class of games."

But in my opinion you can't call it a persistant world if it's heavily instanced.  "Persistant world" means that the world is always there whether or not you or anyone else is there.  But with instancing, parts of the world flash into and out of existance and so are not persistant.

Also, mirrored instances make a mockery of the idea of a persistant world.  Let's say there is a zone called The Plains of Arakesh.  In a persistant world if you go to the Plains of Arakesh you would expect to be in the same PERSISTANT world as any other players who are there.  But if the game spins off copies of that zone for different people then you are not in the same world as them and so it's NOT a persistant world.  

Well, yes persistent is a basic feature, but.. it would be worthless to classify them because all have it. Good to have it present though, I really forgot.

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Originally posted by Neanderthal

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Originally posted by Leemeg

Disagrees. MMO definition isn't about instance or not like that. To me a mmo is more of being part of a persistent world, with high number different players interacting with each other. And has nothing to with instances.

Reference to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMORPG
"As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a fictional character and take control over many of that character's actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player CRPGs by the number of players, and by the game's persistent world, usually hosted by the game's publisher, which continues to exist and evolve while the player is away from the game."
Reference to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_world
"A persistent world (PW) is a virtual world that continues to exist even after a user exits the world and that user-made changes to its state are, to some extent, permanent. The term is frequently used in the definition of the massively multiplayer online video games and can be considered synonymous with that class of games."

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But in my opinion you can't call it a persistant world if it's heavily instanced.  "Persistant world" means that the world is always there whether or not you or anyone else is there.  But with instancing, parts of the world flash into and out of existance and so are not persistant.
Also, mirrored instances make a mockery of the idea of a persistant world.  Let's say there is a zone called The Plains of Arakesh.  In a persistant world if you go to the Plains of Arakesh you would expect to be in the same PERSISTANT world as any other players who are there.  But if the game spins off copies of that zone for different people then you are not in the same world as them and so it's NOT a persistant world.  

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I don't see the use of instances as either being a qualification for or disqualification of a MMO game.

interesting classification. Is Vanguard meant to have a different kind of instancing I think(combat-instancing)?