Can MMOs Expand Beyond Digital Worlds and Into Reality?

We all have our own personal beliefs as to what is considered an MMO. Over the years we’ve seen this, once strict definition, bend to the will of the industry. In most cases, MMOs and the people that inhabit them do so within a dedicated digital environment, accessed through their computers, consoles, and phones. However, what happens when the “online” part extends into the real world?

I’m not going to wax poetic about the Metaverse and how it’s going to change the world someday. However, I am going to point to one prime example of a trend that has been exceptionally popular, although difficult to replicate, and that is Pokémon Go. Nintendo and Niantic’s mish-mash of location-based monster catching is a game where the massively multiplayer population is often found outside the digital sphere, gathering in real-world locations rather than strictly within the game.

The curious mix of augmented reality, real-world locations, and virtual multiplayer battles When Pokémon Go launched in 2016 encouraged players to find each other in real life. Millions of players worldwide still to this day congregate in parks, malls, historical landmarks, and sometimes even their local restaurants in search of Pokémon. In many of these cases players interact with each other primarily through the game’s digital interface of Gyms, teaming alongside other players to take them over. The real magic, the MMO portion, happens in the physical world—where people meet, form communities, and communicate in real life the way we have in many MMOs for decades. This raises an interesting question: can a game like Pokémon Go, which blurs the lines between the virtual and the physical, be classified as an MMO?

Is a Real Life MMO a Thing?

When it comes to the Massively Multiplayer part of Pokémon Go, it certainly fits the MMO description. Anecdotally, I go to the park often as the weather cools, and when I’m not toying around with Monster Hunter Now, Pokemon Go is a fantastic diversion while I get in some steps. There have been multiple instances where I’ve found myself huddled around a group of other people as I slap-fight gym bosses, then hear the call from someone nearby that a rare Pokemon just appeared. Yes, we’re all in our own unique instanced world to some degree in game, but we’re all playing the same game together in the same world.  The actual experience of the game transcends the traditional confines of a screen, and while in game party experiences are encouraged, out of game grouping is more casual than an invite declaration and just seems to happen when you find likeminded players.

Pokemon Go is also sort of a glimpse into a world we’re only just starting to grasp, with mixed reality seemingly on the brink of a technological revolution. As technology advances, especially with wearables and headsets like Meta’s Orion, the potential for games to push further into our physical world seems more real than it ever has. These emerging technologies could accelerate the shift towards metaverse-like experiences, where the game world overlays onto the real world, blurring the boundaries between the two, and solidifying the possibility that the MMO’s of the future might include assembling a crowd of players in the real world.

Whether the premise of this hybridized MMO will ever truly catch on, and not be relegated to a one-off experience whose popularity has been nearly impossible to replicate, it’s hard to really tell. There is a part of me that wants to protect the honor of the MMO, not allowing the offline congregation of players to derail the online experiences I’ve come to cherish over the past several decades. On the other hand, what is an MMORPG without a little adventure, and I think there might be just a little wiggle room here to experiment with untested mediums. What say you, MMORPGer. Would you be willing to take your grouping into the real world for your online games? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.