MMORPGs

Does the word “MMORPG” tell you anything? Most probably not, but the abbreviation is actually has the meaning that has become a phenomenon over last few years and is truly is an influence on the mainstream culture. Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games it stands for and it is a genre of a game, where a player takes a role of a character with certain feats and skills, traveling the magnificent and majestic fantasy worlds full of mythical creatures, gaining experience and better skills(thus making his/her character stronger) and solving the quests. “Okay” some will say “What is so special about it? It is just like any other Role-Playing Game”. The difference is that it has the word “Online” in the abbreviation and it is for reason. The average server of the most popular MMORPG nowadays “World of Warcraft” is serving up to 10 000 players each moment and that means that in that huge world it is not the computer controlled-monsters we are fighting against, but actually against thousands of other real-life players too. Huge clans and massive guilds are formed by hundreds of players, each with their own fortresses and places of dominance. So, for example, if a player of one “kingdom” wonders into the deserts that are controlled by the opposing faction, he may get killed not only by the monsters that inhabit the place, but also by other “humans” or “orcs” that are played by other real-life players. The rise of the MMORPG gave also rise to the new kind of market of “virtual armory”. Since there are certain powerful and rare items in these games that are hard or impossible to find, some experienced gamers (and sometimes even dozens of players playing together) spend nights “slaying dragons and goblins” to get these swords and shields and then sell them on the EBay on real money. There has already been a “South Park” episode spoofing “World of Warcraft” and the number of its players is growing constantly, reaching up to 15 million players worldwide (on the official servers) – and it is speculated that on the pirate servers up to 50 million might be playing.