Like many people out in the world, I play Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games or mmorpg’s for short, which is a term coined by

Richard Garriott, the creator of the Ultima game series, plus others and  Ultima Online, an mmorpg released on Sept 25, 1997 by Origin Systems.

As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a fictional character (usually in a fantasy world) and take control over many of that character’s actions.  That character then interacts with people and things in whatever world they are in.  They usually talk to NPCs and get quests and then when the quest is finished they usually get some reward. MMORPGs differ from single player games 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.

MMORPG’s are very popular all over the world.  Revenues worldwide for MMORPG’s exceeded half a billion dollars in 2005 and Western revenues exceeded $1 billion US in 2006. In 2007 and 2008 the virtual goods buying and trading has taken an amazing increase. Next to the more traditional subscription model, virtual goods are a second source of revenues for publishers. In 2008, Western consumer spending on subscription MMOGs grew to $1.4 billion.

I’ve played many MMORPG’s over the years, including Ultima Online, Everquest, Everquest II, City of Heroes, Lineage, Lineage 2, Star Wars Galaxies, and World of Warcraft.  These were all subscription based and required Internet access.  Most of the time, I would usually get bored with a game and not play for weeks at a time, which with subscription fees was a waste of my money.  Then Lord of the Rings Online started and all that changed.

Star Wars Galaxies Millenium Falcon

Mostly now I just play Lord of the Rings Online, which is based off the movies and the books by J.R.R. Tolkien. Lord of the Rings Online has been quoted by Warcry.com as “The Best Fantasy MMORPG yet created”. The Lord of the Rings Online:Shadows of Angmar was developed by Turbine, is subscription based and requires Internet access.  Unlike all the other MMORPG’s I’ve played, Lord of the Rings Online offered a lifetime membership for $199 for those who participated in the pre-order Founder’s program.  It was launched in Canada, the United States, Australia, Japan and Europe on April 24, 2007. Beta testing began in China in July 2007 and the game was released by the end of 2007. The first expansion pack, Mines of Moria, was released on Nov 17th, 2008. There will be many more expansions to come.

There are many more MMORPG’s out there that might be fun to play if I had time.  One I would like to try is Star Gate Worlds, which is based off of the popular televison series Star Gate SG1.  Being a fan of the series, it might be a cool one to try. Right now they have a beta test in progress, which I am signed up for. Should be fun.