MMORPG vs. RPG

Massive Multiplayer Online Games are extremely populour, But so are Role-Playing Games. What one is the best?

Out there are a great deal of MMORPG’s (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) and although it has its enemy the RPG in its title, are they the same? In short – Not at all. A few examples of MMORPG’s are that of Runescape, World of Warcraft and Guildwars. These games are based in a huge 3 dimensional world where you can do quests, interact with other players around the globe and take part in games with the other players. Do these extra players in an RPG make the game more fun though? Examples of RPG’s alone may be Dragonfable, Adventure Quest and other such games where you play a single character. Both of these have the same bases and all have:

• NPC’s (Non-Playable Characters)
• Quests
• Main Storyline
• Mini-games
• Membership Option*

And of course, MMORPG’s all have their own specific traits being based in an online world, such as multiple servers, global chat and online players! But which is better?

RPG’s

Rpg’s can exist in different forms – Flash based, Java based. Whatever its made in – its still and RPG. If you make your own fictional character where they take part in a variety of things – but ultimately the player decides what he wants to do and what the outcome should be.

Image Coutesy of DragonFable.com

But why Should RPG’s be better when MMORPG’s let you interact with other people! Surely thats a step forward in the world? Well, Rpg’s have the ability to been updated easily and without much hassle leading to regular updates, whereas MMORPG’s are normally based on massive amount of Java scripting (And sometimes written in a special script made up for the program!) and could take a long time to create all the New npc’s and enemys that have to be 3-d and have specific coding. So 1 point to RPG.

Rpg’s can also hold contests more easily since the accounts can be credited with the money or whatever (This can also lead to the developers selling special kind of in-game items) but MMORPG’s cannot do this, since it can mess with their servers. Online Competitions for in-game prizes have never been seen – and it looks as if we wont.

But RPG’s fall down in the interaction front. Sure – the site can have a forum to intereact. But that isn’t ingame. This is one of the great advantages of MMORPG’s. It allows ingame chat and live help when stuck. Another aspect is the fact that interplayer trading is a Huge part of MMORPG’s. Quests in them can have the diversity of taking your time – to fetch items for them since you are free to roam and the quests are set around the world you can already go. RPG’s link to quests in places you cannoy roam and so cannot let you fetch items while in the quest to complete it and have to complete/abandon the quest to continue with normal play. As such, you have to complete the quest to advance in the Game’s storyline as it is part of a chain Etc.

A final point for MMORPG’s is that you can log out and log back in at the same point.

In summary – MMORPG’s open up a new world were you can do a multitude of things with other players, from creating groups to trading and helping each other. RPG’s may have some very good advantages but are really the pre-runner to these Huge online Games. Its up to the players. If you like these things or just ploughing through quests in an RPG – They are all fun.

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*In MMORPG’s the membership tends to be monthly whereas in RPG’s it is usually a one-off payment.