Across America, Korea, and Japan, MMORPGs - and their denizen players are fairly rare. MMORPGs - or, for the uninitiated, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games - are described as 'online' for the obvious reason that they are played via Internet connections to one server, which then deals out information accordingly. Such games are 'massively multiplayer' as the online server is designed to handle more than a small group of around six people; the number of players could run into the hundreds of thousands, any number of which can be online at any given time. These two terms modify the separate entity of "RPG", which insinuates that each player takes the control of a character, which they make run around the world and do various tasks. Whether or not any actual roleplaying occurs is up to the players. The games are typically made for the PC, but consoles are gradually becoming more suited to the genre.
Nature of the Games
MMORPGs tend to have little or no active plot, with the exception of grand, organised events in some cases. However, they can and often do possess a rich history, geography, and historical figures, all of which are fictional, though some real-world correlations may be made occasionally. An honourable exception to this rule is Guild Wars, which has a plot in which the players actively participate, though this generates some interesting sorts of plot holes.
While MMORPGs can develop complex trade systems in which players barter for unique items and services, most players and MMORPGs fall into a certain pattern, or have something in similar at one point or another:
Kill enemies for a new, attractive, and hopefully effective new skill or stat points or money/other such items to buy more/better equipment for your character.
Use these new-found resources to kill more enemies.
There are those who play the games for the challenge that such commerce gives and the complexities of a market in an MMORPG.
What Do I Need to Play?
These sort of games do not take much to play, and require just the game itself, an internet connection and a computer, both of which must be able to take the workload that the game requires; and time. Most MMORPGs also have a monthly fee, so it is probably best to be able to afford it. Friends are optional, but it's always more fun to play games with people you know well, and can hit over the head the next time you see them if they do something monumentally stupid in the game.
Perhaps one of the largest problems is deciding which of the slew of MMORPGs in the market you should pick. This is totally up to the discretion of the player, but various factors should be taken into account such as the monthly payment, the cost of the game itself, and the system requirements of the game. Popular choices include ROSE Online (Rush On Seven Episodes), Ragnarok Online, Everquest, World of Warcraft, and Guild Wars.
Classes
'Classes' can be interchangeable (depending on the game) with 'professions' or 'jobs', and will generally determine the tactics you will have to use during the game. These too have their stereotypical patterns, outlined below:
The Fighter - This woman/man of muscle takes up their sword, spear, or other large weapon of choice and uses it to hit his enemies into death or submission. They tend to be the 'tankiest' or toughest of the classes, meaning that they can take the most damage and abuse without dying.
The Thief/Assassin - These characters are speedy and stealthy, with their focus being on avoiding harm, and attacking faster. They tend towards smaller weapons, such as daggers.
The Ranger - The ranger specialises in ranged weapons, like slings and the bow and arrow. Typically, they come with some sort of animal friend by their side to help them do extra damage.
The Healer - Healing spells and buffs are central to these characters, who are typically very dependant upon their friends to help them not die. They usually wield rods and other magical equipment.
The Mage - These cast big spells, and they too use magical equipment. They are the big guns of the game, and can deal the most damage, with the disadvantage that they are relatively inept at both avoiding damage and at taking it. They usually depend on the tankier characters to provide a bit of flesh between them and their enemies.
The Crafter/Merchant - These are the characters who make and sell equipment and other useful items. They tend to be played by those who are attracted to bartering or simply want to get the cool swag. Their weapons vary from game to game, and their skills are more centered towards getting, making, and selling better items than actually defeating monsters.
Classes are usually one of the biggest differences between MMORPGs, with each handling classes differently. Classes most definitely will change names and guises depending on which game you play, and will possibly even have different purposes. It make good sense to pick a class which would suit your own abilities and personality well. For instance, if you are good at manipulating several skills and measuring out cast times, then pick the mage, but if you have an eye for a good deal, then look into a merchant or the in-game equivalent.
Stats, Skills, Equipment and Experience
Stats, skills and/or spells, equipment, and experience level determine the capabilities of your character. In general, bigger numbers in each mean better, except in the cases where the word "penalty" or negative numbers pop up. In this case, it's usually a trade-off, with players losing a bit of power in one field in exchange for some more in another.
Stats
Stats is short for statistics, which represent the capacity of your character to do certain things. Bigger is better, provided that the skills/spells that the character uses compliment the stats - however a burly but stupid mage is not entirely effective. There are a few types of stats which are typical to MMORPGs, including Strength, Intelligence, Defence, Constitution, Dexterity, and Speed. These can vary and change from game to game, and may abbreviated in creative ways, but the general theme will usually be there. Each does different things, taking in different fields:
Strength (Str) - Generally strength is exactly what it sounds like - your character's physical strength. The technical aspect affects your character's capacity to do damage by hitting things such as monsters, other players and wooden chests with other things such as swords, bats, spears, and so on.
Intelligence (Int) - This stat has less to do with your characters actual IQ than it does with his magic capacity. Higher Intelligence correlates with making spells work more effectively and in a more desirable manner. It also is linked with the character's maximum Magic Points or Mana Points (MP), which limits how many spells you can cast.
Constitution (Con) - In some cases Defence and Constitution are put in one catch-all stat. Constitution is more or less the character's ability to withstand injuries, and increases in Constution are reflected in proportionally higher maximum Hit/Health Points (HP). If you take damage, you lose HP. If your HP hits zero, you die, get knocked out, or something to the same effect. More on death later.
Defence (Def) - This is the counterpoint to Strength, and determines how the character can take a hit, physically, and therefore how many HP one loses if hit. There is often another stat which does the same for the character's ability to withstand magical attacks.
Dexterity (Dex) - This is your character's flexibility and determines how good he is with his hands and on his feet. Traditionally, it has an effect on how well the character can dodge things, and how well he can perform things which require precision, such as aiming and shooting a bow, picking a lock, or casting a spell. In some cases it also shares a trait with speed, affecting the rate at which you can bludgeon/stab/slash things.
Speed (Spd) - Speed usually affects dodge rate, the ability of a character to attack faster, and possibly the character's capacity to move greater distances in less time.
Stats are typically improved upon when a character gains enough experience1 to 'level up'. Many MMORPGs use a 'stat point' system, where a level-up gives you stat points in each field, rather than letting you directly add to a particular stat. This gives a sort of experience curve to the system to prevent people from simply 'maxing out' one stat by putting all their points into it. If given the choice as to which stats to increase, you are given stat points to spend on increasing stats, and the cost to do so raises as the stat does.
Skills
Due to their variety and flexibility, skills are typically the things that keep the game from becoming stale and predictable. There are various categories of skills for the typical MMORPG, although these are usually only sectioned off by the players in gamer slang and references to the game, and are not used officially by the makers:
Special Attacks - These are basically normal attacks whic cause more damage and come with other effects. They are more physical than a magic attack, and will usually drain Special Points or Skill Points, both called SP. Their effectiveness is typically linked to Strength.
Spells - These magical attacks are the weapon of choice for mages, and so require and drain MP to cast. They come in two flavours: Area of Effect (AOE) and Single Target. AOE spells, as one could guess, are spells whose effects are felt by characters in the designated area. They last a while, and then go away. Single Target spells generally deal more damage to a single enemy. Some attacks, rather than do damage, give affflictions, which are nasty things which render the afflicted person slightly less combat worthy in some way or manner. Others are healing spells, and are made to recover HP lost, and to remove a character's afflictions.
Buffs - These are spells, but with a unique effect. These give positive, temporary effects to the target, making them a sort of anti-thesis to afflictions. The effects vary from higher damage and effectivess, to changing stats, reducing damage, or any other conceivable good effect.
All of these skills generally have either a 'cooldown' period, a 'charge time', or both between uses. A charge time is a waiting time between when you choose to cast a spell, and when you can actually cast the spell. The character is usually focused on this skill/spell, and is limited as to what he can do during this charge time. Cooldowns are similar in that if a cooldown is applied to a spell which you cast, you are temporarily unable to use that particular spell or skill again for a period of time. The purpose of both these effects is to keep character from simply using their strongest spell as rapidly as they can press a button, MP/SP permitting.
Equipment
Equipment includes all the 'stuff' which you can carry around, such as weapons, shields, armour, headgear, and so on. These too have 'stats', which improve upon the stats of the character who has them equipped. Weapons generally improve upon strength. Shields, armour, headgear- defence. But for those who use magic, there are variants of these that focus on magical attributes, such as rods, robes, and pointy hats. There are also exceptions to these rules, as there are for most rules, with some weapons having other enhancements as well as or instead of the normal ones. Some games may also include other basic equipment types, such as greaves, gauntlets and shoes, which appear in addition to or in replacement of the traditional equipment items.
Experience
Experience, in theory, is a measurement of how well-travelled and trained a character is. It operates under the assumption that those who have seen more and done more are probably stronger and so forth, and in reality experience is just a counter until you become bigger and badder. There are two main ways of gaining experience: 'Questing' and 'Bashing'. Bashing, quite simply, is killing things. The stronger the monster/human/puppy/butterfly you smite is, the more experience it will reward when you kill it. Questing is a little different, in that you are given a task, or a series of tasks, which you are to fulfil. Once you have done so, you receive experience points or items as a reward. Once a certain number of experience points (EXP) have been gained, the character 'levels up', and can now take on bigger quests and stronger monsters, as well as giving the player bragging rights. There are instances of some games which have other factors that have an effect upon how much experience is received, such as play time and how many player-characters were involved.
Putting that Swag to Use
Well, you've got the weapons, the armour, and the experience. What do you do now? There are several different options, including:
Kill more things - PVE (Player Versus Environment/Everything) 2 is almost always an option. When the monsters you are killing and the experience they provide become insignificant to your level of experience, then you should move on to killing bigger, more experience-giving monsters.
Cooperate - This is, in a way, much like the above, instead with many people in a 'party' (a group of people who share EXP and cooperate to smash stuff up). With more people, you can either kill stronger things you couldn't have before, or kill the same things, but much faster, leading to a level-up faster. However, killing too weak an enemy is inadvisable, since the EXP is watered down and distributed among all the players involved.
Compete - Then there is competition, usually in the form of PVP (Player Versus Player), or perhaps GVG (Group Versus Group or Guild Versus Guild). PVP is pretty self explanatory. As opposed to PVE, in which players attack monsters and interact with the world, PVP involves players fighting for victory, dominance, bragging rights or prizes. GVG is pretty much the same thing, except they are more group-based and often involve the invasion of some sort of 'base'. GVG overlaps cooperation and competition, where you work together to kick the other team's collective ass.
Death
Did your character just die? Do not fret! In most MMORPGs, death is not permanent, but merely a flesh wound and a setback, simply evoking a penalty of your hard-earned experience, or another penalty of some sort. In any case, death has no irreversable effects in mainstream MMORPGs, and after a little time or no time at all, the player can be back up to speed with the same stocks they had before they died.
Etiquette
As in the real world, the society of gamers have developed their own etiquette. Certain actions are considered in bad taste, and are viewed with contempt.
Newbies - Newbies are the common tier found in all the social systems within different MMORPGs. A newbie (also referred to as n00b, noob, n00blet and so on) is anyone who is inexperienced in the game, and has a tendency to make it show. A newbie's status as such usually shows in them asking questions easily answered by introductory quests, or the game manual, or by the simple common knowledge available to any normal player of MMORPGS.
Begging - Beggars in MMORPGs are not like those in real life, in that these ones are by no means down on their luck. In an MMORPG, everyone starts off in the same position (unless they have friends who've already been playing), and thus should be able to get what everyone else can if they work at it. Beggars are typically looked down upon or ignored.
Kill Stealing - This is the second most common offence committed in MMORPGs, as it can happen both through ignorance and as an accident. Kill Stealing is when one player attacks a monster which is already engaged or being attacked by another player who has not asked for help. Killing this monster results in the EXP being split between the two of them, effectively stealing EXP from the player.
Cheating
There are various ways in which players might try to cheat in MMORPGs in order to level up faster, all of which are very much frowned upon:
Exploits - these involve players exploiting bugs in the game's code, allowing them unfair advantages. One such strategy is duping, in which the player uses a bug to create duplicates of a rare item or currency.
Ranking Up - this involves the player creating a puppet account3 which they then use as a victim to increase their EXP. This is also referred to as 'two-boxing', as the player may have to buy a second copy of the game to enter the second character.
Sharing - sharing simply involves two people sharing the same online character, allowing higher playing times and thus unfairly boosting EXP.
Confidence tricks - as in real life, there are a few players out there in the MMORPG worlds that will happily trick others into giving up their hard-earned items.
1 See below.
2 More colloquially called 'Bashing' - repeatedly killing monsters.
3 That is to say another character in the game which they also control.
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