quote:Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
I think it''s an important distinction, Critical_Waste. "Massively" sets them apart from games like Unreal Tournament or Quake 3 arena, which have a relatively small number of players populating a world. A Massively Multiplayer game can support massive numbers. I admit readily that "massive" is a nebulous term, but it gets the point across.

There might be a little redundancy in "multiplayer online", though. After all, are there any single-player online games?

But I agree that what''s been described here is less "game" and more "interactive environment" or "experience". I remember reading some kind of plans to introduce a gamespace "lobby" into games like UT or Quake. Players would actually walk around weapons-free to meet and host/join games. An awkward system, perhaps, but if it was elegantly executed, it could be made to work. Imagine a non-game-specific "lobby" system. I would expect it to be something like GameRanger, but with each room populated by character avatars. Pick your character and colors, a name and perhaps a unique icon, and then engage in all the same off-topic crap that people do in the pure-text systems. You could get clan uniforms or some other dorky stuff, and people would flock to it.

I think this is an inevitable evolution of the online gaming community, and it''s just a race to see who does it first, and then a contest to see who can do it best.