I say this with the utmost of respect and caring for you:

If you don't know, you aren't ready to make a MMOG.

I mean I googled "game publishers" and found a ton. If you don't know to do this step, I don't see how your are ready for a MMOG!

May I recommend you drop the MMOG and make a Single Player game? In the process of building a SP game, you will find the answers you seek.

Sigh, yes respect. For I've seen dozens of wide eyed developers going insane down the same path of chasing the mythical MMOG. So yes, as harsh as my critique is, it is meant to help you, not hinder you.

Case in point...you aren't looking for a publisher then, for that is all a publisher does, publishes, otherwise they wouldn't be called publishers (certain logic in that, don't you think?) :)

What you are looking for are INVESTORS or VENTURE CAPITALISTS.
All I can say is good luck for they will demand ALOT more than you can offer right now before they fork over the money.

Some of the reqs you will find with most investors is previous track record (previous games you have done?), also no one will invest in ideas, most will want a working prototype atleast with all the docs.

Seriously consider a offline rpg, if your talking big money, mmorpgs and investors, then taking "hundred of copies" in losses from piracy doesnt seem to be a big deal, you also shouldnt define yourself to a genre from things like piracy, theres creative ways to minimise piracy with offline games which will also prove alot easier than writing some of the elements to a mmorpg.

Start small as it was suggested before, im sure if you can pull of a offline rpg not only will you gain more respect within the development crowd, but you will have meet allies/fans along the way keen to push the project further eventually into the multiplayer arena. And after thats done hand your now finished rpg to interested investors/publishers and THEN ask for advances to develop to mmorpg status.

Best of luck

Yes and No.

Building a SP game is REDICALLY diffrent than building a MP game. Many people have made the mistake of thinking that adding MP to a SP game is as simple as putting a Network Backend App and voila! Not so. And with MMP that strategy is an ABSOLUTE invitation for failure.

My Advice:

1) Work on a pure SP (not related to your rpg) with NO MP capabilities. This will gain you the experience in basic game development.

2) Work on a pure MP game (not related to your rpg) to gain experience in Networking.

3) Now work on your MMORPG but from the ground up. You must resist the temptation to reuse code from your SP or MP game in your MMP game. Why? Becaue MMP solutions are so diffrent than MP or SP that you will spend more time trying to fit that code into your MMOG than simply doing it from scratch. Also, mistakes or misunderstanding that creep into your SP or MP game will make it into your MMP game if you try to reuse. However, resources (such as models, music, sfx, etc) can and should be reused so that if you can build step 1 and 2 to use resources that can be used in 3 and that will shorten your dev time when doing your MMOG.


I get the feeling that you are a white belt game developer and you need to be a black belt at least to tackle a MMOG. I think the above will give you all the pieces you need to tackle this massive effort and, given that you already have momentum behind your efforts, I dare say you can complete steps 1) and 2) in less than a year and step 3) in 2-3 years.

(PS: If piracy is your main concern for not doing a SP game, then Hacking would be an equal concern for not making a MP/MMP game. Hence if you don't want to do a game due to Piracy concerns, I would suggest you take a good hard look at future Hacking concerns.)