This is what Ive never understood. Every single person I ask how they learned to program such as minecraft modders they tell me that they "taught themselves". How the heck do you just teach programming to yourself. If programming and coding is really as complicated as all of you said it was then how does one learn just by watching a youtube tutorial and then work your self up to making an MMORPG. Do I not need a course for basic programming? Or can I just learn to make simple games then work my self up with youtube tutorials?
You learn basic programming knowledge from tutorials and books, while asking questions on forums like this one.
You acquire experience by working on small (very small) projects like pong and tetris and connect four, and work your way up to slightly larger projects (like side-scrolling platformer or top down shooters), larger projects (small 2D rpgs or basic first-person shooters), and so on. There's no set path, so the exact projects you work on will vary.
Ultimately, you work on larger and larger projects, but starting small.
Programming is difficult and frustrating (but enjoyable and worth pursuing).
Games, in general, are one of the more complicated programming projects.
Really polished 2D games take alot of work.
Really polished 3D games take even more work.
RPGs are one of the harder genres to make, though not impossible.
Making something multiplayer takes extra work.
Making something multiplayer over the internet takes more work.
Making something capable of hosting 100 players at once takes more.
Making something capable of hosting 1000 players at once takes more.
Making something capable of hosting 10,000 players at once takes more.
10,000 at the same time is the number where a game stops being an "Online RPG" (ORPG) and instead becomes a "Massively Multiplayer Online RPG" (MMORPG).
(To be more specific, 100,000 active subscribers is the unofficial mark of when a game becomes an MMORPG. On average, 10% of your active subscribers would be online at the same time during peak play times, barring special events and such)
The more people you try to have online at once, the harder the server architecture gets.
When someone says "I want to make an RPG (one of the hardest genres), that's 3D (adding to the complexity), and that's an MMO (>10,000 active users), and it's my first project, what do I do?", they almost 100% of the time don't realize the scope of what they are actually asking.
Sometimes when people say "I want to make an MMORPG", they really mean, "I want to make a small game with a few dozen/hundred people able to play online at once", which isn't an MMORPG. It's sounds like this is what you mean - which means your task isn't "almost impossible", just very very difficult.
Several people have made large online RPG games on their own or with very small teams. But never as their first project.
It's a fantastic goal to reach for, but if you want to achieve it, and make it a great polished game (instead of a buggy incomplete mess that barely works and never can get finished), then you should start with smaller steps.
If you want to reach the mountain top, you don't head in a strait line up the mountain - the sides are too steep. Instead, you following the small unimpressive curving path that gradually winds its way around. This requires you to keep your mind on your eventual goal (years from now), while temporarily taking your eyes off of it to focus on the smaller intermediate goals.
Good luck on your journey! I'll meet you at the top.
Sincerely,
- Someone who is taking the side route, and is 20% up the mountain after 10 years of programming.