The term “MMORPG” is now well-known. But what does it actually stand for and, more importantly, where does it come from? We dug deep into the vastness of the internet to find out: Where does the term “MMORPG” actually come from?
The term Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game is quickly explained: Translated, it means Mass-Online-Community-Role-Playing Game. It means that multiple players can play the game online in its mostly persistent world at the same time. In extreme examples, this can also mean several hundred players all at once, even if that is not the norm. However, the exact minimum number is not defined.
While most games of this type were indeed role-playing games in their early days, that changed over time. Now, for many games, the further abbreviation “MMO” is appropriate to include games of various genres that are based on “Massive Multiplayer Online”.
The Origins of the Term
While the roots of MMORPGs extend deep into the 80s and even the 70s, the MMOs as we know them today emerged only later. The predecessors simply lacked the “Massive” aspect. This first appeared in the 90s with games like Neverwinter Nights and Meridian 59. Back then, the term MUD was still used: The Multi User Dungeon.
But the term “MMORPG” was not yet in common use.
That changed on a broad level with the game Ultima Online: Richard “Lord British” Garriott, the creative mind behind the game “Ultima Online,” was the first to publicly use the term “MMO(RPG)” in 1997 to describe his game. He went down in history and is still considered the father of MMOs today.
And what about Meridian and Legends of Kesmai?
Was Garriott the first to ever say “MMORPG”? Probably not.
Because similar terms were already mentioned two years earlier, though not publicly, but rather behind closed doors.
In the mid-90s, developers began to differentiate their games from those that catered to “only” up to 8 players and had already called themselves multiplayer. In a meeting of software developers around MPG-Net and Legends of Kesmai in the mid-90s, the term Massively Multiplayer was thrown into the room: the cornerstone for our current “MMORPG”.
Also, in a meeting of the developer studio 3DO, according to “Developing Online Games: An Insider’s Guide“, the term “Massively Multiplayer” and “MMPRPG”, meaning Massively Multi-Player Role-Playing Game were mentioned.
However, since meetings are less media-effective than advertising campaigns, MMPRPG was soon replaced by Garriott’s MMORPG and spread in this now known form.
Whoever invented or coined the term and how much it has changed since then, one thing is certain: MMOs are an essential part of today’s video game culture and are hardly to be imagined without.
