The Debate of Whether Diablo 3 is an MMO is still On

Recently, the discussion of "is Diablo 3 an MMO?" appeared at the Upcoming online games page. It's an old topic but I'm surprised that players are still debating on that. Let's see how players talk about this first.

Diablo is not an MMO.I dunno why some people even call it like that. If there is 5 palyers max thats multiplayer not MMO. IF its MMO then neverwinter nights, game of thrones-strategy and almost every other RPG that have multyplayer mode and there is 90% RPG with those mode are MMO's...

MMORPG. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Play Game. Is D3 Massively Multiplayer? No, hundreds of people cannot play together. They can wait in a lobby and then a few can play together at a time, that is not an MMO. That is no more an MMO than GW1 was. Just like GW1, that does NOT mean it's a bad game. D3 can be a great game, maybe it even will be, but it's still NOT an MMO.

Online multiplayer function supports a couple of people in the same spot mainly 2-23 players! an massive multiplayer online game suport hundreds and thousands of players at the same time in the same spot! Singleplayer games that have online function are singleplayer games not mmo becouse it has a stand alone element! mmo's are not singleplayer games becouse most of the mmo's out there are party dependable! Call Of Duty, Diablo, Assasins Creed, Gears Of War, And Any Other Singleplayer game out there are not MMO even if they support online play!

So the key point that makes players think Diablo 3 isn't an MMO is it doesn't allow hundreds of players to play together. I guess most of you simply won't consider Diablo 3 an MMO because it's not listed as "MMO" at the official site or any other gaming website, and it doesn't like the massive multi-player online games we play. Hold on, video game designer and AI researcher Mike Sellers just gave his opinion on this topic.

I haven't yet played DIII but played I and II and have worked on multiple MMOs. The same question ("is it an MMO?") were asked about I and II as well as other games.

While there's no hard-and-fast definition, in general have these attributes in common: 

1. There is a world shared by many (more than just a few) people who did not choose to group together 

2. The world continues and maintains its state after any individual logs out 

3. Typically the player is represented by a single avatar; in some cases by an army or empire (MMORTSs for example) 

4. The player's avatar maintains state after the player logs out

Diablo and other games meet some of these requirements but not all. Most often, they do not have a world that persists when the player has logged out, and/or they do not support an arbitrary number of players in the same world at the same time. Thus most game developers do not consider these games to be MMOs.

The industry doesn't have a definition for MMO and because of that, it causes confusion sometimes. Session-based games such as Dragon Nest, Vindictus, C9 and Neverwinter are commonly recognized as MMO while Firefall which has persistent open world, is not defined as MMO by the developers themselves. Usually, DOTA and MOBA games are also in the coverage of many MMO websites while there are some games like Down of Fantasy includes both single-player and online gameplay modes.

MMOs are changing and evolving, from their structures to the gameplay, and sometimes it's difficult to category a game into certain genre. In fact, we don't have to define if Diablo 3 is an MMO or not, and as long as the game features MMOs elements, we can discuss about them here at MMOsite. What do you think?

Recently, the discussion of "is Diablo 3 an MMO?" appeared at the Upcoming online games page. It's an old topic but I'm surprised that players are still debating on that. Let's see how players talk about this first.

Diablo is not an MMO.I dunno why some people even call it like that. If there is 5 palyers max thats multiplayer not MMO. IF its MMO then neverwinter nights, game of thrones-strategy and almost every other RPG that have multyplayer mode and there is 90% RPG with those mode are MMO's...

MMORPG. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Play Game. Is D3 Massively Multiplayer? No, hundreds of people cannot play together. They can wait in a lobby and then a few can play together at a time, that is not an MMO. That is no more an MMO than GW1 was. Just like GW1, that does NOT mean it's a bad game. D3 can be a great game, maybe it even will be, but it's still NOT an MMO.

Online multiplayer function supports a couple of people in the same spot mainly 2-23 players! an massive multiplayer online game suport hundreds and thousands of players at the same time in the same spot! Singleplayer games that have online function are singleplayer games not mmo becouse it has a stand alone element! mmo's are not singleplayer games becouse most of the mmo's out there are party dependable! Call Of Duty, Diablo, Assasins Creed, Gears Of War, And Any Other Singleplayer game out there are not MMO even if they support online play!

So the key point that makes players think Diablo 3 isn't an MMO is it doesn't allow hundreds of players to play together. I guess most of you simply won't consider Diablo 3 an MMO because it's not listed as "MMO" at the official site or any other gaming website, and it doesn't like the massive multi-player online games we play. Hold on, video game designer and AI researcher Mike Sellers just gave his opinion on this topic.

I haven't yet played DIII but played I and II and have worked on multiple MMOs. The same question ("is it an MMO?") were asked about I and II as well as other games.

While there's no hard-and-fast definition, in general have these attributes in common: 

1. There is a world shared by many (more than just a few) people who did not choose to group together 

2. The world continues and maintains its state after any individual logs out 

3. Typically the player is represented by a single avatar; in some cases by an army or empire (MMORTSs for example) 

4. The player's avatar maintains state after the player logs out

Diablo and other games meet some of these requirements but not all. Most often, they do not have a world that persists when the player has logged out, and/or they do not support an arbitrary number of players in the same world at the same time. Thus most game developers do not consider these games to be MMOs.

The industry doesn't have a definition for MMO and because of that, it causes confusion sometimes. Session-based games such as Dragon Nest, Vindictus, C9 and Neverwinter are commonly recognized as MMO while Firefall which has persistent open world, is not defined as MMO by the developers themselves. Usually, DOTA and MOBA games are also in the coverage of many MMO websites while there are some games like Down of Fantasy includes both single-player and online gameplay modes.

MMOs are changing and evolving, from their structures to the gameplay, and sometimes it's difficult to category a game into certain genre. In fact, we don't have to define if Diablo 3 is an MMO or not, and as long as the game features MMOs elements, we can discuss about them here at MMOsite. What do you think?