As the popularity of these games increased, the technology had to keep up to allow up to 50 simultaneous players, then 500, and now, a seemingly limitless amount. The genre has an impressive legacy, dating to the 1980s and adventure games such as Rogue Dungeon, but Meridian 59, released in the 1990s, was the first 3D example and changed things forever. Players can choose to explore on their own or team up with other players to accomplish a goal, or simply interact with new people. The appeal of these games is the scope for making your own decisions and customisable avatars. For example, most of these games are centered around a persistent open-world platform, often with thousands of players logged in at the same time.
Not sure what that is? It stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game and covers a vast spectrum of genres, but there are some common characteristics. You can’t get into the world of online games without discovering a MMORPG.
