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There seems to be an untapped potential for other non-fantasy genre MMORPGs, and yet new fantasy MMORPGs continue to launch.

As Eskelinen explains (2004:38), the multiple perspectives engendered by MMORPGs craft a unique narrative for each player and the group as a whole that can’t be easily be replicated in other media. Even the notion of evil players is not without its own filter. Evil characters almost always have a sympathetic story to tell. This allows gamers to role-play evil characters while at the same time making them not so loathsome that they are universally reprehensible to even the player. By existing in an important axis of the good/evil dichotomy, these evil characters fill a role just as much as good characters, reinforcing the notion that ethical choices are indeed made in the virtual universe (Castronova 2005:118).

Ultimately, one of the fundamental lessons of massive multiplayer games is that cooperation is necessary. Players are thrust into a world with total strangers and expected to work with them towards a common goal, reinforcing the “massive” and “multiplayer” in MMORPG.

Personalization

Graphics greatly expand a MMORPG’s ability to customize the environment to a player’s tastes. Graphics have a variety of components, providing a limited form of diegesis by graphically presenting an environment without explaining what it is. Players generally understand what a tree and a rock are, and expect both to stay in their place. However, in interactive fiction or a MUD, the player is not aware of those elements unless the game tells him they exist.

The other difference is the ability to customize characters. This form of personalization provides a personal connection between player and character that didn’t exist previously. In addition to the player customizing his character through a set of numbered statistics, his achievements, and the equipment he acquires, the player can now “skin” his character. This skinning is an important representation of this connection. Conversely, characters who have no customization (even naked) are a sure sign that the character is not nearly as important to the player (Jenkins 2004:128).

Risk

MMORPGs, because they involve large quantities of other people, must conduct their combats in real time. As a result, combat tends to be a fast, messy affair, with considerable resources dedicated to allowing a player to make the right tactical choices quickly and effectively. This is a notable difference from CRPGs, which have the luxury of turn-based combat (Barton 2008:433).

Travel in MMORPGs is a significant risk. The majority of MMORPGs have wandering monsters, which will ambush characters who wander too close. Players who trigger the notice of monsters can cause “trains” of monsters to pursue them, endangering everyone in their path (Taylor 2006:34). Strategic players can use this to their advantage, a process called “kiting” in which monsters are lured into a trap as they pursue a potential victim.

Death in MMORPGs is temporary but not without risks. In EverQuest, for example, experience points are lost every time a character dies and he or she restarts (“respawns”) at the last save point in the game. The character leaves a corpse behind at the scene of death, which means the newly formed replacement must find the corpse to retrieve his equipment. In this regard EverQuest has much in common with MUDs (Taylor 2006:33).

I played Ultima Online for a three-month trial, joining my fellow game developer Doug Schonenberg. I spent most of my time slaughtering sheep, for which I would crack joke after joke (“I feel sheepish!” “Am I sleeping or did I just kill another one?” “Do we have enough RAM to run this?” and so on), but even that got old after a while. I tried to play it without the company of my friends, only to discover that Ultima Online’s system protected player killers.

Player killers are the ugly side of the disinhibition theory I laid out earlier in the MUD chapter. They