In video game language, MMO stands for massively multiplayer online. MMO games, or MMOs for short, are the most popular genre of the modern era. Find out what an MMO is, how they work, and what you need to play them.
What is an MMORPG anyway? [MMOPINION]
As the name suggests, MMO games are not designed to be played alone. While it is possible to play some of these games offline, MMOs encourage cooperation and competition between players. For this reason, many MMOs function as social networks where gamers can chat with other gamers from around the world.
Even if you’ve never come across the term, you’ve probably played an MMO game or at least heard of one. Fortnite, FarmVille, World of Warcraft, and Minecraft all fall under the MMO umbrella. There are sports-, racing-, and fighting-themed MMOs.
Before MMOs, there were MUDs, or multi-user dungeons. In the 1970s, these were primitive, multiplayer, text-based games running on early Internet servers. Most MUDs were role-playing games (RPGs) with mechanics similar to the board game Dungeons & Dragons, so it's no surprise that the first MMOs were also RPGs.
