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It takes a lot of work to make an MMO. And I don't mean a few hundred lines of code. Not even a few thousand. To make that game that you always wanted to make, it's gonna take a lot of experience. Don't start trying to figure out how to make an MMO if you've never wrote any code before, it will rot your brain.
The most important things that you will need before even considering how to make an MMO game are:
A lot of experience (and I mean years of experience
A very devoted team~ And that doesn't just mean you and a few of your friends/classmates
Lots and lots of time - and I mean years
It's best to have a working knowledge of a few programming languages, too
Nothing but hard work will help you to create an MMO game. If you don't have years of experience, and a dedicated team, you don't stand a chance. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's just the way it is. Start small~ otherwise everything will become too much and you'll end up quitting, and never making that game that you wanted to make. I strongly recommend that you take a steady learning curve, particularly when you begin learning to program. If you don't, then everything will come crashing down pretty soon.
Recommended books:
Killer Game Programming in Java ~ It has a steep learning curve, so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is less than intermediate.
Please only post if you have something constructive to say~ a recommended book, website, or just some general advice. I don't want this to turn into another spam thread.
To those of you who are reading this in search of advice: I wish you all the best as you begin your journey into the world of programming. Remember, if you ever get stuck on a problem, let us know and we'll help you out. We just don't want to see any more threads asking how to make an MMORPG in less than a week. Be optimistic about what you can create, but try to keep your current target realistic. Don't make anything that you think might be too big. If you think it will be too big a project for you, jot it down, and shut it out of your mind for a while. Make some smaller projects, learning new things along the way, until you finally feel ready for that project. When you finally feel ready, get that piece of paper which you planned it on, and start to think about it. Is it achievable now? If not, start thinking about what it is that you need to learn. Go and learn it, and come back to your big idea.
You bring up a really good point staycrisp. At what point does a RPG become a MRPG; in fact what exactly counts as multilayer? Furthermore, how does one clarify between a MRPG and a MORPG. Surely the definition of the word online is skewed to one's favor. Where is the line drawn between MORPG and MMORPG? At what point are there enough warm bodies to declare it massive? Consider heart attacks: it may be a little one, but it causes a massive effect. Likewise, one player can have a massive impact within the game world.
Case in point: Elder Scrolls 4. You are a single player that creates massive problems and solves them. You singlehandedly do all the massiveness. Is that now a MMORPG? Probably not, but we as society can no longer sit idly by as this progresses. It is up to the lawmakers to decide when a MORPG becomes a MMORPG. I urge each and every one of you to write to your respective congressman or senator and demand action! It is in your hands!
A quote from WolfCoder, describing how much you really have to consider. Remember, this guy spends a lot of time making games, and he's been programming for six years:
QUOTE(WolfCoder @ 16 Jun, 2008 - 04:10 AM)
I don't even have the plans for the WeaponSoul MMORPG (a tactical battle instance, free roam normal mode MMORPG) yet, just drawing the plans up will take me a month or so. The designs call for a JAVA server and a C-Script/C++ 3D windows client and another lite client written in JAVA in 2D for cross platform-ness. Lastly, a admin remote control in JAVA that sends messages to the program for maintainence and stuff.
I would have to write 2 clients and a horribly huge JAVA program that handles all the crap, and then I would have to find some server to run it on. I know how to do it but the work is WAY TOO MUCH. It sure is a really good and fun idea for an MMORPG though, I fantasize about it sometimes~ I would love to play that game.
...wow. Out of 26 pages, there were only 3 good quotes. Oh well.
Thanks to Tom and 1lacca, for a few links to APIs which could potentially be used in the creation of an MMO game:
QUOTE(Tom9729 @ 17 Jun, 2008 - 06:52 AM)
I've been having trouble finding it as well, but I've heard of something like that before from Sun so I'm pretty sure it exists. Maybe we've just got the name wrong.
Anyways, there are many MMORPG frameworks out there. Here is one that I've read about in the past and considered using.
Posting the words "how do I make a mmorpg" if you have fewer than 10 posts should automatically redirect to that page. I'm not sure how hard that would be to do, but skyhawk if you set that up you will be my hero.
QUOTE(1lacca @ 17 Jun, 2008 - 10:02 AM)
My bad, it is DarkStar not BlackStar It is here. It has C and other APIs as well, so it is not only for Java people.
About rewriting such things from scratch is NIH but it can b fun, and rewarding in terms of learning - you just don't get to write your actual game play and content, because building the actual infrastructure is a really big task in itself. However I would not call anything MM while it only administers a couple of clients - say 100-150, because I've seen FPS multiplayer that could do that (Joint Operations for example). Also, as soon as you are thinking about getting people writing modules for you, it could be just the same using something that already exists, and has much bigger support and knowledge behind it, that you could get hold of in a reasonable time.
This is a tutorial I wrote. I've actually made a chat room before, I ran the server off my laptop and had random people take copies of my client program and talk in it. You entered my target in a dialog box and there you were, it was kinda like IRC.
I think you should make a chat room before you even think about making an MMORPG.
edit: Notice how at the end I hint that writing a tutorial for making an MMORPG, it would just be a starting place and it would still be a series of tutorials which I never get around to writing. Plus I think I was a little tired and insane when I wrote that one...
This post has been edited by WolfCoder: 24 Aug, 2008 - 03:28 PM
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