History Main / MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRoleplayingGame

Note that not all massively multi-player games are RolePlayingGames; for instance, ''Videogame/PlanetSide'' is a Massively Multiplayer FirstPersonShooter, ''VideoGame/AutoAssault'' [[{{Cancellation}} was]] a DrivingGame with RPGElements, ''Drift City'' is what you get when ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'' is turned into an MMOG, ''VideoGame/SecondLife'' is a social environment, ''VideoGame/ShatteredGalaxy'' is a RealTimeStrategy with RPG elements, and ''[[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Magic The Gathering Online]]'' is a straight port of the CollectibleCardGame where the only "Massive Multiplayer Online" part is the lobby where you connect with other players. Massively Multiplayer [=RPG=]s are the most common, so common in fact, [[YouKeepUsingThatWord most people actually don't realize that the first three letters of the term "MMORPG" refer to "Massively Multiplayer Online"]] and that there ''can'' very easily be such a thing as an MMOG that is ''NOT'' an RPG. Nowadays, if you refer to a game as an MMOG, the first thing people will think about is this.

The MMORPG has its roots in text-based [[MultiUserDungeon Multi-User Dungeons]] ([=MUDs=]) and [[MultiUserSharedHallucination Multi-User Shared Hallucinations]] ([=MUSH=]es) originating in [[OlderThanTheNES the mists of time]]. Eventually, sprite-based graphics were introduced in 1991 with Don Daglow's ''[[VideoGame/NeverwinterNightsAOL Neverwinter Nights]]'' ([[AdaptationDisplacement not to be confused]] with the [[VideoGame/NeverwinterNights traditional computer RPG of the same name]] by Bioware). While games like ''[[VideoGame/Meridian59]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheRealmOnline Sierra's The Realm]]'' and ''VideoGame/UltimaOnline'' kept the genre alive throughout the 90s, it wasn't until 1999 that ''VideoGame/EverQuest'' put the entire genre on the map by introducing a gigantic and deeply fleshed-out fully 3D world for players to explore from a first person or third person perspective. ''[=EverQuest=]'' would pave the way for which a great majority of the games listed below owe their conceptual existence to, though elements of the MMORPG are OlderThanTheyThink, since they can be traced back to ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''.

The MMORPG has its roots in text-based [[MultiUserDungeon Multi-User Dungeons]] ([=MUDs=]) and [[MultiUserSharedHallucination Multi-User Shared Hallucinations]] ([=MUSH=]es) originating in [[OlderThanTheNES the mists of time]]. Eventually, sprite-based graphics were introduced in 1991 with Don Daglow's ''[[VideoGame/NeverwinterNightsAOL Neverwinter Nights]]'' ([[AdaptationDisplacement not to be confused]] with the [[VideoGame/NeverwinterNights traditional computer RPG of the same name]] by Bioware). While games like ''Meridian 59'', ''[[VideoGame/TheRealmOnline Sierra's The Realm]]'' and ''VideoGame/UltimaOnline'' kept the genre alive throughout the 90s, it wasn't until 1999 that ''VideoGame/EverQuest'' put the entire genre on the map by introducing a gigantic and deeply fleshed-out fully 3D world for players to explore from a first person or third person perspective. ''[=EverQuest=]'' would pave the way for which a great majority of the games listed below owe their conceptual existence to, though elements of the MMORPG are OlderThanTheyThink, since they can be traced back to ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''.

''VideoGame/MobileLegendsBangBang''

+ Creator/SonyOnlineEntertainment

* ''VideoGame/{{Defiance}}''

* ''Elder Tale'', a long-running fantasy RPG set in a post-apocalyptic Earth, gets a new game update as all logged-in players suddenly experience TheGameComeToLife in the light novel/anime ''LogHorizon''.
* As ''Yggdrasil'', a long-running immersive fantasy MMO closes down for good, a player by the character name Momonga, the guild leader, decides to stay online. But he's unexpectedly awakes [[TheGameComeToLife inside a new reality of the castle of his guild's own making]], with NPC attendants now alive, in the light novel/anime ''LightNovel/{{Overlord 2012}}''.

* ''Manhwa/{{Yureka}}'' Has Lost Saga and mentions of two "earlier" games.

* It has a MMORPG called [[VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft World of War]][[VideoGame/EverQuest quest]]. It's a very-thinly disguised ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', which author [[JustForFun/OneOfUs Bill Amend plays]]. For example, one series of strips revolved around Jason's efforts to get the "Kingsquisher" title; in World of Warcraft, you earn the title "Kingslayer" by killing the Lich King (the Expansion 2 BigBad).
** One Foxtrot comic featured a rare and powerful ''World of Warquest'' weapon named "Doomulus Prime." An actual quest reward mace named Doomulus Prime was later [[{{Defictionalization}} added to the real]] World of Warcraft game.
* ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'' has "World of Hackcraft", the MMORPG spin off of the "Hackmaster" TableTopRPG.

* In ''Videogame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'', [[spoiler:the plot twist is the universe is an MMORPG for higher dimensional beings]].

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* ''VideoGame/ToontownOnline'' (Defunct as of September 2013, but has some private servers such as ''Toontown Rewritten.'')

* ''Literature/ReadyPlayerOne'' has ''OASIS'', which is a cross between this trope and CyberSpace (partly because logging in involves using VR goggles and haptic gloves). Given that the novel takes place in a PostPeakOil CrapsackWorld, a great number of people across the world tend to spend much of their time in ''OASIS''. In fact, there are schools and universities in ''OASIS'', which are at least as good as those in reality.

* ''Videogame/GenshinImpact''