"of 11.4 million by the end of March 2011. In early November 2011, subscriptions declined even further to 10.3 million users. In 2012, the subscription numbers stabilized at around 10.2 million users, holding steady for two consecutive quarters. On August 2, 2012 it was revealed that subscription numbers had continued to decline, landing at an approximate 9.1 million subscribers. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is the third expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) ""World of Warcraft"", following """". It was officially announced at BlizzCon on August 21, 2009, although dataminers and researchers discovered"
"released game set in the fantasy ""Warcraft"" universe, which was first introduced by """" in 1994. Blizzard announced ""World of Warcraft"" on September 2, 2001. The game was released on November 23, 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the ""Warcraft"" franchise. Having peaked at 12 million monthly subscriptions in 2010, ""World of Warcraft"" subscriptions sunk to 6.8 million in 2014, the lowest number since the end of 2006, prior to """" expansion. However, ""World of Warcraft"" is still the world's most-subscribed MMORPG, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers. In April 2008, ""World of"
"claimed in excess of 25 million subscribers of the game, although this number is based upon a quantity of registered users (rather than active subscribers). 2002 also saw the release of ""MapleStory"", another sprite-based title, which was completely free-to-play - instead of charging a monthly fee, it generated revenue by selling in-game ""enhancements"". ""MapleStory"" would go on to become a major player in the new market for free-to-play MMORPGs (generating huge numbers of registered accounts across its many versions), if it did not introduce the market by itself. In October 2003, ""Lineage II"" (NCsoft's sequel to ""Lineage"") became the latest"
"most played games in North America, and the most subscribed to MMORPG worldwide, with a total of over 7 million subscriptions in the middle of 2013. The closest MMORPG to ""World of Warcraft"" is, in terms of paying subscribers, ""RuneScape"" with more than one million subscribers and even more free players. ""RuneScape"" is also the world's largest free MMORPG, though it receives less media attention than ""WoW"". With the release of these newer games, subscriptions began to decline for many older MMORPGs, even the year-old ""Lineage II"", and in particular ""Everquest"". The current MMORPG market has ""World of Warcraft"" in"
"although this number is based upon a quantity of registered users (rather than active subscribers). 2002 also saw the release of ""MapleStory"", another sprite-based title, which was completely free-to-play—instead of charging a monthly fee, it generated revenue by selling in-game ""enhancements"". ""MapleStory"" would go on to become a major player in the new market for free-to-play MMORPGs (generating huge numbers of registered accounts across its many versions), if it did not introduce the market by itself. In October 2003, ""Lineage II"" (NCsoft's sequel to ""Lineage"") became the latest MMORPG to achieve huge success across Asia. It received the Presidential Award"
"in July 2003, but then began a steady decline. In 2008 the game had around 100,000 subscribers. As of April 2008, ""Ultima Online"" held a market share below 0.6% of the massively multiplayer online game subscriptions. This may in part be attributed to the 2004 release of World of Warcraft, which quickly established hegemony over the MMORPG market and has attracted scores of players from all preexisting games in the genre. Expansion number seven, """", launched in August 2005. It featured the second player race, Elves. The quest system received a major upgrade, as did the crafting system. Spellweaving was"
"MUDs, which would soon become known as massively multiplayer online role-playing games or MMORPGs, beginning with games like ""Meridian 59"" (1995), """" (1996), ""Ultima Online"" (1997), ""Lineage"" (1998), and ""EverQuest"" (1999), and leading to modern phenomena such as ""RuneScape"" (2001), ""Final Fantasy XI"" (2003), ""Eve Online"" (2003) and ""World of Warcraft"" (2004). Although superficially similar to single-player RPGs, MMORPGs lend their appeal more to the socializing influences of being online with hundreds or even thousands of other players at a time, and trace their origins more from MUDs than from CRPGs like ""Ultima"" and ""Wizardry"". Rather than focusing on the"
"consoles and in new settings. As of 2008, the market for MMORPGs has Blizzard Entertainment's ""World of Warcraft"" dominating as the largest MMORPG, alongside other titles such as ""Final Fantasy XIV"" and ""Guild Wars 2"", though an additional market exists for free-to-play MMORPGs, which are supported by advertising and purchases of in-game items. This free-to-play model is particularly common in South Korea such as ""MapleStory"", """", and ""Atlantica Online"". Also, there are some free-to-play games, such as ""RuneScape"" and ""Tibia"", where the game is free, but one would have to pay monthly to play the game with more features. ""Guild"
"million subscribers. Song's next game, ""Lineage"" (1998), enjoyed even greater success gaining millions of subscribers in Korea and Taiwan. This helped to secure developer NCsoft's dominance in the global MMORPG market for several years. NCSoft has released ""Lineage 2"", ""City of Heroes"", ""Guild Wars"", ""Exteel"", and """". Recently, titles such as ""Blade & Soul"" and ""Guild Wars 2"" were released between late 2011 to early 2012. ""EverQuest"", launched in March 1999 by Verant Interactive (a development venture inside Sony it was always closely aligned with the operating entity that became Sony Online Entertainment), surpassed Ultima Online in player count and"
"game of 2004, with its editors declaring it an improvement ""upon not only its own predecessor, but just about every predecessor out there"". After adopting a free-to-play model in 2011, the title was named ""Best Bang for the Buck"" in Massively's annual awards that same year. ""EverQuest II"" reached 100,000 active accounts within 24 hours of release, which grew to over 300,000 two months later in January 2005. As of 2012, the game had an estimated subscriber peak of 325,000 achieved sometime in 2005. EverQuest II EverQuest II is a 3D fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) originally developed"
"in November 2004 with Sony Online Entertainment's ""EverQuest II"" and Blizzard Entertainment's ""World of Warcraft"" (""WoW""). At the time, Sony expected to dominate the market, based on the success of the first ""EverQuest"", and decided to offer a flat monthly rate to play all of their MMORPGs including ""EverQuest"", ""EverQuest II"", and ""Star Wars Galaxies"", to keep from competing with itself. While ""EverQuest II"" was a commercial success as predicted, ""World of Warcraft"" immediately overtook all of these games upon release, and indeed became so popular that it dwarfed all previous monthly-fee MMORPGs. At present, ""WoW"" is one of the"
"lifted, opening the Internet up for game developers, which allowed for the first truly ""massively""-scoped titles. Finally, MMORPGs as defined today began with ""Meridian 59"" in 1996, innovative both in its scope and in offering first-person 3D graphics, with ""The Realm Online"" appearing nearly simultaneously. ""Ultima Online"", released in 1997, is often credited with first popularizing the genre, though more mainstream attention was garnered by 1999's ""EverQuest"" and ""Asheron's Call"" in the West and 1996's """" in South Korea. The financial success of these early titles has ensured competition in the genre since that time. MMORPG titles now exist on"
"online role-playing game (MMORPG) market, and is the second ""Star Wars"" MMORPG after ""Star Wars Galaxies"", which was shut down in December 2011. The development saw the entirety of BioWare Austin working on the game. BioWare had long been interested in working on a MMORPG, but waited until they had ""the right partners, the right team, and the right I.P."" A major focus in the game is on developing characters' individual stories and, in October 2008, BioWare considered this game to have more story content than all of their other games combined. The writing team worked on the project longer"
"experience the game world through the eyes of their characters. A cult following quickly grew for ""Meridian 59"" that still exists today. ""Tibia"", launched by CipSoft in January 1997. It is one of the oldest MMORPGs and was considered most noteworthy in its early years; however, with the development of MMORPGs, its popularity has grown much slower than other MMORPGs. It was first released in January 1997.[1] It is a free game which is open to the public, though players have the option to pay a fee in order to upgrade to a premium account, granting special in-game benefits, including"
"3D MMORPG), ""Ultima Online"", ""Underlight"" and ""EverQuest"" in the late 1990s popularized the MMORPG genre. The growth in technology meant that where Neverwinter Nights in 1991 had been limited to 50 simultaneous players (a number that grew to 500 by 1995), by the year 2000 a multitude of MMORPGs were each serving thousands of simultaneous players and led the way for games such as World of Warcraft and ""EVE Online"". Despite the genre's focus on multiplayer gaming, AI-controlled characters are still common. NPCs and mobs who give out quests or serve as opponents are typical in MMORPGs. AI-controlled characters are"
"MMORPGs, originating in the mid-to-late 1990s, become a popular PC trend and virtual online worlds become a reality as games such as ""RuneScape"" (2001), ""Final Fantasy XI"" (2002), ""Eve Online"" (2003), """" (2003), ""World of Warcraft"" (2004), and ""Everquest II"" (2004), """" (2007) and """" (2008) are released. These worlds come complete with their own economies and social organization as directed by the players as a whole. The persistent online worlds allow the games to remain popular for many years. ""World of Warcraft"", premiered in 2004, remains one of the most popular games in PC gaming and is still being"
"saw the release of ""MapleStory"", another sprite-based title, which was completely free-to-play - instead of charging a monthly fee, it generated revenue by selling in-game ""enhancements"". ""MapleStory"" would go on to become a major player in the new market for free-to-play MMORPGs (generating huge numbers of registered accounts across its many versions), if it did not introduce the market by itself. In September 2002, ""Earth & Beyond"" was released. Having been in development since 1997, this was the second 3D sci-fi space-ship based MMORPG. ""Earth and Beyond"" only lasted two years before being shut down by developer Westwood Studios' owners,"
"under the name La 4ème Prophétie and contributed to spread the MMORPG culture in Europe as one of the first graphical MMORPG. It became very popular through the website GOA until its close in 2001. This MMORPG featured a unique communication system. The game has lost its popularity, however it is still a subject of nostalgia for its old players and some servers continue to host players. A lesser known MMORPG was launched, on the Mplayer network, in March 1998 called ""Underlight"" by Lyra Studios LLC. The game featured live action FPS combat in a 3D environment, an advancement system"
"approximately 250,000 subscribers. In February 2004, Origin Systems shut down. ""Ultima Online"" no longer had a named studio managing it. Development headquarters moved from Austin to Fairfax, Virginia. The sixth expansion, """", launched in November 2004 was Japanese-themed. It offered two new professions, the Ninja and the Samurai, as well as new Japanese-themed housing tile sets. New lands, the Tokuno Islands, were added, with the cities being styled after ancient Japanese cities. ""Ultima Online"" was the first MMORPG to reach the 100,000 subscriber base, far exceeding that of any game that went before it. Subscriber numbers peaked at around 250,000"
"they continually change with these updates. The idea of Games as a Service began around 2004 with the introduction of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) like ""World of Warcraft"", where the game's subscription model approach assured continued revenues to the developer and publisher to create new content. Over time, new forms of offering continued GaaS revenues have come about. A significant impact on the use of GaaS was the expansion of mobile gaming which often include a social element, such as playing or competing with friends, and with players wanting to buy into GaaS to continue to play with friends."
"(for the time) of visual character customization options. It, too, is still running. """", whose beta was released to Korean audiences in 1996 was one of the first MMORPGs. It is still an active game today with over 1000 subscribers. ""Meridian 59"", launched by 3DO in late 1996, was one of the first Internet MMORPGs. It was one of the first Internet games from a major publisher, one of the first to be covered in the major game magazines and the first MMPOG to introduce the flat monthly subscription fee. Perhaps most significantly, was its 3D engine, allowing players to"
"EverQuest II EverQuest II is a 3D fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) originally developed and published by Sony Online Entertainment for Microsoft Windows and released in November 2004. It is the sequel to the original ""EverQuest"" released five years earlier, and features updated graphics and more streamlined gameplay compared to the previous entry, as well as an abundance of voice acting with contributions from actors such as Christopher Lee and Heather Graham. In February 2015, Sony Online Entertainment's parent corporation Sony Computer Entertainment sold SOE to investment company Inception Acquisitions, where it continues to develop and publish the"
"generates a persistent instance of the virtual world that runs continuously, and players connect to it via a client software. The client software may provide access to the entire playing world, or further 'expansions' may be required to be purchased to allow access to certain areas of the game. ""EverQuest"" and ""Guild Wars"" are two examples of games that use such a format. Players generally must purchase the client software for a one-time fee, although an increasing trend is for MMORPGs to work using pre-existing ""thin"" clients, such as a web browser. Some MMORPGs require payment or a monthly subscription"
"GemStone IV GemStone IV is a multiplayer text-based online role-playing video game (often known as a MUD) produced by Simutronics. Players control characters in a High Fantasy game world named ""Elanthia"". The first playable version of the game was known as ""GemStone ]["" and was launched in April 1988 on GEnie. It was one of the first MMORPGs and is one of the longest running online games still active. Access to the game is subscription-based (monthly fee) through its website, with three additional subscriptions levels available, ""Premium,"" ""Platinum,"" and ""Shattered"", in addition to a free-to-play model introduced in early March,"
"expansions would be less ambitious in scope than the original four, but on the other hand the production rate increased to two expansions a year instead of one. This year the franchise also ventured into the console market with ""EverQuest Online Adventures"", released for Sony's internet-capable PlayStation 2. It was the second MMORPG for this console, after ""Final Fantasy XI"". Story-wise it was a prequel, with the events taking place 500 years before the original ""EverQuest"". Other spin-off projects were the PC strategy game ""Lords of EverQuest"" (2003) and the co-op ""Champions of Norrath"" (2004) for the PlayStation 2. After"
"and """". With a total of over a hundred million registered accounts by 2016, ""World of Warcraft"" is the world's most popular MMORPG by player count. By 2017, the game had grossed over in revenue, making it one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time. At BlizzCon 2017, a ""classic"" version of the game was announced, which is planned to provide a way to experience the base game before any of its expansions launched. Blizzard announced at BlizzCon 2018 that ""WoW Classic"" will be released in the summer of 2019, and will be included with the standard subscription."
"at the 2003 Korean Game awards, and is now the second most popular MMORPG in the world. As of the first half of 2005 ""Lineage II"" counted over 2.25 million subscribers worldwide, with servers in Japan, China, North America, Taiwan, and Europe, once the popularity of the game had surged in the West. To date, the ""Lineage"" franchise has attracted 43 million players. ""Heroes of Jin Yong"" (1996), a Taiwanese tactical role-playing game based on the popular historical novels by Jin Yong, featured a number of melee and ranged kung fu skills to train and develop, as well as a"
"World of Warcraft World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the ""Warcraft"" fantasy universe. ""World of Warcraft"" takes place within the ""Warcraft"" world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous ""Warcraft"" release, ""."" The game was announced in 2001, and was released for the 10th anniversary of the ""Warcraft"" franchise on November 23, 2004. Since launch, ""World of Warcraft"" has had seven major expansion packs released for it: """", """", """", """", """", """","
"MMORPG on the console. All versions of the game used PlayOnline, a cross-platform internet gaming platform and internet service developed by Square Enix. The platform was used as the online service for many games Square Enix developed and published throughout the decade. Due to the success of their MMORPG, Square Enix began a new project called """". GamePot, a Japanese game portal, got the license to publish ""Fantasy Earth"" in Japan and it was released in Japan as ""Fantasy Earth ZERO."" In 2006, however, Square Enix dropped the ""Fantasy Earth Zero"" project, and sold it to GamePot. Square Enix released"
"in the then-largest MMOG, EverQuest, to result in a per-capita GDP of 2,266 dollars which would have placed the virtual world of EverQuest as the 77th wealthiest nation, on par with Croatia, Ecuador, Tunisia or Vietnam. ""World of Warcraft"" is a dominant MMOG with 8-9 million monthly subscribers worldwide. The subscriber base dropped by 1 million after the expansion , bringing it to 9 million subscribers in 2010, though it remained the most popular Western title among MMOGs. In 2008, Western consumer spending on ""World of Warcraft"" represented a 58% share of the subscription MMOG market in 2009. The title"
"and was an upgraded version of the original Dransik game, which utilized an older graphics engine. The game was first launched through an open, free beta in September, 2002, by its original publisher, Asylumsoft Inc.. After the beta-testing stage was complete, the game started following a pay-to-play model on March 10, 2003. At that time, a monthly subscription fee was required to play (a business model seen in many MMORPG's, including World of Warcraft and EverQuest). Iron Will Games later decided to allow users to play for free, but with a limited experience. Until early 2008, players could only receive"
"Star Trek Online Star Trek Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Cryptic Studios based on the ""Star Trek"" franchise. The game is set in the 25th century, 30 years after the events of """". ""Star Trek Online"" is the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game within the ""Star Trek"" franchise and was released for Microsoft Windows in February 2010. At launch, the game required a game purchase and a recurring monthly fee. In January 2012, it relaunched with a tier of free-to-play access available. After a public beta testing period, a version of the game"
"also saw the appearance of ""Second Life"". While not primarily a role playing game, it is clearly multiplayer and online, and it is used as a platform where people construct role playing games based on Gor, ""Star Trek"", vampires, and other genres. In April 2004, NCSoft produced another significant title, ""City of Heroes"". It introduced several major innovations in gameplay and also featured an extreme number of possible visual character appearances, and its comic-book superhero theme made it stand out. The most recent generation of MMORPGs, based on arbitrary standards of graphics, gameplay, and popularity, is said to have launched"