Vivek’s Blog

Today, The Times of India called well-known games such as Need for Speed, Half Life, and Max Payne MMORPGs or Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. Granted that people outside the gaming community won’t know an FPS from an MMORPG, but the article smacks of shoddy research. As a longtime gamer myself, I found this piece of writing to be ridiculous:

The games that Mayank plays include Max Payne, Thrones of Chaos, Need For Speed and Half Life. Most of these are Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs), which typically require at least six players.

Since when are games needing six players MMORPGs? You want an MMORPG? Look at World of Warcraft. Look at EverQuest 2. Look at The Lord of the Rings Online. A simple Google search of the term “MMORPG” throws up close to 31 million results with the Wikipedia entry prominent on the first page of results. From Wikipedia then:

Massive(ly) multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a genre of online role-playing video games (RPGs) in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world.

As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a fictional character (most commonly in a fantasy setting) and take control over many of that character’s actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player RPGs by the number of players, and by the game’s persistent world, usually hosted by the game’s publisher, which continues to exist and evolve while the player is away from the game.

Since you’re too lazy to do your research on the games you quote, let me help you. Need for Speed is a racing game. Max Payne is a Third Person Shooter. Half Life is a First Person Shooter.

So the next time you want to do an article on gaming, please do your research Times of India. All it takes is one simple Google search. Or a Wikipedia search for that matter. Don’t mislead your readers.

Times of India Story

A more fun-to-read response to the story.