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63-485: Mafia Wars is a defunct freemium multiplayer social network game created by Zynga . Players assume the roles of gangsters while building their own Mafia-type organization . The players fight and "rob" other players online - completing jobs, missions, and operations to gain rewards and strength in an endless game. Mafia Wars won the 2009 Webby Award People's Voice Winner in the Games category. A sequel, Mafia Wars 2 ,

126-480: A Google Chrome app. On Facebook, Mafia Wars had up to 45.5 million monthly accounts created. Mafia Wars was renamed Mafia Wars Classic in 2011. Mafia Wars Classic was shut down in 2012. Mafia Wars Shakedown was launched as a stand-alone game, unconnected from the Facebook game, on November 15, 2011. This was an iOS exclusive. Mafia Wars Shakedown was shut down on December 30, 2012, and removed from

189-444: A shared universe . Others have copies of their starting game world put on different servers, called "shards", for a sharded universe. Shards got their name from Ultima Online , where in the story, the shards of Mondain's gem created the duplicate worlds. Still, others will only use one part of the universe at any time. For example, Tribes (which is not an MMOG) comes with a number of large maps, which are played in rotation (one at

252-515: A "tick" schedule usually daily. All orders are processed, and battles resolved, at the same time during the tick. Similarly, in Darkwind: War on Wheels , vehicle driving and combat orders are submitted simultaneously by all players and a "tick" occurs typically once per 30 seconds. This allows each player to accurately control multiple vehicles and pedestrians in racing or combat. Some MMOGs have been designed to accurately simulate certain aspects of

315-465: A 58% share of the subscription MMOG market in 2009. The title has generated over $ 2.2 billion in cumulative consumer spending on subscriptions from 2005 through 2009. Within a majority of the MMOGs created, there is virtual currency where the player can earn and accumulate money. The uses for such virtual currency are numerous and vary from game to game. The virtual economies created within MMOGs often blur

378-458: A formula that took into account the respective player's fighting skill, the number and quality of five kinds of weapons (weapons, armoury, vehicles, animals and henchmen), and a randomizing factor. When a player won an attack, they did damage to the victim's Health and suffered a loss of Health to their character. Mafia Wars was released as an iOS app on April 8, 2009. Mafia Wars was available on Facebook , MySpace , Bebo , Yahoo! , and as

441-419: A leading casual game developer and publisher. In May 2012, Trip Hawkins stepped down as CEO to move to a "consulting and advisory relationship" with the company. The company also announced plans to lay off 180 employees. Galaxy Life is its most successful title on Facebook to date, ranking at 284th bucket of MAU (Monthly Active Users) as of September 13, 2013. In 2013, Digital Chocolate's Barcelona studio

504-492: A player's inability to aim and think tactically. Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy games, also known as "MMORTS", combine real-time strategy (RTS) with a persistent world . Players often assume the role of a general, king, or other types of figurehead leading an army into battle while maintaining the resources needed for such warfare. The titles are often based in a sci-fi or fantasy universe and are distinguished from single or small-scale multiplayer RTSes by

567-540: A popular theme, featuring games such as Mankind , Anarchy Online , Eve Online , Star Wars Galaxies and The Matrix Online . MMOGs emerged from the hard-core gamer community to the mainstream strongly in December 2003, with an analysis in the Financial Times measuring the value of the virtual property in the then-largest MMOG, EverQuest , to result in a per-capita GDP of 2,266 dollars, which would have placed

630-416: A single game world, and all of those players can interact with each other at any given time. Popular MMOGs might have hundreds of players online at any given time, usually on company-owned servers. Non-MMOGs, such as Battlefield 1942 or Half-Life , usually have fewer than 50 players online (per server) and are usually played on private servers. Also, MMOGs usually do not have any significant mods , since

693-425: A smaller time commitment than other game types. Other popular casual games include simple management games such as The Sims Online or Kung Fu Panda World . MMOPGs, or massively multiplayer online puzzle games, are based entirely on puzzle elements. They are usually set in a world where the players can access the puzzles around the world. Most games that are MMOPGs are hybrids with other genres. Castle Infinity

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756-410: A time). In contrast, the similar title PlanetSide allows all map -like areas of the game to be reached via flying, driving, or teleporting. MMORPGs usually have sharded universes, as they provide the most flexible solution to the server load problem, but not always. For example, the space simulation Eve Online uses only one large cluster server peaking at over 60,000 simultaneous players. It

819-420: A unique mixture of online and real-world play that usually does not involve a persistent world , and are not necessarily multiplayer, making them different from MMOGs. Massively multiplayer online music/rhythm games ( MMORG s), sometimes called massively multiplayer online dance games ( MMODG s), are MMOGs that are also music video games . This idea was influenced by Dance Dance Revolution . Audition Online

882-404: A working virtual economy within an MMOG is increasing as they develop. A sign of this is CCP Games hiring the first real-life economist for its MMOG Eve Online to assist and analyze the virtual economy and production within this game. The results of this interaction between the virtual economy, and our real economy, which is really the interaction between the company that created the game and

945-475: Is Linden Lab's Second Life , emphasizing socializing, worldbuilding and an in-world virtual economy that depends on the sale and purchase of user-created content. It is technically an MMOSG or Casual Multiplayer Online (CMO) by definition, though its stated goal was to realize the concept of the Metaverse from Neal Stephenson 's novel Snow Crash . Instead of being based around combat, one could say that it

1008-422: Is a title where players can compete in some of the more traditional major league sports, such as football (soccer) , basketball , baseball , hockey , golf or American football . According to GameSpot , Baseball Mogul Online was "the world's first massively multiplayer online sports game". Other titles that qualify as MMOSG have been around since the early 2000s, but only after 2010 did they start to receive

1071-463: Is another casual massively multiplayer online game and it is produced by T3 Entertainment. Just Dance 2014 has a game mode called World Dance Floor, which also structures like an MMORPG. Massively multiplayer online social games ( MMOSG s) focus on socialization instead of objective-based gameplay. There is a great deal of overlap in terminology with "online communities" and " virtual worlds ". One example that has garnered widespread media attention

1134-400: Is challenging to develop the database engines that are needed to run a successful MMOG with millions of players. Many developers have created their own, but attempts have been made to create middleware , software that would help game developers concentrate on their games more than technical aspects. One such piece of middleware is called BigWorld . An early, successful entry into the field

1197-623: Is no specific limit to where an online multiplayer online game is considered massive , there are broad features that are often used as a metric. Garriott's famed 1997 definition referred to the fundamental architecture shift required to support tens of thousands of concurrent players, which required shifting from individual servers to data centers on multiple continents. Games may have MMO features like large worlds with online persistence but still not generally be considered an MMO, such as Grand Theft Auto V ' s online play, while other games like League of Legends have small individual sessions but

1260-424: Is quite viable, especially in what is called 'player vs environment' gameplay. This may result in the player being unable to experience all content, as many of the most significant and potentially rewarding game experiences are events that require large and coordinated teams to complete. Most MMOGs also share other characteristics that make them different from other multiplayer online games. MMOGs host many players in

1323-499: Is the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), which descended from university mainframe computer MUD and adventure games such as Rogue and Dungeon on the PDP-10 . These games predate the commercial gaming industry and the Internet, but still featured persistent worlds and other elements of MMOGs still used today. The first graphical MMOG, and a major milestone in

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1386-488: Is the world's largest MMO racing game and holds the world record for "Most Players in a Single Online Race". Although Darkwind: War on Wheels is more combat-based than racing, it is also considered an MMOR. Many types of MMO games can be classified as casual , because they are designed to appeal to all computer users (as opposed to subgroup of frequent game buyers), or to fans of another game genre (such as collectible card games ). Such games are easy to learn and require

1449-459: The Apple app store . The makers of a similar online game, Mob Wars , sued Zynga over their launch of Mafia Wars , accusing Zynga of copyright infringement . Zynga made some changes to Mafia Wars so it did not resemble Mob Wars as closely, but Mob Wars creator David Maestri moved forward with his lawsuit. In September 2009, Maestri and Zynga settled the case for about $ 7–9 million — less than

1512-643: The Mafia Wars trademark. Digital Chocolate had previously created a cell-phone game by the same name. According to TGDaily , Zynga agreed to stop using the "Mafia Wars" trademark but failed to follow through until 2016. A promotional campaign for Mafia Wars occurred in San Francisco in August 2010. Davis Elen Advertising ran the campaign, which consisted of fake $ 25,000 bills glued to the sidewalk promoting "Mafia Wars: Las Vegas" . Deputy City Attorney Alex Tse called

1575-403: The personal computer , video game console , or smartphones and other mobile devices. MMOs can enable players to cooperate and compete with each other on a large scale, and sometimes to interact meaningfully with people around the world. They include a variety of gameplay types, representing many video game genres . The most popular type of MMOG, and the subgenre that pioneered the category,

1638-406: The $ 10 million that Maestri had originally demanded. Zynga filed its trademark for the stylized version of Mafia Wars with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on July 1, 2009, months after it first launched the Mafia Wars game on the internet through Facebook. The Zynga trademark application for Mafia Wars sought to cover games for computers and wireless devices. Just two weeks prior to

1701-455: The Void . Typical MUDs and other predecessor games were limited to about 64 or 256 simultaneous player connections; this was a limit imposed by the underlying operating system, which was usually Unix-like. One of the biggest problems with modern engines has been handling the vast number of players. Since a typical server can handle around 10,000–12,000 players, 4000–5000 active simultaneously, dividing

1764-599: The Zynga filing, on June 15, 2009, David L. Kelejian filed an intent-to-use trademark application for a stylized version of Mafia Wars which covered clothing and apparel. Zynga later began selling Mafia Wars branded clothing through Zazzle. By or before late November 2009, Zynga noticed Kelejian's pending trademark application for Mafia Wars and filed a trademark opposition proceeding against Kelejian's trademark on December 1, 2009. In August 2010, Digital Chocolate sued Zynga over allegations that Zynga falsely claimed it had coined

1827-541: The campaign "illegal and actionable". Davis Elen has taken full responsibility for the promotion, and agreed to pay a settlement of $ 45,000 to the city. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake , Zynga issued a special item for three of its games, including the Haitian Drum in Mafia Wars . The proceeds of the sale of these three items went to the Haiti Relief Fund, which exceeded $ 1.2 million. Zynga also released some items in

1890-520: The creation of the genre, was the multiplayer flight combat simulation game Air Warrior by Kesmai on the GEnie online service, which first appeared in 1986. Kesmai later added 3D graphics to the game, making it the first 3D MMO. Commercial MMORPGs gained acceptance in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The genre was pioneered by the GemStone series on GEnie, also created by Kesmai, and Neverwinter Nights ,

1953-417: The current version is not quite a true simulated world, it is very complex and contains a large persistent world. The MMOG genre of air traffic simulation is one example, with networks such as VATSIM and IVAO striving to provide rigorously authentic flight-simulation environments to players in both pilot and air traffic controller roles. In this category of MMOGs, the objective is to create duplicates of

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2016-500: The development of their virtual economy, as they most likely have a higher priority to the games viability via adequate funding. Games with an enormous player base, and consequently much higher sales and subscription income, can take more drastic actions more often and in much larger volumes. This account banning could also serve as an economic gain for these large games, since it is highly likely that, due to demand, these 'gold farming' accounts will be recreated with freshly bought copies of

2079-484: The endorsements of some of the official major league associations and players. MMOR means massively multiplayer online racing . Currently there are only a small number of racing-based MMOGs, including iRacing , Kart Rider , Test Drive Unlimited , Project Torque , Drift City and Race or Die . Other notable MMORs included Upshift Strikeracer , Motor City Online and Need for Speed: World , all of which have since shut down. The Trackmania series

2142-470: The first such game to include graphics, which debuted on AOL in 1991. As video game developers applied MMOG ideas to other computer and video game genres , new acronyms started to develop, such as MMORTS . MMOG emerged as a generic term to cover this growing class of games. The debuts of The Realm Online , Meridian 59 (the first 3D MMORPG), Castle Infinity (the first kid-focused MMORPG), Ultima Online , Underlight and EverQuest in

2205-437: The game into several servers has up until now been the solution. This approach has also helped with technical issues, such as lag , that many players experience. Another difficulty, especially relevant to real-time simulation games, is time synchronization across hundreds or thousands of players. Many games rely on time synchronization to drive their physics simulation as well as their scoring and damage detection. Although there

2268-559: The game must work on company servers. There is some debate if a high head-count is a requirement to be an MMOG. Some say that it is the size of the game world and its capability to support many players that should matter. For example, despite technology and content constraints, most MMOGs can fit up to a few thousand players on a single game server at a time. To support all those players, MMOGs need large-scale game worlds, and servers to connect players to those worlds. Some games have all of their servers connected so all players are connected in

2331-742: The game was cancelled and the game was discontinued. Mafia Wars is set with a choice of playing in New York City or Chicago with the option for players to travel to other locations, such as London, South Africa, and Mexico. Other locations were formerly available. The game revolved around fighting and robbing other players, doing jobs, missions, and operations to earn cash, building parts, weapons, attack and defence fighting skills, and experience, to establish and advance one's criminal empire. Players created mafias by recruiting other players or winning or buying artificial members (Hired Guns). Other players could be added to one's mafia through Facebook. Gameplay

2394-496: The game. MMOFPS is an online gaming genre which features many simultaneous players in a first-person shooter fashion. These games provide large-scale, sometimes team-based combat. The addition of persistence in the game world means that these games add elements typically found in RPGs, such as experience points . However, MMOFPS games emphasize player skill more than player statistics, as no number of in-game bonuses will compensate for

2457-423: The game. The practice of acquiring large volumes of virtual currency for the purpose of selling to other individuals for tangible and real currency is called gold farming . Many players who have poured in all of their personal effort resent that there is this exchange between real and virtual economies since it devalues their own efforts. As a result, the term 'gold farmer' now has a very negative connotation within

2520-536: The game. The virtual goods revenue from online games and social networking exceeded US$ 7 billion in 2010. In 2011, it was estimated that up to 100,000 people in China and Vietnam are playing online games to gather gold and other items for sale to Western players. While this 'gold farming' is considered to ruin the game for actual players, many rely on 'gold farming' as their main source of income. However, single player in MMOs

2583-453: The games and their communities. This slander has unfortunately also extended itself to racial profiling and to in-game and forum insulting. The reaction from many of the game companies varies. In games that are substantially less popular and have a small player base, the enforcement of the elimination of 'gold farming' appears less often. Companies in this situation most likely are concerned with their personal sales and subscription revenue over

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2646-670: The global infrastructure requirements often allow for classification as an MMO. The term is often used differently by players who tend to refer to their play experience versus game developers who refer to the engineering experience. MMO game developers tend to require tremendous investments in developing and maintaining servers around the globe, network bandwidth infrastructure often on the order of terabytes per second, and large engineering problems relating to managing data spread between multiple computer clusters. There are several types of massively multiplayer online games. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games , known as MMORPG s, are

2709-723: 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 2000 a multitude of MMORPGs was 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 not as common in action-based MMOGs. The popularity of MMOGs

2772-439: The lines between real and virtual worlds. The result is often seen as an unwanted interaction between the real and virtual economies by the players and the provider of the virtual world. This practice ( economy interaction ) is mostly seen in this genre of games. The two seem to come hand in hand with even the earliest MMOGs, such as Ultima Online having this kind of trade: real money for virtual things. The importance of having

2835-422: The marketplace after Hurricane Irene . Massively multiplayer online game A massively multiplayer online game ( MMOG or more commonly MMO ) is an online video game with a large number of players to interact in the same online game world. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world , although there are games that differ. These games can be found for most network-capable platforms, including

2898-528: The mobile phone market. The first, Samurai Romanesque set in feudal Japan , was released in 2001 on NTT DoCoMo 's iMode network in Japan. More recent developments are CipSoft 's TibiaME and Biting Bit's MicroMonster , which features online and bluetooth multiplayer gaming. SmartCell Technology is in development of Shadow of Legend , which will allow gamers to continue their game on their mobile device when away from their PC. Science fiction has also been

2961-578: The most common type of MMOG. Some MMORPGs are designed as a multiplayer browser game in order to reduce infrastructure costs and utilise a thin client that most users will already have installed. The acronym BBMMORPGs has sometimes been used to describe these as "browser-based". Many games are categorized as MMOBBGs, , Massively Multiplayer Online Bulletin Board Games, also called MMOBBRPGs. These particular types of games are primarily made up of text and descriptions, although images are often used to enhance

3024-437: The number of players and common use of a persistent world, generally hosted by the game's publisher, which continues to evolve even when the player is offline. Steve Jackson Games' UltraCorps is an example of an MMO turn-based strategy game. Hundreds of players share the same playing field of conquest. In a "mega" game, each turn fleets are built and launched to expand one's personal empire. Turns are usually time-based, with

3087-554: The real world for people who cannot or do not wish to undertake those experiences in real life. For example, flight simulation via an MMOG requires far less expenditure of time and money, is completely risk-free, and is far less restrictive (fewer regulations to adhere to, no medical exams to pass, and so on). Another specialist area is the mobile telecoms operator (carrier) business where billion-dollar investments in networks are needed but market shares are won and lost on issues from segmentation to handset subsidies. A specialist simulation

3150-564: The real world. They tend to be very specific to industries or activities of very large risk and huge potential loss, such as rocket science, airplanes, trucks, battle tanks, submarines etc. Gradually as simulation technology is getting more mainstream, so too various simulators arrive into more mundane industries. The initial goal of World War II Online was to create a map (in northwestern Europe) that had real-world physics (gravity, air/water resistance, etc.), and ability for players to have some strategic abilities to its basic FPS/RPG role. While

3213-598: The simulation, any one team can win. Also to ensure maximum intensity, only one team can win. Telecoms senior executives who have taken the Equilibrium/Arbitrage simulation say it is the most intense, and most useful training they have ever experienced. It is typical of business use of simulators, in very senior management training/retraining. Examples of MMO simulation games include World of Tanks , War Thunder , Motor City Online , The Sims Online , and Jumpgate . A massively multiplayer online sports game

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3276-448: The third-party companies and their customers defend, is that they are selling and exchanging the time and effort put into the acquisition of the currency, not the digital information itself. They also express that the nature of many MMOGs is that they require time commitments not available to everyone. As a result, without external acquisition of virtual currency, some players are severely limited to being able to experience certain aspects of

3339-416: The third-party companies that want a share of the profits and success of the game. This battle between companies is defended on both sides. The company originating the game and the intellectual property argue that this is in violation of the terms and agreements of the game as well as copyright violation since they own the rights to how the online currency is distributed and through what channels . The case that

3402-534: 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 one million after the expansion Wrath of the Lich King , bringing it to nine million subscribers in 2010, though it remained the most popular Western title among MMOGs. In 2008, Western consumer spending on World of Warcraft represented

3465-813: Was VR-1 Entertainment, whose Conductor platform was adopted and endorsed by a variety of service providers around the world including Sony Communications Network in Japan; the Bertelsmann Game Channel in Germany; British Telecom's Wireplay in England; and DACOM and Samsung SDS in South Korea. Games that were powered by the Conductor platform included Fighter Wing , Air Attack , Fighter Ace , Evernight , Hasbro Em@ail Games ( Clue , NASCAR and Soccer ), Towers of Fallow , The SARAC Project , VR1 Crossroads and Rumble in

3528-550: Was based around the creation of virtual objects, including models and scripts. In practice, it has more in common with Club Caribe than EverQuest . It was the first MMO of its kind to achieve widespread success (including attention from mainstream media); however, it was not the first (as Club Caribe was released in 1988). Competitors in this subgenre (non-combat-based MMORPG) include Active Worlds , There , SmallWorlds , Furcadia , Whirled , IMVU and Red Light Center . Digital Chocolate The developer

3591-522: Was developed by Nokia called Equilibrium/Arbitrage to have over a two-day period five teams of top management of one operator/carrier play a "wargame" against each other, under extremely realistic conditions, with one operator an incumbent fixed and mobile network operator, another a new entrant mobile operator, a third a fixed-line/internet operator, etc. Each team is measured by outperforming their rivals by market expectations of that type of player. Thus, each player has drastically different goals, but within

3654-502: Was limited by three measurements: Energy, used for completing jobs, as well as Stamina and Health, which were used for fighting or robbing other players. The first two meters slowly recharged over time or filled up when experience was gained from levelling up. Fighting other players sometimes resulted in the theft of cash, the "killing" of the player attacked, or random gifts of loot (weapons, building parts, or consumable job supplies). Outcomes of an attack or attempt to rob were calculated by

3717-600: Was mostly restricted to the computer game market until the sixth-generation consoles , with the launch of Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast , as well as the emergence and growth of the online service Xbox Live . There have been a number of console MMOGs, including EverQuest Online Adventures ( PlayStation 2 ), and the multi-console Final Fantasy XI . On PCs, the MMOG market has always been dominated by successful fantasy MMORPGs. MMOGs have only recently begun to break into

3780-511: Was officially closed in 2014. It has sold its games to RockYou , and its website was shut down. Digital Chocolate was founded in 2003 by Hawkins after the failure of The 3DO Company. It had operations in San Mateo, Seattle, St. Petersburg, Bangalore, Helsinki, and Mexicali. In 2004, Digital Chocolate acquired European developer Sumea, which then became its Helsinki studio. On August 15, 2011, Digital Chocolate agreed to acquire Sandlot Games ,

3843-548: Was released in October 2011 and was shut down on December 30, 2012. On April 5, 2016, it was announced via Zynga's forums that Mafia Wars would close down on June 6, 2016. Players were informed of this via an in-game message. The game was taken offline shortly past midnight PDT on June 7, 2016. The game was relaunched on mobile in April 2017 for selected markets, featuring revamped mechanics. In July 2017, Zynga announced that all future work on

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3906-636: Was sold to Ubisoft with the Galaxy Life IP and the Helsinki studio was closed. In April 2014, Digital Chocolate's four remaining Facebook games — Army Attack , Crazy Penguin Wars , Millionaire City , and Zombie Lane — were licensed to RockYou , along with the hiring of its developers to continue work on the games. In 2009, the company's game Brick Breaker Revolution won an IGN award for Best Artistic Design. Mobile Entertainment named

3969-488: Was the first MMOG developed for children. Its gameplay falls somewhere between puzzle and adventure . There are also massively multiplayer collectible card games: Alteil , Astral Masters and Astral Tournament . Other MMOCCGs might exist ( Neopets has some CCG elements) but are not as well known. Alternate reality games (ARGs) can be massively multiplayer, allowing thousands of players worldwide to co-operate in puzzle trials and mystery solving. ARGs take place in

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