MMORPGs
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games, or MMORPGs, emerged in the mid to late 1990s as a commercial, graphical variant of text-based MUDs, which had existed since 1978. By and large, MMORPGs feature the usual RPG objectives of completing quests and strengthening one's player character, but involve up to hundreds of players interacting with each other on the same persistent world in real-time. The massively multiplayer concept was quickly combined with other genres. Fantasy MMORPGs like The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, remain the most popular type of MMOG, with the most popular "pay-to-play" game being World of Warcraft (by Blizzard), which holds over 60% of the MMORPG market, and the most popular free game being RuneScape (by Jagex), yet other types of MMORPG are appearing. Sci-fi MMORPGs, which began with Phantasy Star Online, hold a smaller part of the MMOG market, with the popular space sci-fi game EVE Online being the most notable. Other massively multiplayer online games which do not have a conventional RPG setting such as Second Life may still sometimes be classed as RPGs, or they may be more accurately described as MMOG's (discussed elsewhere in this article).
Read more about this topic: Card Game Video Games, Role-playing