[MUD-Dev2] Bad Terminology: MMO, MMORPG vs. MUD

[Mike Sellers]

Michael Hartman wrote: 
> The extremely cumbersome nature of MMORPG is what bugs me. I 
> have no idea how that horrid term came to be, and whoever 
> invented it needs to be throw in the same pit as the doofus 
> that invented bind on pickup crafted items (stupid).

I'm one of those doofuses.  The MMOFRPG acronym came out in all its glory
during some meetings I was in at 3DO in 1996; I don't recall who exactly
suggested this and can't pin the blame on anyone specifically.  We were
looking for what to call this new kind of game.  Other suggestions included
"graphical MUD" and even "large-n" game (referring to the number of
players).  

None of the alternatives were or are good ones.  The reason we still have
the old bad ones is because no one has come up with a better one that
sticks.

Forget MUD and its derivatives, btw.  MUD retains its connotative ties to
text games, and besides, no one in the commercial world wants to name a
genre after *mud*.  Even an unpronounceable acronym is better than that.  

> Someone influential needs to coin a better term and spare us 
> from this garbage MMORPG term. The term itself is 
> unpronounceable, and the words it stands for are a gobbled 
> mess as well.

Yep, I agree.  But it's been more than ten years, so don't hold your breath.
Others that have been tried include "PSWs" (persistent state worlds), online
games (too general) and virtual worlds (taken over by "non-game" social
worlds).  MMOG is the de facto term of use -- at least until someone comes
up with something a whole lot better.  

> People have been shortening it to MMO lately so it is easier 
> to say, but think about how ridiculous that is when you 
> actually extrapolate MMO:
> 
> "Our company is working on an MMO."
> 
> "Our company is working on a Massively Multiplayer Online."
> 
> That's just terrible.

Shrug.  I usualy see this with the 'G' attached.  And anyway, this is no
worse than the big signs I see saying things like "ATM Machine" or
references in government documents to your "PIN Number."  If you're looking
for logic, reason, consistency, and terms that always make sense, well,
you're in the wrong species.


Mike Sellers