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So You Want To Write Your Own MMORPG

Posted by Hemos on from the grats dept.

Jari Komppa writes "After getting tired of tons of newbies starting MMORPG projects as their first programming project and calling for help on flipcode message boards, I decided to write a little rant in attempt to give these people some idea of the magnitude of the project they're starting. There seems to be hundreds of these projects out there.."

4 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. What's the point? by codexus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why complain about these harmless newbies. They'll learn from their mistakes and start more reasonable projects later. One has to make his own experiences. When I was younger, I too started huge projects of this kind. Now I know it's not as easy as it seems.

    --
    True warriors use the Klingon Google
    1. Re:What's the point? by Rentar · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Wow, a non-trolling first post ... I thought of doing such a thing myself ;-)

      I basically agree, but:

      • There might be newbies who actually had those thoughts in the back of their head, but need to see it black on white to really realize this. For them this is a good rant. They will probably join another MMORPG.
      • Those newbies who are quite serious about starting such a huge project will do it, wether they read this rant or not. They will learn it the hard way (which I don't think is all to bad, as long as the hard way doesn't include any lethal or damaging situations.)
      • Most rants primarily help the ranter. I'm sure the author feels better now, that he brought his thoughs to paper (well ...).
  2. Stupid Newbies by alphaseven · · Score: 3, Funny

    They're always going to be newbies trying to get in way over their heads. Here's a post from ten years ago from some joker who's trying to program his own operating system. Now instead of operating systems newbies trying to do MMORPGs. Just ignore them and let them give up on their own.

  3. Guilty! by rufusdufus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I am a very experienced programmer; after retiring I decided to try my hand at a massively multiplayer game system. I got a long way too; my graphics engine smokes any of the the games out there today. My network engine is distributed and robust. Oh, its a glory to see.

    All except that its not quite finished yet, and probably never will be.

    I knew the magnitude of the problem, or thought I did. And I was right...about the programming end of it. Its a big task, but I'm a big programmer.

    But taking an engine and making a game is just plain overwhelming. The content for a decent game is a lot of work, mostly artistic. Polishing all the edges takes time, what I thought would take two years, I now estimate at about ten (1.5 years into it).

    My suggestion: don't go there unless you have a big team behind you. Ever notice how big the credits pages are for games? Take heed!