Facebook Games - How They Are Similar to and Different from Traditional MMOs

The MMOG, or Massive Multiplayer Online Game, is a gaming genre that is both easy and hard to define. We know that it is an online multiplayer game, but there are three defining characteristics that separate the MMO from, for example, an online poker lounge:

• Persistant World, Persistant Characters. This means that the world, and its characters, are not reset when a player logs out. Characters remain advanced as they were left by the player, and the world remains online, available, and "unchanging" whether one player is logged in or five million. By this definition, characters should also have some form of advancement (levels, etc.)
  
• Community Size. The community - or number of logged in players at any one time - should be "massive." The definition of massive in context, however, is vague. For instance, MMORPG.com defines it as the ability to support "at least 500 congruent users on a single server."
• Community Interaction. The community of the game should be able to interact via more than a chat room or lobby. There should be a way for player characters to interact with each other; otherwise this detracts from the multiplayer interactivity of the game.

Do Facebook games meet any of these requirements? And if so, how do they differ from more traditional MMOGs?

Most Facebook games clearly have understood the persistent worlds requirement. Consider the following examples:

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  In Pet Society, a player's character (a pet) will lose cleanliness, happiness, and while their player is away. Gifts and messages will also arrive while the player is offline, and be waiting for the player when they log in.
• Fish World, in which a player tends fish in aquariums to then sell, will build algae and fish hunger while a player is gone - the fish also grow. It also goes so far as to kill the fish (leaving them floating upside down in the tank) if a player has not logged in to sell them.
• Zynga's YoVille allows players to decorate their own apartment, and other players can visit this apartment whether the player is offline or online.

These games also have a leveling component. While some games offer leveling via experience via various in game missions or actions, many also offer experience and leveling via interacting with friends in game. These levels are persistent and permanent, although some games allow for character resets.