1.2 What is an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Game)?

While many computer games support multiplayer gaming, few are designed to support thousands of simultaneous players. Most online games allow for 16 or 32 players to connect to a server that is usually controlled by one of the players. This is called a client-server network for online games.

Massively multiplayer games work in a similar way but on a much larger scale.. The player runs the 'client' program (a client is a program which has been downloaded onto the player's computer) which then connects over the Internet to servers administered by the company that hosts the game (the servers are the computers located at the company).

Imagine logging into a virtual fantasy world, creating your own character, and then being free to explore that world, to meet friends, and to learn new skills and acquire items of power.

Vanguard: Saga Of Heroes is that game and that world. Whether you are logged on or not, thousands of others most certainly are, and the world persists and evolves regardless of who is logged on and when.

If you think about the huge graphical Internet described in cyberpunk novels like Snowcrash or the holodeck in Star Trek, MMORPGs are really the logical predecessors to these virtual worlds of the future.

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