Last year, Hollywood created a piece that made many wonders, as that is the future of the gaming industry and we are surely headed towards a virtual world paradigm. ‘Real Player One’ based on Ernest Cline’s novel of the same name was created by Steven Spielberg based on a very controversial gaming technology known as Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online game.

Popularly known as ‘VR MMO’, it is a mix of virtual reality and MMORPGs(Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games). This is where it gets an interesting ass who would not want to live in a virtual world, where you can choose what you want to be or whom to fight with and where to fight with or date someone unknown to you.

As much as it seems to be an exciting affair, are we on course to reach such a level of gaming in reality. So let us try to know the realm of VR MMOs in the real-world and its prospects. ( According to Statista, global VR gaming market size in 2016 will be worth 3.6 billion U.S. dollars. This number is expected to grow to 22.9 billion by the end of 2020 with a CAGR of 30.5%. This is why any game developer should ponder over the thought of games based on VR.

What is a VR MMOs?

VR stands for Virtual Reality that is integrated with Massive multiplayer online simulation to provide an environment that is both immersive and exciting to be in. Though VR is not new to us as back in 1957 sensorama- a cabin type VR gave us a glimpse of what to come and come 2010 we saw our first VR headsets Oculus hitting the markets. VR systems may provide a higher user involvement due to the possibility of stereo visualization, human-body interaction, large playing space, etc Though there are greater challenges and costs to design such a game which we will discuss below, the fact that we can create an immersive massively multiplayer simulation game for online gamers has been really thought-provoking.

Rise of MMORPGs:

Because the VR MMOs are having a backdrop of MMORPGs to its base, It is important to know the rise of such games through the decades. Back in 1974, Mazewar can be called one of the first MMO games, further, in 1975, Will Crauther created Adventure on DEC DEP-10 computers and later, a group of MIT students created the most popular MMO game on ARPAnet called Zork, later Roy Trubshaw created MUD(Multi-User Dungeon) as a tribute to Zork. 2nd Generation MMO saw a rise of MMORPGs, with Tibia by Cipsoft in 1997 considered the first MMORPG and 2003 saw big players like SONY, Walt Disney Inc., Ubisoft, etc. enter the market with their respective MMORPGs. But back in 2002, Final Fantasy XI is considered the first MMORPG to allow clients across different platforms to be connected to a single server. To this day, World of Warcraft(WOW) is considered most played MMORPGs across North America.

Challenges for VR MMOs:

There are two basic aspects to any game and that is hardware and software. To begin with, we look at hardware challenges of VR MMOs So, for any game development there are two prerequisite hardware factors:

1. Player’s Hardware:

As the game has to support virtual reality, it needs more power than you think. It also needs more processing power to analyze the complex algorithms of 3D graphics. Let us look at some specs suggested by Oculus Rift,

CPU(Central Processing Unit):

A CPU processor of the Intel-i5 4590 series or higher is recommended to accommodate the analytics of complex algorithms and commands.

GPU( Graphics Processing Unit):

Your GPU should be Nvidia GTX 970 or higher. As this is a Virtual Reality game, it needs a higher frame rate than normal games to provide a better immersive experience. VR is quite different from your basic monitor screen of computer or laptop, It has different resolutions for different eye and even 4K resolution will not have more than 60 frames to sustain, whereas a standard FPS for VR MMO would require at least 90 frames.

Motherboard:

You would require two USB 3.0 ports with a separate HDMI port for connectivity. Thus, as you can see, it is already a costly affair and that is why VR MMOs are challenging for users or players.

2. Server Hardware:

Server requirements are quite high as this is VR focussed game and there is a large number of players and their data. Even designing such a game is a tough job at hand, though you can hire ios developers who can use Blender. Blender is an open-source 3D modeling suite, which helps 3D modeling of avatars for players. As VR MMOs are role-playing games, designing the avatars for players needs creativity and focus. Blender modeling includes features like modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, composting and video game creation. It transforms 2D models on paper to 3D models on the digital medium. While designing a game for VR MMOs, the focus should be on VR, to provide an immersive user experience.

Server hardware needs to function with the following factors:

1. Comparing all the players in the game.
2. Reporting player status during the game.
3. Providing an instant response to several command request.
4. Determination of dropped loot.
5. Need to analyze algorithms that can predict a player’s progress, attack patterns and opponent’s firepower.

Current Popular VR MMOs:

• NOSTOS
• ORBUS VR
• ZENITH
• Global VR players to watch out for:
• Electronic Arts Inc.
• Google LLC.
• Sony Online Entertainment Ltd.
• ZEISS
• NewZOO
• LeapMotion Inc.
• HTC
• VirZoom
• Samsung
• Occulus VR LLC
• Kanava

A Fitting Climax:

If the movie has the wrong climax, you are left with nothing at the end of it, many experts and game developers believe that there is no future to VR MMOs and there is a tragic fitting climax to its story. Frankly, there is a huge setback for such games as the hardware requirements are costly and not easily accessible in the current scenario.

But, I beg to differ on the part where they say that the gaming industry does not have a future in VR MMOs. According to the NewZoo Global Games Market report 2019, the total market value of the global games market is $ 152.1 billion. 

As there are more spends on games by people especially when with a revenue of $ 68.5 billion, mobile’s gaming market has a 45% market share. Companies are investing in technologies to make VR-based hardware more accessible and cheap.