Cultures differ from place to place, but no matter who you are or where you go, there will ALWAYS be a “Gamer”/”Geek”/”Nerd” stereotype ;it involves a person sitting in front of a computer raptly playing a type of video game known as an MMORPG.  MMORPG is an acronym that stands for “Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game”. These are video games where the player assumes control over a character and plays in an online world inhabited by a multitude of other players. Below is a list of 5 widely known MMORPGs:

1. World of Warcraft: Released on November 23, 2004 by video game developing company Blizzard Entertainment, World of Warcraft (or WoW, as it is known) is one of the most well-known and most popular of all MMORPGs. The game takes place in a fictional land by the name of Azeroth, which was also the setting to WoW’s predecessor “Warcraft”. The object of WoW is to complete quests and dungeon raids using a character of the player’s own design. Completion of these objectives allows the player to obtain rewards which will allow the him/her to improve their character and its equipment. Improving one’s character would then allow the player to go on progressively to more difficult raids and quests, gathering up even more rewards with which to upgrade their character further. Players of WoW can also interact with each other via versus combat, which comes in two forms: Player-versus-Player (PvP), in which players can attack each other anywhere and at anytime, and Player-versus-Environment (PvE), where players must request to fight each other and requests can be denied.

2. DC Universe Online: Developed by Sony Online Entertainment and Warner Bros. Games, DC Universe Online was released in January of 2011. As the story of the game goes, Brainiac invades the Earth following a massive final battle (punctuated by heavy losses on both sides) between heroes and villains. Being the only survivor, Lex Luthor steals some of Brainiac’s technology and travels back in time. First stopping to deliver the warning of the Earth’s impending doom, Luthor releases the technology, which consists of nanobots called Exobytes, into the atmosphere. As the Exobytes spread throughout the atmosphere, they create thousands of new metahumans out of ordinary people.When the game begins, the player’s personalized character is one of the many new metahumans created by the Exobytes. Gameplay focuses on one massive, shared world in which the player can engage in PvP and PvE battles, much like in World of Warcraft.

3. Star Wars: The Old Republic: Released on December 20, 2011 and developed by Bioware,  SWTOR takes place, more or less. 2500 years before the events outlined in the films, in the middle of a cold-war pitting the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order against the Sith Empire. Prior to the game’s story, the two sides were fighting a 28 year-long Great Galactic War, which had been ended because of a very important treaty. The breaking of this treaty by the Sith sets off the cold-war in which the game is set; with the political struggles and civil wars breaking out throughout many planets’ native factions serving as the game’s main conflict points, SWTOR serves as an action-packed game. Unlike most MMORPGs, SWTOR follows a storyline based on whatever class you choose for your character when you create it.

4. Lord of the Rings Online: Set in the universe of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth books,the game was developed by Turbine and released on April 24, 2007. In this game’s massive world, the player participates in PvE and PvP combat, much like in World of Warcraft and DC Universe Online. The storyline of the game is presented as a series of books, and as of November 20, 2013 there are a total of 37 books separated into 3 volumes: Volume 1: Shadows of Angmar, Volume 2: Mines of Moria, and Volume 3: Allies of the King.

5. Rift: Released in March of 2011 and developed by Trion Worlds, Rift is another fantasy MMORPG. This one, however, takes place in the world of Telara, a place where six elemental planes intersect at a certain point. As the story goes, each plane had a guardian dragon. However, these six dragons came together and tried to invade Telara. They were defeated and imprisoned, but their leader managed to break out and into Telara. This caused little tears to open up between Telara and the extra-dimensional prisons, allowing for the world to begin being invaded by monsters. The character created by the player is known in the game as “ascended”, and their entire purpose is to kill the monsters and take down the dragon. This game, similarly to World of Warcraft specifically, is mainly centered around PvP, PvE, Party and Raid gameplay.

MMORPGs, despite their unfortunate pop culture image of being nerdy and/or geeky, can actually be pretty fun to play. MMORPGs are, like any and every other type of game, highly addictive, but normally, the game is much too fun for the player to care about much else.