Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game

MMORPG stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. It's a RPG version of an MMO game.

Background

Games such as Ultima Online and Everquest were the first such games with accessible, graphical interfaces, and they did much to popularize the term and genre. The best known example now is World of Warcraft.

Some gamers furiously debate over what makes a "true" MMORPG. To the purists, a game like World of Warcraft is not an "real" MMORPG, since WoW uses instancing and other conveniences to facilitate a more enjoyable, less wait-filled playing experience. These games aren't true world simulations, since the NPCs never sleep, never run out of goods to sell or gold with which to buy player items, never give preferential treatment to some and insults to others, etc.

Diablo

Diablo II was an MMORPG in some ways, but the lack of any real persistence (the game world completely reset every time you restarted a game) made it more of a MMO than MMORPG.

Diablo III is probably going to follow in D2's path, with more MMO elements, but no requirement that you play with others, or wait to get into a good area since someone else is already there. This isn't necessarily a criticism, since most players prefer instancing over waiting or camping for items, but it can be interesting to debate what type of game D3 will be.