Ogre Forums

I am not writing an MMORPG. I am a user interface designer who plays mmorpg's but doesnt know how they work.

I am interested in more the theory of the game genre rather than the actual development side of it. How does it all piece together and work as one unified system.

What are the individual elements built and run on. How are they linked together typically and what is the server's role over the client.

How for example are the user accounts, items, characters and monsters held in a database like MYSQL or Oracle (I assume they are) ?

How and where are the game rules set (server, in database/server program ?)

Is the server broken down into small programs which perform specific tasks in the game, like grouping, buying/selling, chat, fighting, movement etc.. ?

What are the requirements and elements for building an MMORPG (server database, client, netcode, 3d engine, sound engine, etc..) ? and what could those elements be done with (mysql, raknet, ogre etc..)

Sorry for the noob questions, but I am here for your /pointing and laughing. No, I am not writing an MMORPG.. I can't even program. I'm a UI designer with some PHP skills.

All these things are possible design decisions, and vary from game to game (and just how massive is massive?); there is no 'building a mmorpg in 30 steps' cookbook You could do some research into how other commercial mmorpgs do stuff, although that's not necessarily the best way of course.

How for example are the user accounts, items, characters and monsters held in a database like MYSQL or Oracle (I assume they are) ?

The idea usually is that currently active players (and their data) are held in memory, unactive players can be serialized to disk or a database.

Monsters are usually in-memory (just make sure monsters only spawn and roam around where players are) Do a lot of trickery like this to keep down server load.

Anyway, I suggest you look around on gamedev and other such sites

Here's an article on designing an MMORPG: link
And here's another: link