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What is "many"?

More than 8, apparently.

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B) "able to interact {in ways beyond talking to eachother}"

Add 'simultaneously' in and you'll get the point.

Diablo II may 'technically' be an MMO, using your 'list of characteristics.'

However, using common language and conotation, Diablo II is not an MMO. You could say that any game that has many players playing online and interacting with each other, even if in distinct areas (eight player games) is an MMO, but you'd be correct only technically. In common colloquial and general understanding, an MMO is defined in such a way that Diablo II is excluded.

In any case, it should be obvious that the OP was talking about MMO's in which there are possibly more than eight players about at the same time and the issues with having realtime combat on that scale. Somehow, I don't think that Diablo II would run into the set of hurdles the OP describes, being that it doesn't have more than eight simultaneous players per game instance.

So, in conclusion, Diablo II is technically an MMO though in reality not, and whether Diablo II is an MMO is irrelevant because it invariably does not run into the problems the OP is talking about.

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OdHero, I've been exploring the same thing. The simple 'autoattack' button is really a bandwidth saver - any gameplay bonuses are purely incidental. This asside, look at games like Tony Hawk's Underground 2 and Agressive Inline. Ironically, these games have some of the best character advancement system's I've seen. It's not just about time invested in slaying enemies - it's about your abilities. In THUG2, your character's stats are increased once you perform certain tricks or combos. Essentially, there are boundaries that you cannot cross, regardless of time invested, unless you have the skills required to do so. In agressive inline, your abilities improve as you perform tricks more often. I think that a combination of the two systems would provide the optimal balance in any MMO (assuming you're talking about RPG's) - especially those with real time battle. Your strength improves when you use it, you get rewarded for accomlishing feats. This system vaguely reminds me of . . . reality. You do get stronger by using your muscles and you are rewarded for accomplishments (well, accomplishments are rewards). In any case, rewarding players for something more than just time played would be the key to a realtime MMO. In fact, rewarding players for time played is really just a ploy to get players to play longer and pay more monthly subscription fees. Every other game is intrinsically rewarding - MMO's are the only ones that reward you just for time.

Reward players for doing things that are fun and you'll have the right balance. Then you can get started on the real issues to deal with - like cost and bandwidth.

Check out Planetside, which is touted as an MMOFPS with RPG elements (for that prolonged incentive). They did a pretty good job balancing out advancement to match with skill.

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OdHero, I've been exploring the same thing. The simple 'autoattack' button is really a bandwidth saver - any gameplay bonuses are purely incidental. This asside, look at games like Tony Hawk's Underground 2 and Agressive Inline. Ironically, these games have some of the best character advancement system's I've seen. It's not just about time invested in slaying enemies - it's about your abilities. In THUG2, your character's stats are increased once you perform certain tricks or combos. Essentially, there are boundaries that you cannot cross, regardless of time invested, unless you have the skills required to do so. In agressive inline, your abilities improve as you perform tricks more often. I think that a combination of the two systems would provide the optimal balance in any MMO (assuming you're talking about RPG's) - especially those with real time battle. Your strength improves when you use it, you get rewarded for accomlishing feats. This system vaguely reminds me of . . . reality. You do get stronger by using your muscles and you are rewarded for accomplishments (well, accomplishments are rewards). In any case, rewarding players for something more than just time played would be the key to a realtime MMO. In fact, rewarding players for time played is really just a ploy to get players to play longer and pay more monthly subscription fees. Every other game is intrinsically rewarding - MMO's are the only ones that reward you just for time. Reward players for doing things that are fun and you'll have the right balance. Then you can get started on the real issues to deal with - like cost and bandwidth.

Thank you for bring this back on topic!

Your quite right I play aggressive inline, and I never though of that. It rewards you for what you do, if you don't do grinds you don't go up in grinds, but if you do lots of air tricks, you air increases.

This is probably compatible with most games. If you are usin a 'Fire blast' then your fire blast will increase and get stronger.

And bandwidth is a problem too. If 100 players are going to have a battle with another 100 players, chances are for the majority there will be large lag, which is important to have litle of in real time games.

this is what mmorpg.com consider an MMORPG.

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MMORPG.com: * Game must support 500+ players in a single world * It must be graphical...so no text based MUDs. * It must use a true client/server connection. In other words, no HTML or "web" based games. Games that run in a browser using Java are OK. * It must contain good RPG elements. We define this as having control of a single character and there being some sort of leveling or skill advancement system in place.

some unrelated information has been removed - but this is the list that defines what you can submit to mmorpg.com (only the most respected site concering MMORPGs) and what I believe sums up what an MMORPG is about.

To the topic: check out Huxley, Auto Assault, PlanetSide, DDO (though only as much of an MMORPG as Guild Wars) and generally browse the mmorpg website for information on what mmorpgs have what features. It is a great spot.

Is Huxley one involving mellee based weapons, becvause I've only played a RTAMMORPG once but it was with guns.

I think lag is a very important part of why most MMORPGs don't have "twitch" based gameplay. Servers and bandwidth aren't yet at the point where we can have decent real-time play with hundreds of people in the same zone.

I'm pretty sure Huxely has guns, though I'm sure there are melee based weapons.

So are there any MMORPG's with real time battles and mainly mellee weapons?

I don't know, but if it is feasability you are worried about, if it can be done with guns, chances are it can be done with swords.

The problem is I've played gun MMORPGs and your actually normaly fighting groups of up to 15 other players.