Why not do an MMORPG as you first project?

[pitfiend]

Well, the idea to create the next Skyrim is tempting, isn't it? and the false concept that it is an easy task comes from the various game creator engines focused on the creation of rpgs. It's true that build an engine from scratch is not so complicate, but the asset you need and the balance in the rules make it a titanic task. And don't forget you need a team of developers.

[Lifepower]

Random generation also makes for a very bland/generic gameplay, some games were successful with it like [...links...] but many more failed, and arguably Arena has an overarching story.

This is offtopic as it blandly relates in series of replies to the main post. On this side, King's Bountry, which combined fixed world with random villages and treasures was very nice and had a lot of replayability.

The main topic of original post was MMORPG, which should not be confused with RPG. I would emphasize on Massive-Multiplayer element, which can be also applied to other genres like MMRTS (or MMFPS anyone? ) Sometimes it is mistakenly confused with term "online", but Online Game does not constitute Massive-Multiplayer Game. The last one requires significant budget for acquiring servers, developing efficient scaling strategy among many other things.

A newbie trying to develop an MMORPG would be equivalent of high-school student trying to build his/her own Oil Rig. Can it possibly be done? Sure, but I personally wouldn't count on it.

[WILL]

The main topic of original post was MMORPG, which should not be confused with RPG. I would emphasize on Massive-Multiplayer element, which can be also applied to other genres like MMRTS (or MMFPS anyone? ) Sometimes it is mistakenly confused with term "online", but Online Game does not constitute Massive-Multiplayer Game. The last one requires significant budget for acquiring servers, developing efficient scaling strategy among many other things.

I think the point of the article in questions could be transferred to to many other potential types of online/massive multi-player genres as well as many "offline" large scale genre as well. The idea is that a beginner should not be trying to start projects which need to garnish resources that only advanced or larger commercial developers can afford. It is very much as Lifepower says, like trying to build your own oil rig.

Frankly I'll even bring martial arts into this for those who like metaphors. Should your only reason for learning Kung Fu (or other cultural art form) is to kick someones ass, then you have failed at learning what you have set out to learn in the first place.

So put in context, if your only goal to learn how to program is to make the next Final Fantasy or World of Warcraft or whatever other huge project that you played once and loved because of it's long game-play and hue depth of storytelling, then you are going to fail. Learn programming games for the art of programming games and you will have much more fun than if your only in it to reach for silly things.