Let's start with the hardest question to answer. Is APB (All Points Bulletin), the new online game from the makers of Crackdown, an MMO?
Each copy of APB's San Paro - a contemporary, crime-ridden city, a violent playground for gangs of cops and robbers - will host 100 players. By the standards of an online shooter, that's a lot. By the standards of a thousands-strong World of Warcraft server, it's small. By the standards of EVE Online's single universe, it's minuscule. APB's claim on the "massive" part of "massively multiplayer" is looking rather slim, especially when the likes of Zipper's MAG, with its 256-player matches, aren't considered by most to qualify.
But massively multiplayer gaming isn't just about numbers. It's also about persistence, a sense of place, a sense of ownership, and of course, it's about other people. In a true MMO, the interaction between players - even if it's no more than the knowledge that you're sharing a world with them while you go about your own business - is equal to, greater than or synonymous with the game itself.
By that criteria, APB could well turn out to be one of the purest examples of the massively multiplayer online game since EVE.
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