The MMORPG Movement

[Malvaro]

For all practical purposes, it has only been in existance since the early 1990's. This movement has already grown beyond 20 million members, with some estimations as high as 60 million members globally. They gave around 1.1 BILLION dollars just in 2005 alone. I have referenced a 2006 list of "religious" churches below for comparison.

Have you ever heard of MMORPG? Do you even know who these people are in your community? Does your church make an attempt to reach out to these people? Would they feel welcome in your church and/or be willing to stay?

http://www.ncccusa.org/news/060330yearbook1.html

2006 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches.
1. The Catholic Church, 67,820,833 members, reporting an increase of .83 percent.
2. The Southern Baptist Convention, 16,267,494 members, reporting a decrease of 1.05 percent. (See clarification, below.)
3. The United Methodist Church, 8,186,254 members, reporting a decrease of .79 percent.
4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 5,999,177 members, reporting an increase of 1.74 percent.
5. The Church of God in Christ, 5,499,875 members, no increase or decrease reported.
6. National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., 5,000,000 members, no increase or decrease reported.
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 4,930,429, reporting a decrease of 1.09 percent.
8. National Baptist Convention of America, 3,500,000, no increase or decrease reported.
9. Presbyterian Church (USA), 3,189,573 members, reporting a decrease of 1.60 percent.
10. Assemblies of God, 2,779,095 members, reporting an increase of 1.81 percent.
11. African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2,500,000 members, no increase or decrease reported.
12. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, 2,500,000 members, no increase or decrease reported.
13. Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., 2,500,000 members, no increase or decrease reported.
14. The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS), 2,463,747, reporting a decrease or 1.01 percent.
15. Episcopal Church, 2,284,233, reporting a decrease of 1.55 percent.
16. Churches of Christ, 1,500,000 members, no increase or decrease reported.
17. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, 1,500,000 members, no increase or decrease reported.
18. Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc., 1,500,000 members, no increase or decrease reported.
19. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1,432,795 members, no increase or decrease reported.
20. American Baptist Churches in the USA, 1,424,840, reporting a decrease of .57 percent.
21. United Church of Christ, 1,265,786, reporting a decrease of 2.38 percent.
22. Baptist Bible Fellowship International, 1,200,000, no increase or decrease reported.
23. Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, 1,071,615 members, no increase or decrease reported.
24. The Orthodox Church in America, 1,064,000 members, reporting an increase of 6.40 percent.
25. Jehovah's Witnesses, 1,029,902 members, reporting a decrease of 1.07 members.

[Sister Alvear]

oh! may Jesus help us.

[Malvaro]

Originally Posted by Sister Alvear

oh! may Jesus help us.

You aren't aware of who they are???

[bishoph]

I may be lost however, I do not see the movement you are mentioning in this report. Can you spell out what MMORPG stands for.

[Malvaro]

Originally Posted by bishoph

I may be lost however, I do not see the movement you are mentioning in this report. Can you spell out what MMORPG stands for.

You're right, it's not mentioned in "that" report....

Have you visited a high school or college campus recently? Many of these teens and young adults are actively apart of this movement....

[Malvaro]

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMORPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive...er_online_game

These people may play online sports games on their XBOX 360's or PS3's, play Spades or other card games online or some other game genre that interests them....

[Praxeas]

Originally Posted by Malvaro

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMORPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive...er_online_game

These people may play online sports games on their XBOX 360's or PS3's, play Spades or other card games online or some other game genre that interests them....

Oh brother...that's not a "movement". Spades though does not qualify as an MMORPG. Nor do your FPS games generally and or Strategy games.

For example War Craft is a strategy game you can play against the PC or against others through Blizzards network. WORLD of WarCraft though is a fantasy role playing game where you take the "role" of an individual character, race and class.

You make your own name usually, choose looks and the computer generally figures out your attributes like how strong or smart you are though often you can adjust those based on your class.

Classes are varied too depending on the game. There are games where you are in the future like a Star Trek Universe or a post apocalyptic world here on earth with some fantasy/sci-fi mixed in.

In the typical world you can be a spell caster, like a wizard, sorcerer, druid or cleric. Clerics are healers generally who are aligned with a certain "god", though most games don't force you to choose a god. Druids are like Clerics but are attuned to the outdoors. Wizards or mages cast spells of various kinds and sorcerers are pretty much like them.

Fighters are adept at all weapons and armor and fighting tactics. Paladins are holy warriers of the strictest good alignment. Rangers are fighters who are best outdoors. Other types might be barbarians.

There are also Rogues who are often called thieves, though this really only applies to a rogue that makes his living stealing. Often rogues are your stealth fighters who are adept at disarming traps, setting traps, unlocking doors, hiding in shadows etc etc. Some games have Assasins that are like Rogues but well...you get the idea.

people play these games and often try to "act" as though they are really not their real selves haha. You have elves, humans, dwarves, hobbits or halflings and a bunch of other "races"

There is a free MMORPG you can play called Runescape and there are several others that have been around for many years.

I saw something at MSN.com that claims the original or grand daddy of them all was Everquest...that's untrue. The original would be Ultima Online. It was based in a land much like Great Britain but it was different.

If you saw the Lord of the Rings then think being Legolas and running around killing orcs and other adventurous things as a game with other players and you have a MMORPG.

I don't know why it's being called a movement though. It has nothing to do with a particular religion

[Malvaro]

Makes one wonder how much more out of touch the Church is to how people are
spending their time.... or what interests them.... or what makes them tick....

[RandyWayne]

Basically it is either WoW, Linniege, Everquest, and then the golden oldies such as Ultima Online, Meridian 59, Star Wars Online, and a host of others.

[Margies3]

Am I the only one here who is not understanding at all what this thread is in regards to?? I've never heard of the MMORPG Movement. And then when it is explained what the letters stand for, I can't see what that has to do with the decreases in church memberships of different organizations??

Please tell me I am not losing my mind!!