The MMORPG genre has fascinated and inspired millions of players for decades. In a multi-part report, MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz examines the roots, development and future of online role-playing games. Part 1 focuses on the pioneers of MMORPGs.
Let’s first clarify the basics so that even those gaming enthusiasts who have never played an online role-playing game can follow along. MMORPG stands for “Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game”, i.e. a role-playing game that takes you into a persistent online world in which a large number of other players hang out.
The term “persistent” should be used with caution, as it primarily means that the game world, with its content and challenges, continues to exist even when you are offline. However, persistence only goes so far in exceptional cases that you can, for example, place an object in the world and when you come back later, it will still be there.
MeinMMO report on the MMORPG genre – the roadmap:
Part 1: The pioneers of online role-playing games – already online
Part 2: The first 3D MMORPGs – coming May 28, 2024
Part 3: The exceptional success of WoW and its reasons – will be released on May 29, 2024
Part 4: The heyday of MMORPGs and the failure of the WoW killers – released on May 30, 2024
Part 5: Ports, crowdfunding and alternative service models – published on May 31, 2024
Part 6: The status quo of the MMORPG genre and the future – coming June 1, 2024
It started with … Dungeons
When gamers today discuss the beginnings of the MMORPG genre, titles like Meridian 59 and The Realm Online from 1996 or Ultima Online, which was released in 1997, quickly come to mind. However, the roots of online role-playing games lie much deeper, in the so-called MUDs.
MUD stands for multi-user dungeon and refers to games that allow several adventurers to explore some kind of dungeon or virtual world at the same time. The first of its kind, MUD1, was created in the late 1970s. The focus here was still on social interaction. Up to 36 players could play at the same time.
more on the subject
A journey through the world of MMOs – from 1976 to 2017!
by Guddy Hoffmann-Schoenborn
In the 1980s, the new genre gained significant popularity when affordable home computers appeared on the market. At the same time, the first commercial projects came onto the market.
These include the text-based MUD Sceptre of Goth, which was based on the popular pen and paper role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, threw up to 16 players into the dungeons at the same time and even made PvP possible. Cost: just under three US dollars an hour.
Another commercial multi-user dungeon was released in 1985 and is called Island of Kesmai. The game offered
Those interested could experience Island of Kesmai via CompuServe’s online service for about twelve US dollars per hour. Yep, those were different times.
Released in 1989, this text-based online RPG by Yehuda Simmons featured remarkable economic, agricultural and jobs systems, as well as a player-controlled government with ministers and elections, and battles of conquest involving legions, trenches, minefields and fortifications.
In short: The developer had set itself the goal of creating a believable world in which players could lead a virtual life (via Wikipedia). Avalon: The Legend Lives was thus a further development of Habitat from 1986, which followed a similar pattern.
Dungeons & Dragons with a difference
The next important milestone for the MMORPG genre came in 1991 from industry veteran Don Daglow, who has all kinds of classics such as Dungeon (1975), Utopia (1981), Amnesia (1986) and Stronghold (1993) in his CV.
He and his studio Stormfront were allowed to develop a new game for the Dungeons & Dragons universe, and the result was Neverwinter Nights, which is now considered the first graphic MMORPG (not to be confused with Neverwinter Nights from 2002 by Bioware).
A descendant in the spirit of Neverwinter Nights – the MMORPG Neverwinter Online:
While “Neverwinter” refers to the city of Neverwinter from the D&D universe, the “Night” was an allusion to the fact that AOL’s online service (and thus the game) was initially only available at night and on weekends – due to the high cost of renting the telecommunications lines available at the time.
Neverwinter Nights used the venerable Gold Box engine from SSI (known for Eye of the Beholder, Stronghold), but had a multiplayer mode that allowed players to form groups with other players, complete quests together, and even form guilds. Battles took place in a kind of real-time system, and there was a chat to communicate with each other.
Initially, AOL supported a capacity of 100 concurrent players. However, due to high demand, this had to be adjusted to 500 – making Neverwinter Nights the most populous online experience to date. There were still queues, which AOL made money from by charging per-minute connection fees.
The first crafting in an online world
As a kicker from the era of the MMORPG pioneers, we have Legends of Future Past from 1992 for you. The commercial multi-user dungeon was no longer only offered via an online service like CompuServer, but also via this new thing called the Internet.
Legends of Future Past is worth mentioning for two other reasons. NovaLink’s game was the first to offer a real crafting system in an online game. Adventurers could collect raw materials such as ores, furs and herbs and use them to build weapons and armor or enchant items.
In addition, for the first time ever, there were paid game masters who organized events, helped beginners and supported the community.
In the second part of our report, we start with the 3D MMORPGs that paved the way for the modern top dogs. You can find a first look at what’s to come here: 12 MMORPGs that paved the way for WoW and are still playable