Despite what your game’s general chat might argue, World of Warcraft wasn’t the first MMO and online games didn’t magically become a thing with Ultima Online. The real history goes back much further and is more complex than that.
If you only have a few spare minutes to get a handle on the vast history of MMOs over the last five decades, Medium has a new piece up that covers the years, technology, and key figures that helped make online gaming the way that it is today.
You might just learn a thing or two to put those general chat armchair historians in their place: “A landmark in video game history, MUD1 would define the genre. While the PLATO RPGs were all about combat and stats, here the exploration and social aspects were at the forefront. Combat was just a type of obstacle, or a drastic way to interact with other players, if you so desired.”
And since the article links to quite a few of Massively OP’s Game Archaeologist columns – almost 30 times! – we might just see you right back here in a few minutes anyway!
