Generally used to describe MMOs from before World of Warcraft’s launch in 2004, though sometimes shortened to describe just the first few MMOs launched prior to 2000.
classic mmo
The Game Archaeologist: Dark Ages, the weird lovechild of Celtic lore and Lovecraftian legends
While the online world was fascinated by "the Big Three" Western MMOs in 1999 -- that would be EverQuest, Ultima Online, and Asheron's Call...
RuneScape swings a banhammer at accounts caught exploiting its Fresh Start Worlds
RuneScape's Fresh Start Worlds are not looking so crispy and fresh out of the gate. First, Jagex had to rollback the servers due to...
Working As Intended: My 25 years of Ultima Online
Twenty-five years ago my boyfriend, Paul, and I walked into a shop to find a new game to play together. He picked up this...
Old School RuneScape polls its players about Wilderness weapon changes
Old School RuneScape's continuing quest to update the rework the Wilderness has taken yet another step - a polling step, to be specific. The...
Massively OP Podcast Episode 390: All systems go for MMO launches
Justin and Bree discuss Star Citizen's crowdfunding, Wrath Classic's launch, Dual Universe, Mythic, Ultima Online's 25th birthday, Tibia, and LOTRO Before the Shadow, with adventures in SWG Legends and Truck Simulator, plus a voicemail topic on MMO systems proliferated across the genre.
RuneScape rolls back its live servers and Fresh Start Worlds because of an issue with the latter being inaccessible
So RuneScape's developer Jagex decides that it's going to launch a series of Fresh Start Worlds, a chance for people to start playing the...
Raph ‘Designer Dragon’ Koster reminisces 25 years of Ultima Online
While our own Game Archaeologist columnist Justin offered a retrospective of Ultima Online (and its alt ruleset server New Legacy was delayed into next...
RuneScape outlines content plans for 2022 and 2023, Old School RuneScape continues tuning its raid
RuneScape promised to outline plans for its next series of updates in its weekly newsletter, and sure enough it delivered. The devs at Jagex...
Classic Tibia is getting sound for the first time in 25 years
One of the oldest MMORPGs around is finally getting a voice - in the form of sound, that is. The devs behind Classic MMO...
RuneScape lets Ironman and regular players fight bosses together, preps subscribers on fresh start world access
RuneScape's weekly update is primarily about combat, which might not seem terribly novel to most gamers except for the fact that the patch mostly...
Ultima Online delays New Legacy into 2023, hosts in-game faire to celebrate 25th anniversary
At the top of 2022, MMO studio Broadsword was still on track to launch Ultima Online's New Legacy by the end of the year....
Old School RuneScape opens up several beta tests for players
Do you want to do the work of testing content in Old School RuneScape? If so, the developers have good news for you, because...
Old School RuneScape preps a beta for its Wilderness boss rework while RuneScape pretties up starter zones
Old School RuneScape has discussed changing the bosses and lairs of the Wilderness zone before, but later this week on Wednesday, September 14th, players...
The Game Archaeologist: The legacy of Ultima Online
Last week in The Game Archaeologist, we traced the history of Ultima Online’s origin, development, and testing -- not to mention one pesky in-game...
Massively Overthinking: The weirdest ways we’ve leveled in MMOs
One of my favor flavors of fluff post we do occasionally is report on folks who have accomplished fame by leveling "wrong" in MMOs,...
Vague Patch Notes: The MMORPG industry shockwaves that still reverberate
A thought occurred to me the other day regarding World of Warcraft and the way that it deformed the MMO industry: People who are...
Old School RuneScape takes in feedback for quest speedrunning worlds
Last week, Jagex shared a rundown of how quest speedrunning worlds in Old School RuneScape would work, which in turn has brought forth some...
Dark Age of Camelot’s Covenant Crossroads event tasks players with making a pact and killing demons
The northern crossroads region of Dark Age of Camelot has come down with a particularly nasty case of demons, and it's up to players...
Old School RuneScape outlines another series of tweaks to the Tombs of Amascut
Old School RuneScape's recently released Tombs of Amascut raid has reportedly been getting a lot of player feedback and requests for adjustments, and while...
The Game Archaeologist: How Ultima Online got made
You know how there’s that yokel in every global chat channel that likes to troll players by claiming that World of Warcraft was the...
