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: A history of EverQuest’s expansions
I don't know if EverQuest holds the crown title for the MMO with the most expansions, but I'm sure it's among the top three...
Battle Bards Episode 124: Old MMOs, new music
It’s a catch-all, catch-up episode for the Battle Bards as they dig through new soundtrack releases from MMORPGs that they’ve covered in the past!...
Black Desert launches a cross-regional ‘Global Lab’ test server
So many games have test servers of one form or another that we seldom even need to spell out the acronym PTS - and...
Interview and excerpt: The ‘Braving Britannia’ book preserves Ultima Online’s oral history
Earlier this week, we wrote about the launch of a new book that's right up MMORPG fans' alley. Dubbed Braving Britannia: Tales of Life,...
Dark Age of Camelot answers player questions about damage reduction and defensive actions
When a game has been running as long as Dark Age of Camelot has, it stands to reason that the players remaining are going...
New Ultima Online book gathers developer and player interviews to document oral history
Old-school MMORPG players, heads-up for you: If you're a fan of Ultima Online or wanted to hear more about the seminal MMORPG after reading...
Old School RuneScape’s mobile port is effectively heading into Android open beta today
You might think that people who'd play the "Old School" version of a game like RuneScape might not be the right demographic for a...
The Daily Grind: What’s the best MMORPG skill system that avoids the ‘illusion of choice’?
Over the weekend, my husband and I were chatting about playing on a Star Wars Galaxies emulator again, probably the Legends one that people...
The MOP Up: EverQuest II’s scorched sky policy (July 1, 2018)
The MMO industry moves along at the speed of information, and sometimes we’re deluged with so much news here at Massively Overpowered that some...
The Game Archaeologist: Raph Koster on MUDs and Privateer Online
The release of Raph Koster's monster book of game essays, Postmortems, was of high interest to Bree and me for different reasons. For her,...
Happy 17th birthday, Anarchy Online – Funcom is celebrating with a free-play week
If your first memory of playing Anarchy Online consists of a horrifying slog through alpha, as mine does, then you might be wondering how...
Perfect Ten: The best MMO debuts by year, 1997-2006
By now, many of you probably know that I'm the curator of the MMO Timeline on my personal blog. On this page, I've attempted...
Ultima Online is getting shared bank storage after 20 years, making F2P play more viable
There's exciting news for the 20-year-old Ultima Online this week, as the game's latest newsletter announced an account-wide bank storage system.
"Between Publish 100 and...
Dark Age of Camelot delays its free-to-play shift to 2019
While we reported in December 2017 that Broadsword was aiming for a free-to-play option for Dark Age of Camelot, we haven't seen a lot...
The MOP Up: Neverwinter’s five-year anniversary and Ravenloft campaign (June 24, 2018)
The MMO industry moves along at the speed of information, and sometimes we’re deluged with so much news here at Massively Overpowered that some...
Anarchy Online teases upcoming 17th anniversary event
Happy 17th birthday, Anarchy Online! Seventeen years ago this month, Funcom first stepped out onto the MMORPG scene and "launched" this sci-fi title. We...
Gran Skrea brings an indie sandbox MMO to early access
On the prowl for an undiscovered indie MMORPG these days? You might want to check out Gran Skrea Online, as it just went into...
The MOP Up: Skyforge’s PvP revolution (June 17, 2018)
The MMO industry moves along at the speed of information, and sometimes we’re deluged with so much news here at Massively Overpowered that some...
Ultima Online’s publish 100 hits the test server, Broadsword seeks paid event moderators
One hundred! Classic MMO Ultima Online has pushed out its 100th major update to the test server this week. It's primarily a bug-fixing update, riding...
RuneScape shows off an hour of its new mining system
Dig things out of the ground, put them together into more useful forms, sell those more useful forms, repeat. That's the core loop of...
