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 mmos
The Game Archaeologist: Disney’s Toontown Online
The use of the word "toon" to describe MMORPG characters is a contentious one, with fans divided over its annoyance or acceptance. But when...
The Game Archaeologist: Ultima Worlds Online Origin
While the heady days of Ultima Online's dominant position over the industry are long gone, the MMORPG continues to operate and expand, and many...
The Game Archaeologist: The Chronicles of Spellborn
Hey! Hey you! Yeah, you the I'm-so-bored-with-all-of-these-MMOs gamer! You've been grousing about for years how MMOs never take risks, never innovate, and are merely...
The Game Archaeologist: Climax’s Warhammer Online
Let's begin with a little personal history. Back in 2008, I decided to get into the blogging scene by jumping on board the latest...
The Game Archaeologist: Furcadia
Let's face it: There isn't really a huge pool of MMORPGs from the 1990s to explore in this column. By now I have done...
The Game Archaeologist: EverQuest Online Adventures
In the pantheon of SOE's (now Daybreak) flagship EverQuest franchise, there used to be a whole family of MMOs gathered around the table every evening....
The Game Archaeologist: EverQuest II East
Publishing a video game globally is a monumental task, more so if it is a live online game such as what you'd find with...
The Game Archaeologist: Where are all of the open-source MMOs?
Recently we had an interesting question come in from reader and Patron Rasmus Praestholm, who asked me to do a little investigating: "What (if...
The Game Archaeologist: Maze War, the first online multiplayer shooter
It is sometimes hard to know how far back to go when chronicling the history of early MMOs and their ancestors. After all, this...
The Game Archaeologist: Phantasy Star Online
The Dreamcast was a brief but shining aberration in the gaming world. Coming along years after Sega had fallen out of its position as...
The Game Archaeologist: How Sceptre of Goth shaped the MMO industry
When it comes to text-based MMOs created in the '80s, '90s, and 2000s, the sheer number of them would blot out the sky. There...
The Game Archaeologist: When Hellgate London got Flagshipped
It seems that it really wasn't too long ago that I was filling in the time between night classes by boning up on video...
The Game Archaeologist: SOE’s The Agency
The graveyard of Sony Online Entertainment and Daybreak Game Company is certainly full enough to be considered a threat if there was ever a...
The Game Archaeologist: Rubies of Eventide
I can't say that Rubies of Eventide has been on my radar, like, ever. And yet practically every time I've asked for suggestions of...
The Game Archaeologist: How DikuMUD shaped modern MMOs
Even though there are hundreds and thousands of MMOs spanning several decades, only a small handful were so incredibly influential that they changed the...
The Game Archaeologist: Earth and Beyond
Personally, I prefer science fiction over fantasy nine times out of ten, even though most of the MMOs that grace my desktop are fantasy...
The Game Archaeologist: Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds
I confess that I have a particular fascination for MMOs that came into existence in the 1990s. It's not only the fact that I...
The Game Archaeologist: Hero’s Journey
Fiction writers know well of Joseph Campbell's identification and outline of the monomyth, or "hero's journey," in many stories. The 12-step process starts with...
The Game Archaeologist: Wing Commander Online and Privateer Online
In late 2012, former Wing Commander developer-slash-movie director Chris Roberts emerged from a decade of obscurity to ask for help to fund his vision...
Don’t miss The Game Archaeologist’s histories of Asheron’s Call
The impending loss of Asheron's Call -- and Asheron's Call 2 again -- hit the MMORPG community pretty hard when the sunsets were announced...
