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: Guild Wars Utopia
Aztecs. Chronomancers. Mounts. Halberds. Golems. Dual wielding.
These are all but a hint of what a fourth Guild Wars campaign could have been, a campaign...
The Game Archaeologist: The Wish that wasn’t
First of all, "wish" is one of those words that ends up looking dang strange the more you focus on it. Wish, wish, wish,...
The Game Archaeologist: The sad saga of Stargate Worlds
In 1994, a science-fiction movie called Stargate took the idea of alien portals that allowed people to travel instantaneously across the universe and turned it...
The Game Archaeologist: Meridian 59
A colony founded through a magical nexus, Meridian 59 had it all going on -- until, that is, the portal to the colony collapsed...
The Game Archaeologist: 1988’s Monster
"You're in the middle of a vast hall stretching out of sight to the east and west. Strange shadows play across the high vaulted...
The Game Archaeologist: Ten strange pre-release facts about World of Warcraft
An endless ocean of words, a tsunami of thoughts, and a riptide of fan devotion has flooded the gaming world about World of Warcraft...
The Game Archaeologist: Perpetual’s Star Trek Online
If you're among the legions of Trekkies, then you are almost certainly aware of Cryptic Studios' Star Trek Online. Since early 2010, players have...
The Game Archaeologist: Online gaming service providers of the ’80s and ’90s
As graphical MMOs took off in the 1990s with the advent of games like Neverwinter Nights, The Realm, and Ultima Online, many of them...
The Game Archaeologist: Asheron’s Call 2
MMO sequels are funny animals. Sequels (along with prequels and "reimaginings") are ingrained into the entertainment industry so deep that it makes sense that...
The Game Archaeologist: Asheron’s Call
It's hard being the youngest child -- you get the hand-me-downs, suffer through swirlies by older siblings, and eventually develop such a neurosis that...
The Game Archaeologist: Shadowbane
Way back when I used to haunt the corridors of Gamestop and had yet to shun the place due to its stinky evil, I remember...
The Game Archaeologist: Seed
Seed is a game that I thought I must have dreamed up at some point. Do you ever have that happen? For years I...
The Game Archaeologist: Dark Sun Online
Computer RPG players in the late '80s and early '90s were surely familiar with Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) and its now-famous Gold Box series....
The Game Archaeologist: The assassination of Lord British
At the end of August 2015, the fledgling Shroud of the Avatar community gathered together for a massive PvP fight. This wasn't to be...
The Game Archaeologist: Anarchy Online
"The future in your hands."
This was Funcom's promise to gamers in the early days of the 2000s. Even as the MMORPG genre slowly took...
The Game Archaeologist: Lucasfilm’s Habitat
Some of you reading this may simply never have known a world before the internet existed by virtue of your age. It's not your...
The Game Archaeologist: Star Wars Galaxies’ NGE
It became one of the most infamous moments in MMO history -- and perhaps one of the most misunderstood.
For all that the MMO community...
The Game Archaeologist: Microsoft’s Mythica
While Microsoft may be the big cheese when it comes to operating systems and worldwide domination, for whatever reason the company has the absolute...
The Game Archaeologist: Kingdom of Drakkar
Kingdom of Drakkar, also known as Drakkar or even Kingdom of Drakkar II, is a really odd duck among the annals of MMO history....
The Game Archaeologist: The Sims Online
The Sims Online was one of the odder entrants into the MMO genre, an online iteration of an immensely popular game franchise that promised...
