What was the first mmo?

Valance

Here's a question without an easy answer: What game out there was the first mmo? Everquest was the first major hit, but before that there was UO, then before that was Meridian 59, then before that there were the muds. Who's got some more info?

Blackfoot-3

Never Winter Nights on AOL started in 91

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights_(AOL_game)

Czzarre

Are MUDS included as MMO?

Unknown

Although MMORPGs, as defined today, have only existed since the early 1990s, all MMORPGs can trace a lineage back to the earliest multi-user games which started appearing in the late 1970s.The first of these was Mazewar. 1984 saw a Roguelike (semi-graphical) multi-user game, called Islands of Kesmai. The first "truly" graphical multi-user RPG was Neverwinter Nights, around 1990 I think.



When NSFNET restrictions were lifted, the Internet was opened up to developers, which allowed for the first really "massive" titles. The first success after this point was Meridian 59, which also featured first-person 3D graphics and then later Ultima Online was released.

nomadian

Look at this

Signe

Originally posted by Battlekruse


Although MMORPGs, as defined today, have only existed since the early 1990s, all MMORPGs can trace a lineage back to the earliest multi-user games which started appearing in the late 1970s.The first of these was Mazewar. 1984 saw a Roguelike (semi-graphical) multi-user game, called Islands of Kesmai. The first "truly" graphical multi-user RPG was Neverwinter Nights, around 1990 I think.



When NSFNET restrictions were lifted, the Internet was opened up to developers, which allowed for the first really "massive" titles. The first success after this point was Meridian 59, which also featured first-person 3D graphics and then later Ultima Online was released.

The google-fu in this one is strong.

gath

Originally posted by Signe


The google-fu in this one is strong.

Feel the search, Luke!

Arbadacarba

There was a thread on this topic about a week ago:

 

www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/176646

 

The history of massively multiplayer online games spans over thirty years and hundreds of massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) titles.

 

MMOG's are the result of a combination of several concepts.

In 1973, Mazewar introduced the first graphic virtual world, providing a first-person perspective view of a maze in which players roamed around shooting at each other. This could be seen as a key progenitor not only of MMOGs but also of First Person Shooters. It was also the first networked game, in which players at different computers could visually interact in a virtual space. The initial implementation was over a serial cable, but when one of the authors began attending MIT in 1974, the game was enhanced so that it could be played across the ARPAnet, forerunner of the modern Internet.

Meanwhile, the PLATO computer system, an educational computer system based on mainframe computers with graphical terminals, was pioneering many areas of multiuser computer systems. By the middle of 1974, there were graphical multiplayer games such as Spasim, a space battle game which could support 32 users, and the Talkomatic multi-user chat system.

The game Dungeons and Dragons was published for the first time in 1974, starting a boom in role-playing games, which appealed to many college-aged computer programmers. Software development quickly followed; the first single-player graphical "dungeon crawl" was pedit5, written for the PLATO system in 1974, followed quickly by m199h and then by dnd, which was playable by the end of 1975. In dnd, there was a quest goal, to obtain the mystical Orb.

In 1976, William Crowther created the first Text Adventure game, Colossal Cave Adventure, in which a single player solved various puzzles. All interaction was through text; no graphics. The player typed simple commands such as "look north" and the computer replied with descriptions of what was happening.

Since PLATO had both multiplayer games and Dungeons and Dragons style role-playing/dungeon crawl games, both graphical, combining the two was inevitable, and on November 18, 1977, Oubliette was released.

Meanwhile, multiuser text-based (entirely non-graphical) MUDs were evolving, with the first being developed by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw in 1978. These games ran on private servers, usually at a university, and sometimes without the knowledge of the system's administrators. Players would typically connect to the games using a TELNET client, and gameplay was similar to role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. By typing commands into a parser, players would enter a dungeon, fight monsters, gain experience, and acquire loot.

MUDs (and later their descendants such as MUSHes and MOOs) were sometimes wildly different from one another, but shared many basic interface elements. An example of this would be a player's means of navigating his or her character around the gameworld by typing in compass directions ("n", "se", etc.).

A text-based (or, more accurately, roguelike), game called MAD, would become the first global MUD, operating through the global network BITNET.

Many MUDs are still active and a number of influential MMOG designers, such as Brad McQuaid, Mark Jacobs, and Brian "Psychochild" Green, began as MUD developers and/or players.

 

 

 

I would say the first true MMORPG was Islands of Kesmai (depending on what you consider "massive").  The game was roguelike and became available to consumers in 1984 for $12.00 per hour via the CompuServe online service.

 Read all about the history of MMOGs at Wikipedia.

 

List of Roguelikes

 

Ozmodan

Muds are NOT MMO's, more like misguided chat rooms.

I also do not consider games only offered on particular service one either, they were not available to the general public. 

And Meridian was not a true MMO in my opinion, that makes it obvious the first real MMO was UO.    

Czzarre

Originally posted by Ozmodan


Muds are NOT MMO's, more like misguided chat rooms.
I also do not consider games only offered on particular service one either, they were not available to the general public. 
And Meridian was not a true MMO in my opinion, that makes it obvious the first real MMO was UO.    

I disagree with this assesment. In my years on Muds, people took pride and worked on  their equipment, made alts, assisted others just like they do on todays MMOs. however, there was not a significant guild stucture and it was mostly solo play. There was a lot of player created games in the MUSH catagory that had a lot more RPG than todays MMORPGs

Suory

Yea, I dabbled a bit in muds in the late 80's. Oh how far we have come in online gamming. Looking at some of the older screen shots, it is amazing how I thought the graphics in UO were awesome.

Anyway, A lot of people say that 59 was the first MMO. IMO people say that because it wasnt played by a lot of people. It kinda boosts their ego, because it was out before UO. Which was played by a lot more people. UO "somewhere" was offically named the first MMO that had graphics.  I can not remeber where, but UO is offically the first one that graphics.

khartman2005

Originally posted by Arbadacarba

 
I would say the first true MMORPG was Islands of Kesmai (depending on what you consider "massive").  The game was roguelike and became available to consumers in 1984 for $12.00 per hour via the CompuServe online service.
 Read all about the history of MMOGs at Wikipedia.
 
List of Roguelikes
 

Okay, I had to place this little snippet here for everyone bitching about 15.00 a MONTH.. Back then we payed by the hour and it was WAY more expensive then.

Heck, I still play a MUD today (MajorMud)

if anyone is interest I have the bbs information and will pm it to you if you are interested. The prices are fair and there is a small but very helpful group of people that play.