MMOGs - The Future's So Bright!

They go under various names - MMOG, MMORPG, Massive Multiplayer. What you call them isn't important. What is important is that they're huge - huge in size, huge in popularity, and huge in fun! If you're a computer gamer that hasn't yet ventured into the online multiplayer realm, you don't know what you're missing!

Multiplayer games have a history dating back two decades, to the 1970's, when the first MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons) were developed. In the late '70's, two college students at the University of Virginia created a game called The Island of Kesmai. It was fantastically popular, and CompuServe began hosting the games in the early 1980's. Even at $12/hour, people were excited for the chance to play.

In the late '80's, other games began to show up, including the one that got me hooked - Gemstone II, launched on GEnie in 1988. Another Genie favorite of mine had a historical bent - Hundred Years War. In the early 1990's, Doom was released, and gamers got their first taste of the "first person shooter." The genre took off with the release of Quake.

The MMOG genre was well and truly launched, however, with the appearance of Ultima Online in 1997. The Ultima games had a huge following, and hordes of aficionados swarmed to UO. Even with all the bugs, the lag, and a huge PK-problem that discouraged newbies, Ultima Online took off and gamers never looked back.

EverQuest launched in 1999, and soon became the most popular MMOG - with superb graphics and great grouping capabilities. Asheron's Call followed later that same year, creating the first "seamless" world with an ever-changing story arc that's updated monthly. Each game is constantly improving, with constant updates, patches, and expansion packs.

What's the future for MMOGs? Bright - exceedingly bright. Currently, there are more than two dozen offerings in development. While some of these will undoubtedly fall by the wayside, as UO2 (Origin) already has, others will start to hit the retail shelves later this year.

While the "Big Three" - Ultima Online, EverQuest, and Asheron's Call, were all set in a more traditional RPG format, the newest major addition - Anarchy Online - has more of a futuristic sci-fi twist. The games in development range from the well-known platform of Star Wars to platforms where there won't even be humans, like Atriarch.

There are a lot of exciting things in the future of the genre! Let me be your host to the marvelous world of MMOGs! Here you'll find the very best MMOG news, reviews, discussions and links. Come On - Let's Play!