BigKid.com.au

Massively Multiplayer Mulling

Gamespy have what is actually a very good series of articles on the past, present, and future of massively multiplayer gaming. It’s a bit “star” heavy - EQ’s Raph Koster, who fancies himself a bit of a MMOG historian, is amply quoted as are other industry big names, without a word from genuine pioneers such a Meridian 59’s Damion Schubert for instance - and as a result it takes a slightly myopic view. It credits Ultima Online for first tackling the problem of players killers (PKs), when in truth PKs have been around since MUDs in the 80’s, and M59 incorporated them into it’s design (and still does). It also gives EverQuest a slightly unbalanced significance, calling it “the most popular online game in history” when Korea’s Lineage maintains a user base 10 times the size of EQ (I don’t know how online journalists keep getting away with such blatant US centricty; I guess it shows the SOE PR machine is working). It does however chronicle the assassination of Lord British during the UO beta test, which was a watershed moment in MMOG history (a player slays the game’s maker within his own game), so it’s not all bad.

  posted by monty · at 11:56 am · filed under News