History Of Multiplayer Games

Bulletin Board System (BBS)

The first online game was created by Mr. Rick Blomme in 1969. The "game" was based on MIT's PLATO system, and was a BBS-based game, from where many of the early games were born. BBS games started with players making their moves by sending them to the BBS system administrator. Thus, these games involved many players making moves simultaneously. Results of a player's moves were updated and posted by the administrator at least daily. This, however, led to some interesting events in the game, such as people sending their armies to invade others only to find that there was no one to fight with as the original army had left or moved on. In most cases, there were no computer enemies that were autonomous and if there were, they were most often controlled manually by the BBS administrators. This system progressed and evolved, and soon the system became automated, allowing the BBS site to handle the details and logistics of processing player's commands, allowing the administrator more freedom in creating the game itself. It was not long until text-based adventure games, set primarily in medieval fantasy realms, appeared. These text-based adventure games were known as Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs).This is believed to have originated from it's offline counterparts of the classic "Paper and Pen" RPGs where people get together with a "Gamemaster" much like the BBS system administrator and take turns to have actions in which the "Gamemaster" will respond accordingly.

Multi-User Dungeons/Domains (MUDs)

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The first MUD appeared in 1979 and was designed by Trubshaw and Bartle. It was hosted in the UK, at Essex University. The original BBS gave birth to true multiplayer games that were actual online environments, not bulletin boards, which allowed people to log on and assume the persona of their character for awhile. Once a person logged in, they could move around the world and interact with other people who existed therein, as well as with mobile creatures (mobs) that were controlled by the computer itself. These mobs were controlled autonomously by programming code that would specify their reactions to situations that they encountered. The mobs would know whether to retaliate or run when attacked by a human player. Players could now also interact with each other instantly, by typing. This, as well as the ability to have players interact with items in the fantasy world created a feeling of realism. Items could be handed back and forth and a player could look at a list of items on their inventory list. All of these developments would lead to the next phase in multiplayer game progression: First Person Shooters.

First Person Shooters (FPS)

A first person shooter game gets the name from the fact that the screen would display graphics that seemed as if the player was actually looking at the game through the first person perspective. The shooter aspect is due simply to the fact that almost all of these types of games involve finding large guns to annihilate the other players before you are annihilated yourself. The first game of this type was released for the Macintosh in 1989, and was called A-Maze-ing. It is also considered to be the first 3D first person shooter. The FPS crazy really took off in 1994, with the release of Doom from id software. Doom II quickly followed, and id software had positioned themselves at the top of the FPS market. After the Doom series, the Quake series of FPS games followed. While Doom had allowed a maximum of 4 players, Quake could sustain 16 simultaneous players! The thrill of running down hallways while in pursuit of the fleeing opponent grabbed the attention of many. There was no need to install additional software besides the game itself. Inside the game, a player merely had to select the multiplayer option to enjoy the multiplayer experience.

Turn Based Strategy and Web Browser Games

At the time where MUDs were extremely popular, web browser games like Archmage and Terranlegacy sprouted and took the world by surprise, while games like this offered limited turns per time frame and limited means to communicate with other players, it proved to be highly popular as most of these allow players to assume roles of a country or personnel and explore the set worlds, awareness of cyber economies rose during this period thanks to the functions in such games such as trading resources, currency inflation due to demand of a certain items. There was also those which aims to educate like the famous "Lemonade Stand" game and some stock simulation ones that were also popular.

Real Time Strategy Games (RTS)

At about the same time as FPS games were gaining in popularity, real-time strategy games got themselves a new facelift. When Blizzard Entertainment released Warcraft in 1994, the old BBS-style strategy game was brought back, with one important improvement: real-time action! Now, players could experience the thrill of time ticking away as they ordered their virtual troops to do their bidding. By combining FPS with RTS, the next step for progress was not far off; Massively Multiplayer games were set to dominate the gaming world.

Massively Multi-Player Games

While the first Massively Multi-Player (MMP) game was a game called Air Warrior which was released in 1987, the introduction of Ultima Online in 1997 was the real beginning of them MMP fascination. Ultima Online was set in a fantasy world and in a very short time, had an audience that most professional sports teams would envy. Verant Interactive, a partner of the Sony Station, created EverQuest, a game that has taken the online gaming industry by storm. The game has stunning graphics, an astounding number of players, and an entire virtual world available for players. All players in a MMP game exist in a shared world, interacting with objects and other players in real-time. Rivalries can be built, and friendships can be forged in the world of MMP games. Today's games, like Granado Espada, improve upon the original gameplay of MMPs, and it will be interesting to see what the future holds for such games.

Virtual Worlds

The last step (for now, at least) in online gaming is the virtual realm. Virtual worlds like Second Life, which was created by Linden Labs in 2003, has just recently gained widespread popularity. Such games are much less like games and attempt, rather, to imitate real life. In virtual worlds, players take on an avatar and can interact with other players' avatars, set up virtual businesses, purchase virtual goods, and build their own virtual houses. With broadband penetration rates increasing every year, and computing power following the principle of Moore's Law, virtual worlds are set to become the newest, hottest multiplayer games ever created. The concept and popularity of virtual worlds have been advancing ever since, so much so that IBM has even created guidelines for employees who visit such worlds.