Online gaming has a long history as a revolutionizer in the field of games and technology. In recent decades, countless gaming innovations have taken the gaming industry by storm. Millions of people compete, shop, craft, and sell in various online settings in the electronic gaming world, earning billions of dollars. According to 2006 research, approximately 30% of female and almost 10% of male players have dated someone they met while playing.
The gaming world has facilitated social life in many aspects; it is also a popular relaxing task, whether you prefer bingo rooms or strategy gaming. With the industry being as big as it is today, the question of the creation of online gaming is an interesting one. When were the first games created? What were they about? How was the technology? All these questions can be answered with an overview of the first ten online games ever made.
The First 10 Online Games to Grace Our Screens
1. Scepter of Goth
America Online (‘AOL’) developed one of the first online games, Scepter of Goth, in 1983. Played on the AOL network, the game was a text-based adventure where players could move their avatars across the game’s universe and interact with things and other players within it.
2. GemStone
In 1988, Simutronics released the online role-playing game GemStone. As one of the first graphical online games, it was played on the GEnie network. Players could communicate with other players in real-time while navigating a virtual landscape full of monsters.
3. Habitat
One of the first instances of a massively multiplayer online game was Habitat. In 1986, Lucasfilm Games (now known as LucasArts) released Habitat, one of the earliest online games ever made. The game featured a graphical virtual environment where players could interact with one another and was played on the Quantum Link network, which was later rebranded to ‘America Online.’
4. Island of Kesmai
In 1985, CompuServe developed one of the first online games, called Island of Kesmai. Through the CompuServe network, it was a text-based role-playing game. Players may choose to play as a thief, wizard, or warrior as they explore a virtual world full of treasures and enemies.
5. Neverwinter Nights
Stormfront Studios produced the online role-playing game Neverwinter Nights in 1991. Players could communicate with other players while navigating a virtual environment packed with dungeons and dragons. One of the earliest online games with pictures and music, it was played on the AOL network.
6. The Oregon Trail
This straightforward yet fun and educational game was developed to educate people about what it was like to be an Oregon Trail pioneer in the 19th century. While traveling down the Oregon Trail in 1848, the players get to assume the position of a wagon leader and lead their selected party of people from Missouri to Oregon.
7. Legends of Future Past
Legends of Future Past is a remarkable game since it was the first text-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (‘MMORPG’) to go from a private network provider to a commercially available Internet. In 1992, Jon Radoff and Angela Bull created the game. CompuServe debuted Legends of Future Past, and users were paid 6 dollars an hour to play the game. Later, the game was played online and continued until 1999. Legends of Future Past was one of the earliest video games to include crafting. It included several unusual elements for the time, such as a resource-collecting system.
8. The Realm Online
The Realm Online is regarded as the first real MMORPG, even if several of the older games on this list helped MMO games to become popular and expand. A year before the phrase ‘massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG)’ was invented, The Realm Online was introduced in 1996. The Realm Online game was created when the Internet was starting, and at its height, it had thousands of participants worldwide.
9. Everquest
EverQuest turned 21 last year, a significant milestone for an online game. The game is based in the Norrath universe and mostly emphasizes PVP warfare, therefore being another game that follows the traditional medieval European fantasy style. EverQuest has around 500 in-game zones, which is a lot of material, given how long ago it was released. There are sixteen classes and sixteen races available. However, fourteen of these are carried over from the first game. The creators are still working on this outdated MMO, proving it won’t shut down anytime soon.
10. Spacewar!
Most people agree that Spacewar! was the very first internet game ever created. The DEC PDP-1 mainframe computer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was the intended platform for its creation in 1962 by a group of computer scientists. In the game, two players operate spacecraft while navigating a simulated 2D space world and attempting to kill one another.
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