Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
blogs—as well as graphical multiplayer games and even “social media.”
5
The spirit behind it was fundamentally experimental, even though the ex-
ternal driving force was to create a “product” for Quantum Link.
The following wee history is meant to provide a little background on the
evolution of multiplayer gaming and some of its sub-genres. Note that
many of the games mentioned are still being played in 2013. Interaction
among multiple players is as old as
Spacewar!
, a two-person space combat
game fi rst developed in 1962. In the PLATO system,
Spasim
(1973) was one
of the offspring of
Spacewar!
, with several planets and up to 32 simultane-
ous players. And PONG, of course, was a two-player action game created
in 1972 that eventually led to Atari in all its magnifi cence.
MUDs (Multiple-User-Dungeons, originally based on Dungeons and
Dragons gameplay, later revised to the more generic Multiple-User Do-
mains) arrived on the scene in the late 1970s in the form of
Adventure
(1975)
and
Zork
(1977). These were text-based multiplayer adventure-type games,
and I personally loved playing them (age check). The PLATO system also
hosted progenitors for MUDs and MOOs (MUD Object-Oriented) during
this time period.
6
Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) showed
up in the late 1980s. An explosion of games in the genre followed, while
the genre itself branched out to include great new acronyms like MMORTS
(Massively Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy games) and MMFPS
(fi rst-person shooters).
Doom
is an example of the latter; later examples of
the genre include
Halo
and
Call of Duty
. In 1991,
Neverwinter Nights
, pub-
lished by America Online, was the fi rst
graphical
online role-playing game
(MMORPG). The MMORPG genre was popularized on the Internet by
Ul-
tima Online
(1997) and
Everquest
(1999). MMORPG games dominate the
landscape today, although the MMFPS and MMORTS forms continue vig-
orously as well.
5. Social media is fundamentally narrative, to be discussed later in this chapter in the context
of Character.
6. This and more information on PLATO games is available an the Universal Videogame List,
www.uvlist.net/platforms/games-list/181
(©1998, retrieved 04/23/13).
