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General: The Five Longest Running MMOs
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy writes this week's list of the five longest running MMOs.
The genre of MMORPGs, if it should even be called that, is a fairly new phenomenon in the world of gaming. Dating all the way back to the MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons) of days gone by, the MMORPG has quite a few long-running games in its library. Most gamers might attribute the birth of the genre to a simple few: Ultima Online, Everquest and Lineage. While these pioneers should largely be considered the games responsible for bringing MMORPGs into the public eye, they are not the oldest titles out there. Ultima Online is going on its 13th year of activity, but believe it or not there are five games that came before it which are still alive and kicking. There may be a few technicalities that could switch the ordering around, but without further adieu, here is the list for the five longest running MMOs.
#5 Nexus: Kingdom of the Wind
Launched in Korea in 1996, and again in North America in 1998, Nexus could also be slotted at number four but we’re going to go with the North American release date for the purpose of this list. Nexus is something of a harbinger for what was to come out of Korea. While the most notable “old-timer” from Korea is thought of as Lineage, it was Nexus that first brought the MMO into the collective conscience of many Eastern gamers.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
I think this is a good list, and a good trip down memory lane. I appreciate the inclusion of Meridian 59 as most people forget about it. And I do like the mention of Muds, as they were essential to the evolution of the MMO's in my view.
You though do not mention the predecessors of these games though, such as those run on Genie, Compuserve and Prodigy. games such as Gemstone dating back to 1988 and is still running in some form today, Dragons Gate as well as Isle of Kesmai and Air Warrior. There were also BBS games such as Scepter of Goth which held huge popularity in the 80'sThese are all great MMO's that paved the way for online gaming that we do today.
#5 is wrong if you're considering NA release dates as you mentioned, in this case 1998.
UO released on September 25, 1997.
Lineage 1 was also in 98 and still is quite playable.
NexusTK was my first love
Man UO when it first came out was a blast never had as much fun in a game since.
great read. There have been very few interesting articles lately at MMORPG so I was happy to read this one.
Playing: PO, EVE
Waiting for: WoD
Favourite MMOs: VG, EVE, FE and DDO
Any person who expresses rage and loathing for an MMO is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.
The Realm was the first MMO I played (was it the first graphical?). When UO came out there was no looking back for me. I am amazed that the game still runs for how out dated the tech is. But I do thank it for getting me interested in online gaming.
I think I was only in junior high when I played The Realm, man that's a long time ago.
Good read remember those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. So taking us back on our MMO past helps us to move ahead.
Nice trip down memory lane with the one exception, as mentioned in the quoted above.
DarkFall FAQ - Read then Question with Boldness
So when the next conversation comes up about what mmo cloned and copied what other mmo, we now know that everything that is out now is a clone of The Realm Online!
Go-Go-Gadget The Realm Online!
I'm not creative enough to have a signature
This.
Edit:
Also, I think one of the reasons Furc(adia) is still running is due to the fact that it's (one of?) the only mmo for furries (which, also, allows them to "yiff"..)
Besides that, it's nothing but a chatroom with GUI.
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ah Realm and Furcadia, i loved playing those, i should go back to Furcadia and revamp my old Dream rpg about archelogy and gods
In the summer of 1980 University of Virginia classmates John Taylor and Dr. Kelton Flinn wrote Dungeons of Kesmai, a six player game inspired by Dungeons & Dragons which used Roguelike ASCII graphics. They founded the Kesmai company in 1982 and in 1985 an enhanced version of Dungeons of Kesmai, Island of Kesmai, was launched on CompuServe. Later, its 2-D graphical descendant Legends of Kesmai was launched on AOL in 1996. The games were retired commercially in 2000. [1]
Legends of Kesmai (LOK) was among the first successful graphical multi-player online role-playing games. It was based on a slightly stripped down version of Island of Kesmai and was available for play at America Online and a now defunct site called GameStorm. Prior to that, Kesmai corporation ran a long open beta for the game, as well as hosting the game for a short period of time in the mid 90's. In 1999 Electronic Arts bought Kesmai and in 2001 closed the business.[2]
I'm sure that this disqualifies it but it still exists today on a reverse engineered platform after EA refused to release the code.
Wow, yeah what a walk down memory lane that was. I've played all those on and off back then before and for a while after UO came out, with the exception of Nexus: Kingdom of the Wind, which I never played.
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I used to play NannyMUD starting back in 1990 (its still running btw) and then I played the beta of The Realm, but didn't subscribe because there was too much PvP. I also passed on UO for the same reason. It wasn't until the beta of Acheron's Call that I got hooked on MMORPGs.
Currently, I'm looking for a new MMO to be passonate about after the disappointing STO release. I'm biding my time with F2P and endless trial games, but none of them keep my attention like some of the old great games did.
I would say Don't forget about NeverWinternights on Aol. its might not have been a true mmo but it was a great multiplayer DnD game in its time. I still miss this game from time to time. Playing this game was someting like 3.50 per hr as thats what aol charged at the time to play it. the game died after aol went with an unlimited plan and there were just too many players to keep the game playable.
Neverwinter Nights was the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) to display graphics,[1] and ran from 1991 to 1997 on AOL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights_(AOL_game)
I would have definitely included that one, but it's not running anymore. I still think NWN it's ripe for a modern MMO, but it needs to be done right if so.
-Bill
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
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UO got beat out by Nexus for a reason that I probably could have made clearer. Nexus came out in Korea in 1996, hence why it's on the list over UO. But Nexus is last on the list because of it's North American release date. I didn't think it was right to remove it from the list entirely, considering it's actually 2 years older than NA gamers might realize, but I also wanted to order the list for NA... maybe I should have just made it the top 7 longest running MMOs and included both Lineage and UO.
-Bill
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
If you're going to include MUDs, DragonRealms started in '96 or so, and is still going... well, not exactly strong, but still going.
I would agree except that I think game should be excluded if they required a seperate subscription to a service. .you had to be an AOL member and then also pay for NWN.
The same goes for Darksun Online. . oh I miss my half-giants and Thri-kreen. . but again .. you had to subscribe to TEN.
I actually started an ITB guild in Meridian with another guy who was from ITB on NWN. Great stuff!
Wa min God! Se æx on min heafod is!
Nice article
"EVE is likely the best MMORPG that you've never really understood or played" - Kyleran
NexusTK was my very first MMO. I've been playing the game for nearly as long as it's been around.
While my character may rarely be seen in the kingdoms these days, It will always be my favorite game. I've had flings with numerous other modern games and yet I don't think I'll ever be able to find a game as captivating and exciting as this one. Maybe it was just first love like ChibiMidori said.
Thank you Author, for keeping Nexus in the list. This is the first time I've ever seen anyone write anything about it on MMORPG, I'm just glad that someone hasn't forgotten about it.
Wow, this goes way back. It's a damn shame Underlight never really caught on. Was my first MMO, and as far as roleplaying goes, I've never seen anything like before or since.
The Realm was addictive and fun. Character creation was fun and very customizable.
They had early forms of instanced dungeons where people lined up to go in. It was fun to rush to the front of the line and "click in" before the rightful player, an early form of annoying other players ;p
Pvp was fun, as was stealing from other players if you were a thief. Although too many players used trainers and made naked uber-characters (as not to drop any loot) that could waste you in two hits.
I remember some of the uber items were Glowies (nifty boots) and Baldies (High level Baldric's awarded).
Ultima Online, Everquest and Asheron's call replaced The Realm for me and I never looked back. Ultimately Everquest crushed everything else for quite a while.
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Nice to see this, brings back some memories...though I am sad to see one missing.
Terra: Battle for the Outlands, released in 1996 (about the same time as Meridian 59), and thanks to its hardcore fans is still around today. It's been shutdown, and brought back a few times, but so were others on the list, so I think it is definitely worth the mention.
For those with doubts you can check out www.terraoutlands.com
Currently run and operated by its fans.