Oldschool MMO's 1991-1997
 

Was browsing around for a bit on oldschool mmo's and came across this tidbit of info. I never played any of these games as I didnt have a pc back then and would have been before middle school? Anyone else play any of these? Before these would have been all MUDS (which I have played from time to time) Some of these were p2p by the hour I think.

Neverwinter Nights was the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) to display graphics, and ran from 1991 to 1997 on AOL. In addition to being the first graphics-based MMORPG, the game also marked the first appearance of online Clans and Player versus player (pvp) combat in multiplayer RPGs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glgq_IKfq78


Meridian 59 is an online computer role-playing game first published by the now defunct 3DO Company and now run by Near Death Studios. First launched online in an early form on December 15, 1995 and released commercially in September 1996 with a flat-rate monthly subscription, Meridian 59 is often credited as the first 3D graphical "massively multiplayer online game" or MMORPG.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCgMroudgoA


'The Shadow of Yserbius', (1992) originally published by Sierra On-Line, was the first of three graphical MUDs for the online community. Opening to rave reviews, The Shadow of Yserbius, according to industry critics, set the standard by which all future MUDS would be judged. The game was followed by two sequels entitled The Fates of Twinion (1993) and The Ruins of Cawdor (1995). Until recently, only The Shadow of Yserbius and Fates of Twinion were playable in offline mode.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asv4wavilnM

Umm... that aint the neverwinter nights I played lol. NWN was awesome, I was a sorcerer with time stop. WABAM>

It's a very different Neverwinter Nights, but Neverwinter Nights. Bioware's Neverwinter was a "remake" you could say.

Yeah I have never seen that neverwinter nights but I have played Bioware's nwn off and on since it came out. It really might be one of the most chalenging and frustrating games I have ever played, especially when you get involved in the pvp stuff.

If we're just talking about MMOs and not MMORPGs, What about Air Warrior? I played it a tiny bit right before EQ came out, but my dad played it religiously.

I played M59 in 1998. The only MMO where I did PvP. When you died your opponent was able to loot your corpse. But I dont remember how many items he was allowed to loot. These days I had to pay 400 Deutsche Mark (~200 Euro) a month for the telephone carrier... If I remember right we never had more then 200 people on one of the german servers. We had 3 PvP servers and one non PvP called "Blümchenserver" I left because I was disappointed from the first expansion: no graphic update at all.

Who else played "The Realm"?

Meridian 59
 

Meridian 59 is still running, and free. http://meridian59.com.

I played the Realm off and on with UO for about 2 years before EQ launched and I never went back. IIRC the level cap was something absurd like 9999 and every time you hit a new level plateau you would get a ribbon to wear on your characters chest to show off.

PvP was also interesting as all combat was turn based on a separate screen that had to load so you could follow a guy around and keep spamming them into PvP and they could never get away. You could lock someone down for hours.

Gemstone 3 (now Gemstone 4). Text-based MMORPG. Awesome game for its time.