Posted August 08, 2012
I remember playing around a bit in UO so I think I can offer my opinion :D
UO was one of the first MMOs that had an actual crafting system that I know of. What I mean by actual crafting is that you could play the game as if you were a tradesman and just craft things all day and sell/trade to other players for money. Another interesting fact about UO was that the perspective was isometric; in fact, it rather resembled Ultima VIII in a way but sort of zoomed out.
Another thing about UO was that you had actual player killing and looting. This was not WOW where all you had to do was come back to your body and just incur a somewhat minor repair cost. Someone killed you in UO, they took your stuff and there was naught you could do about it.
If you want to go further back into the history of MMOs, there's always Neverwinter Nights Online that used to be hosted by none other than America Online. This, in my opinion, was one of the first graphics-based proto-MMOs that was commercially available. Neverwinter Nights Online was ran during the dark days of pay-by-the-hour internet so the server(s) weren't exactly massively populated, at least by today's standards. I think the max amount of people that were in a given server/room hovered around 100 or so. Again, this is just some speculation since I've never played the game myself but read a website dedicated to that particular community. If you want to know what NWN Online looked like, just look up some screenshots from the very first Pool of Radiance games, that's exactly what it looked like :D.
If you want to go even further into the mists of time, you can google MUDs (multi-user dungeons for those not in the know). From what I heard about them in whispered tones around some of the more abandoned places of the net, they were text or ASCII-based precursors to all MMOs. The interface may or may not resemble a roguelike with other people doing things and chatting at the same time. Keep in mind that a lot of these weren't located on your typical server but you had to dial in to your local BBS (bulletin board service, again for those not in the know) and, yes, this was also during the pay-by-the-hour days. Rumor has it, that you had to be invited to these MUDs, they weren't as accessible like today's MMOs with their openness to new players.
If you want to learn more or verify if what I wrote had any bearing in reality, please make good use of Google as I am going off on what I know/remember and there may be some holes in my memory :D.
UO was one of the first MMOs that had an actual crafting system that I know of. What I mean by actual crafting is that you could play the game as if you were a tradesman and just craft things all day and sell/trade to other players for money. Another interesting fact about UO was that the perspective was isometric; in fact, it rather resembled Ultima VIII in a way but sort of zoomed out.
Another thing about UO was that you had actual player killing and looting. This was not WOW where all you had to do was come back to your body and just incur a somewhat minor repair cost. Someone killed you in UO, they took your stuff and there was naught you could do about it.
If you want to go further back into the history of MMOs, there's always Neverwinter Nights Online that used to be hosted by none other than America Online. This, in my opinion, was one of the first graphics-based proto-MMOs that was commercially available. Neverwinter Nights Online was ran during the dark days of pay-by-the-hour internet so the server(s) weren't exactly massively populated, at least by today's standards. I think the max amount of people that were in a given server/room hovered around 100 or so. Again, this is just some speculation since I've never played the game myself but read a website dedicated to that particular community. If you want to know what NWN Online looked like, just look up some screenshots from the very first Pool of Radiance games, that's exactly what it looked like :D.
If you want to go even further into the mists of time, you can google MUDs (multi-user dungeons for those not in the know). From what I heard about them in whispered tones around some of the more abandoned places of the net, they were text or ASCII-based precursors to all MMOs. The interface may or may not resemble a roguelike with other people doing things and chatting at the same time. Keep in mind that a lot of these weren't located on your typical server but you had to dial in to your local BBS (bulletin board service, again for those not in the know) and, yes, this was also during the pay-by-the-hour days. Rumor has it, that you had to be invited to these MUDs, they weren't as accessible like today's MMOs with their openness to new players.
If you want to learn more or verify if what I wrote had any bearing in reality, please make good use of Google as I am going off on what I know/remember and there may be some holes in my memory :D.
Post edited August 08, 2012 by JudasIscariot