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[EARLY ACCESS] The History & Evolution of Massively Multiplayer Games (Patreon)

Published:
2026-07-10 17:17:54
Imported:
2026-08
Tags:

Content

UNLISTED YOUTUBE LINK (PLEASE DO NOT SHARE): https://youtu.be/cRLDOaCaVbM

Hello Early Access folks!

Here is the second of Jeremy's videos with Raph Koster - originally one large video but we decided to split them up as they felt like two stronger videos separately.

This one focuses on the evolution of online multiplayer game design, all the way back to multi-user-dungeons, and a little further back too.

00:00 - Multi User Dungeons04:20 - Inventing Video Game Genres07:15 - Ultima Online13:09 - World of Warcraft15:00 - The History of Social Play17:33 - All Games are Social Spaces20:59 - CREDITS

I love these single-dev docs that Jeremy whips up, hopefully we can do more of these over the next few months.

Let us know what you think!

Danny

Files

The History & Evolution of Massively Multiplayer Games - /noclip

Support us on Patreon (get perks!) ► https://www.patreon.com/noclip or Join Noclip on YouTube (similar perks!) ► https://bit.ly/3nH3FUf SUBSCRIBE for More Free Game Docs ► http://bit.ly/noclipsubscribe Raph Koster explores the history of human co-operative play, from MUDs to World of Warcraft, and even our ancient history of play. Noclip's work is 100% crowdfunded. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/noclip Website: https://www.noclip.video Store: https://store.noclip.video Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noclipvideo/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/noclipvideo Twitch: https://twitch.tv/noclip Podcast: https://noclippodcast.libsyn.com/ Podcast Channel: http://youtube.com/noclippodcast Produced and Edited by Jeremy Jayne Final Edit by Danny O'Dwyer 00:00 - Multi User Dungeons 04:20 - Inventing Video Game Genres 07:15 - Ultima Online 13:09 - World of Warcraft 15:00 - The History of Social Play 17:33 - All Games are Social Spaces 20:59 - CREDITS

Comments

Jonathan Beckham

You're doing The Realm dirty by not even showing a screenshot during it's callout! That was the first mmo I played and it really stuck with me. In my experience more people sat in taverns roleplaying than going out "on adventures, " tho I thought the dungeons and world design was a a lot of fun. There was a mass exodus after EQ came out and I'm been somewhat chasing the dragon since. Great video!

Aaron Nielsen

Great video, as always. I love games that can create a third space for me and my friends. I've even found some lifelong friends online through this way of play. I often refer to my time working on Sea of Thieves. That game was so powerful, the gold, achievements and voyages were ultimately pointless markers for "progression" but the heart of the game and I think why it was successful was getting to sail around with friends, roleplay and simply chat. Come to think of it, what Raph describes of "sizing someone up" over board games... I did exactly that with my now wife but over Sea of Thieves haha Oh and FYI I went looking for the steam link in the description but couldn't find it.

Connor 'Nerrel actually ate my pumpkin' McDonald

Fascinating, fascinating video. I could listen to him talk about game design for hours. Also, shout out Snow Crash. I read that book a couple years ago for the first time, and it was so fucking cool. Very interesting mashup of sci-fi, history, linguistics, and cyberpunk. Highly recommend.

Mark van Dijken

i could listen to him talk for hours, such a cool video

Michael Fossbakk

So much insight from one person. Love it! (BTW, I think there's a dip in music around 20:09).

David Grier

The Final Fantasy XI clip at 19:59 illustrates the evolution well. When that game started, you could only get to around level 10 or so solo, then you'd party up with others and grind monsters to get to level 75. No quest xp. So you'd need to find people to group with every time you wanted to make progress. Some people put together static parties that met on a schedule, some people sat around shouting advertising their services in the cities (no group finder) In the clip, the player is playing solo with several summoned NPCs as party members. In the current iteration of the game, you can play solo the whole way with NPC companions, which has completely cut out all the social effort that the game used to require. We made lifelong friends looking for parties.

Uplifting Goat - Modern Retro Game Dev.

My first bigger MUDs were Gem stone and Dragon Realms spreading like wildfire on AOL. So many great memories made and so many 3am sessions :)