MMORPG Leveling -- A visual timeline. Predictions?

[Raymeo]

FFXI, 2002: Sit in Jeuno for days, weeks and months LFG on whatever is loljob of the month.

Your rose-tinted spectacles need cleaning.

I only pointed out that the principles which founded the MMO genre were all present back in the beginning. I never claimed that they were realized in an ideal way. Honestly, I'm still waiting to see the first perfect MMORPG, so I'd say that my glasses suit me just fine.

"True Definition" huh? As someone who has played online games since before they were graphical I have to say...

Touche, I did pass over the fact that MMORPGs go back further than 1999. Instead I began the timeline with the genre's first introduction to the mainstream, coinciding with the release of Everquest.

If you really want to be technical, I could see an argument for beginning the timeline with 1997 in order to coincide with the release of Ultima Online. Even if it didn't bring the genre to the mainstream, it was responsible for the creation of the term MMORPG, and as such was the first game to have the word applied to it. Either way, from Ultima/Everquest onward, what qualifies as an MMORPG is pretty black and white.

Going back to the games that you're describing though, things enter more of a gray area. I won't deny that you'd find some very similar genres in the 80's and early 90's. I'd just argue that they're not necessarily part of the same modern MMORPG genre that exists in the mainstream today. Those older games may have built the foundations for the modern MMORPG genre, but whether or not they should retroactively be included in this genre would be a fun topic for debate rather than obvious fact or fiction.

In any case though -- whether the timeline begins at 1999, 1997, or earlier -- the three elements of the "true definition" (massive, multiplayer, role-playing) would still be present at the origin. I think we can agree on that much. The illustrated point would remain just the same.

(Before anyone picks a bone with my opinion that Ultima did not bring the genre to the mainstream, consider: Ultima had a two year head start on Everquest, and reached 100,000 players just before Everquest's release. Only a few months after Everquest's release, Everquest had reached 250,000 players. These numbers both grew over time, but even throughout their growth they maintained this same ratio relative to each other, both eventually peaking at double those 1999 numbers.)