World of Warcraft was not the first MMORPG. Blizzard did with WoW what the game company does with many genres: It took the best elements from the successful representatives of the genre and created something of its own. But that also means that there were MMORPGs before WoW. We introduce you to the 7 biggest ones.
Today we present to you the biggest online role-playing games that were played before the release of World of Warcraft.
Meridian 59
One of the fathers of MMORPGs was released in 1996 and already offered a 3D game environment in which players explored a persistent world. While the world was presented in – for today’s standards – a relatively detail-poor 3D, the engine rendered characters and monsters as 2D sprites.
Your hero could learn abilities from different schools. These included weapon skills, defense, various spells, and bard powers. Each server hosted 250 players who set off on monster hunts together or completed rudimentary quests in the style of “Kill X Monsters.” PvP was also possible. In battles, the defeated could even lose all of their possessions.
In 2009, the official operation of the MMO was discontinued. In the meantime, Meridian 59 is available again and can be played for free.
On page 2, we continue with a classic that is still played today.
