MMORPGs have been around for several decades. But in which online role-playing game was the very first raid challenge? MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz has gone on a quest to find out for you.
Surely you remember exactly which MMORPG you participated in your first raid and what the challenge was called. For me, it was sometime in spring 2005, the Molten Core from World of Warcraft, and among the 39 comrades were some Azeroth newcomers who had not yet reached level 60. “Cheerful wiping” was the motto of the first night.
But in which MMORPG did the first raid occur? Who was a pioneer and who just cleverly copied? To find answers to these questions, I have gone on a quest again for you. By the way, my last trivia article was about the question, why certain characters in games are actually called twink, toon, or alt?
Do you want to play your MMORPG on the go? Here are the best options:
Where does the term “raid” come from and what does it mean?
Those who search for “raid” in the MeinMMO Lexicon will find the following:
“A raid in PvE means approaching a special instance, a raid instance, that requires more than just one group of players. In PvP, a raid usually refers to an attack on a particularly well-protected enemy target, which requires the concerted cooperation of several groups. Generally, it can be stated: Raid means everything for which you need more than about 8 players and that requires greater coordination.”
The term “raid” comes from the military or police field, where it describes a sudden attack (for example, on a drug ring) or the capture of an enemy target (via dictionary.com).
When was the first “raid” in an MMORPG?
In the first part of the report on the history of MMORPGs, it was about the multi-user dungeon (MUD) from the late 1970s, the 80s, and early 90s, which are considered the precursors to the first 3D MMORPGs.
One of the later MUDs was the text-based role-playing game DikuMUD created by some students from Copenhagen, which was released in 1991 and established many elements that were later used by various well-known MMORPGs.
On his website, developer veteran Raph Koster (Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, EverQuest II) describes, for example (via raphkoster.com), that in DikuMUD there were already
- fights with multiple phases,
- skills with cooldowns,
- the holy trinity of tank, healer, and DPS,
- and first raid challenges (!) against powerful monsters like a dragon.
Who was the first to be inspired by DikuMUD? When the first EverQuest was released in March 1999, it offered, besides the massive game world, 14 classes, twelve races, guilds, and much more, but there was still no raid content; however, that was to follow in October 2002 – a premiere for the still young 3D MMORPG history. Coincidence?
Nope! There was even a near lawsuit as there were accusations that the EverQuest developers had taken too much inspiration from DikuMUD (and even copied part of the code). Thus, on the official website of DikuMUD, there remains a concluding statement to this day:
“The DIKU group is proud that the DIKU spirit has found its way into such an entertaining and award-winning game as EverQuest.”
What was that raid in EverQuest like? In October 2002, “The Planes of Tower” was released as the now fourth expansion of the MMORPG. It was aimed at high-level players and introduced the raid challenge “Plane of Time” to Norrath, where a whopping 72 players had to collaborate to succeed.
Participants faced six time-critical phases, with five different trials needing to be completed in the first phase (with a maximum of 18 characters allowed to participate in one trial). In Phase 2, several waves of enemies were to be defeated in three areas.
Phase 3 then combined all areas to send eight more waves at the players, including some bosses. Afterwards came the “first major challenge”, at least according to this guide on raspersrealm.com. With Saryn, Terris Thule, Vallon Zek, and Tallon Zek, the raid had to overcome several bosses – fortunately not simultaneously, but in any order.
After defeating the lesser gods, Phase 5 brought the encounter with the higher gods Bertoxxulous, Innoruuk, Cazic Thule, and Rallos Zek. The finale was then capped off by the fight against the overlord Quarm. The developers of EverQuest thus made an impressive statement right from their first raid. More trivia can be found here: Why is loot always white, green, blue, purple, and gold?
