Darth Hater

The massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG as you may know it, is a sub-genre of role-playing games. Set in a persistent virtual world, MMORPGs allow a large number of players to interact with one another simultaneously. Star Wars: The Old Republic, or SWTOR, is an upcoming MMORPG from BioWare, but you already knew that. What you may not know is that it took more than five years of development to get SWTOR to where it is today. SWTOR is part of a family tree of video games that traces its lineage back almost 40 years. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and look at all the games that paved the way for SWTOR, then take a quick glimpse at what is coming next.

Modest Beginnings

It all started in 1974 with a game called Maze War, created by Steve Colley. Maze War was the precursor to the first-person shooter and holds the distinction of being the first networked video game. If that wasn’t enough, the game’s developers enhanced the game to run on the ARPAnet, the forerunner to the modern internet. Two years later, William Crowther developed Colossal Cave Adventure. Commonly referred to as Adventure, it was the first text-based computer adventure game. Inspired by Adventure, a group of MIT students created Zork. In 1978, the true grandfather of MMORPGs came out. MUD1, created by Roy Trubshaw, was an online version of Zork, of which Trubshaw was a huge fan. In 1980, he handed his game over to fellow student Richard Bartle, who connected the game’s internal network to the ARPAnet, creating the first Multi-User Dungeon (MUD). MUD1 is the oldest virtual world in existence.

The first commercial MMORPGs did not come out until 1985, when Island of Kesmai was released. Developed by the company Kesmai for the online service provider CompuServe, it was a fantasy MUD available at no extra charge to CompuServe subscribers. The downside, of course, is that CompuServe itself cost $6 per hour for 300 baud or $12 per hour for 1200 baud. To think, people nowadays complain about paying $14.99 a month! A year later Lucasfilm Games (before they were LucasArts) made Habitat. The first of the graphical MUDs, Habitat used a MUD interface with 2D graphics and featured many gameplay mechanics found in modern MMORPGs, including the use of avatars and an emphasis on online community. Habitat itself was only available as a beta, but in 1988 Quantum Link purchased it and prepackaged it as an online action game for the Commodore 64 titled Club Caribe.

The MMORPG as we know it today did not exist until the '90s. In 1991, Stormfront Studios developed a game for America On-Line (AOL) called Neverwinter Nights. Taking its license from Advanced D&D, Neverwinter Nights was also the first MMORPG to display full graphics—however, it cost $6 an hour to play. Legends of Future Past dropped the following year. Designed by John Randoff and Angela Bull as a MUD, Legends of Future Past was the first MMORPG to move from a proprietary network provider—in this case CompuServe—to the internet. Legends of Future Past was also the first MMORPG to feature a crafting system, as well as the first game to have full-time paid Game Masters, or GMs, who initiated events in real-time in-game. The first MMORPG released outright on the internet was The Realm Online in 1996, developed as a graphical MUD by Sierra On-Line for the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system. Then, in 1997, Origin Systems published the game that put the term MMORPG into the American lexicon, Ultima Online. Ultima Online was the MMO entry of the already popular Ultima RPG series and featured a 2D isometric view. Ultima Online popularized the MMORPG genre and was the first game to reach 10,000 subscribers, far exceeding every game that came before it.

Ultima Online is one of the “The Big Three”, three MMORPGs that sparked the modern age of the genre. The second game, released in 1999, was EverQuest. EverQuest, or EQ, designed by Sony Online Entertainment, was the first MMORPG to feature full 3D graphics. Soon after release, EQ surpassed Ultima Online’s subscription numbers. It was also in EQ that the practice of selling in-game currency for real life currency began. EQ also received heavy criticism for its addictive nature. These issues still plague MMORPGs to this day. The third game, Asheron’s Call, hit the market eight months later. Developed by Turbine Entertainment Software and published by Microsoft, it too featured 3D graphics. These three games pioneered the genre and served as the template for MMORPGs released in the following decade. “The Big Three” are all still active as of the writing of this article.

The Modern Age

Needless to say, MMORPGs became very popular by the turn of the century. Video game companies, eager to capitalize on the popularity of “The Big Three”, began churning out a whole new generation of MMORPGs. These new games both built on what came before and began to deviate from the norm. Thus began the modern age of MMORPGs. The first game to break convention was Phantasy Star Online in 2000. Phantasy Star Online, developed by Sonic Team for Sega, was the first MMORPG to appear exclusively on a console system: the Dreamcast. Part of the established Phantasy Star RPG series, Phantasy Star Online deviated from the traditional MMORPG combat for a more action oriented approach and a simplified leveling system.

In 2001, Funcom released Anarchy Online, the first modern MMORPG to include a sci-fi setting, dynamic quests, free trials and in-game advertising. Its most ground-breaking feature was instancing, a technique designed to provide players with content free of interference from the greater virtual world. Despite all of its innovation, Anarchy Online suffered from one of the worst MMORPG launches ever, and helped prove just how important the launch period of an MMORPG can be.

Later that year, Mythic Entertainment released Dark Age of Camelot. DAoC's biggest contribution to the genre was Realm vs. Realm (RvR) combat, in which an individual player's actions can accrue benefits for an entire realm. The game quickly surpassed Asheron’s Call and Ultima Online in popularity, becoming EQ’s largest rival. RuneScape's beta also came out that year as a graphical browser game. Developed by Jagex Game Studios, RuneScape was the first MMORPG to use a free-to-play (F2P) business model. This meant players can play the game for free with an advertisement banner that appeared at the top of the game screen. Paying a subscription fee would remove the advertisement. This new system helped RuneScape gain over 10 million subscribers, enough to make it the most popular free MMORPG in the Guinness Book of World Records. In 2002, Square (later Square Enix) released Final Fantasy XI as the first cross-platform MMORPG. Players on personal computers, PlayStation 2s or eventually the Xbox 360s could interact in-game.

EA released Earth & Beyond in 2002. Westwood Studios developed the game as the first 3D spaceship-based MMORPG. Earth & Beyond, however, died after EA shut down Westwood Studios two years later. 2003 saw an influx of more MMORPGs that concentrated on player-driven content. The first of these was Shadowbane. Created by Wolfpack Studios and published by Ubisoft, Shadowbane featured dynamic world content. Next came Eve Online, CCPGames’ 3D spaceship-based game featuring a player driven economy and storylines. The last was Star Wars Galaxies, created by Sony Online Entertainment. Star Wars Galaxies was the first MMORPG to use the Star Wars license and heavily emphasized player housing and player driven content. The following year, NCsoft released the first superhero themed MMORPG, City of Heroes, which allowed players to create their own superheroes in a genre dominated by the fantasy and sci-fi realms.

The 800 Pound Gorilla

2004 was a landmark year for MMORPGs; the market saw a tremendous influx of games. The highest subscribed MMORPG in the world at that time was a Korean game called Lineage. Released in 1998 by NCsoft, most of its three million subscribers were from South Korea and the game failed to make its mark anywhere else in the world. The next highest subscription MMORPG was Final Fantasy XI, with 550,000 subscribers. At the start of the year, Sony Online Entertainment had three successful MMORPGs under their belt, and they were counting on EverQuest II to once again dominate the market. When EQ II finally released in November, subscriptions skyrocketed to 300,000—an instant success.

Blizzard Entertainment, a company known for its critically acclaimed real-time strategy games, released their first foray into the MMORPG genre that same month: World of Warcraft. By the close of the year, WoW accumulated a subscription base of over one million subscribers. By the middle of 2005, WoW snowballed to over three million subscribers, a number that continued to rise to an amazing 12 million subscribers by 2008. By then, WoW made up more than 50% of the MMORPG market, and that still holds true today.

World of Warcraft’s meteoric rise perplexed many people, despite its universal praise by critics upon release. WoW refined what were then aging game mechanics. Blizzard focused on making their game more user friendly than previous entries to the genre and streamlined most of the other established aspects of MMORPG gameplay. WoW is currently the most played game in North America. Its expansions broke sales records. WoW is also in the Guinness Book of Records as the most popular MMORPG. The game’s success was a phenomenon that other development companies have tried to harness with games that mimicked WoW, giving rise to the moniker “WoW Clone.” Surprisingly, no other game has repeated the success of WoW, and in many cases, such attempts have led to sub-par releases.

Post-WoW

After WoW, the MMORPG situation became dire indeed. Rushed, inferior games flooded the market, all trying to cut a piece of the proverbial pie. The most significant of these titles was The Matrix Online by Monolith Productions. While the Matrix films broke box office records, the game peaked at only 47,500 subscribers before plummeting drastically. The game lasted 4 and a half years before shutting down in August 2009.

ArenaNet's Guild Wars managed to separate itself from the pack. Released in April 2005, Guild Wars took a more action oriented approach and emphasized role-playing and PvP gameplay. In 2007, Turbine, Inc. released The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, or LotRO, the first major success after WoW. Although critically acclaimed, LotRO did not achieve commercial success until Turbine adopted a F2P business model similar to that of Guild Wars a few years after its initial release. LotRO is now more successful than most of its competitors, reaching a peak of over 550,000 subscribers while many of its contemporaries are suffering dwindling subscription numbers.

The trend of licensed MMORPGs continued in 2008 with Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Marketed as the mature MMO, Funcom’s Age of Conan takes place in the Conan universe. Initially very successful, the game reached a peak of 700,000 subscribers. However, a problematic launch, bugs and a lack of end game content saw those numbers drop significantly. In June 2011, Age of Conan switched to the F2P micro-transactions business model and subscription numbers now hover just over 100,000. Warhammer Online, developed by Mythic Entertainment, takes place in the Warhammer fantasy universe. Considered to be one of the best MMORPGs upon release, subscriptions sky-rocketed to 800,000, but eventually dropped to fewer than 100,000.

A ray of light would eventually shine through, giving developers hope that it is possible to share in the MMO space post-WoW. In 2008, NCsoft released Aion: The Tower of Eternity in South Korea. Aion, like WoW, took familiar MMORPG tropes and was able to present them in new and innovative ways. Aion also emphasized flight, and injected it into every facet of the game, including PvP, which was the focus of the game. Aion managed to peak at four million subscribers. During that same time period, WoW experienced its first major decline in subscriptions, giving hope to a genre that had lived in its shadow for five years.

The next few years would see an increase in the number of MMORPGs using the F2P model. Cryptic Studios released the superhero themed MMORPG Champions Online in 2009. Based on the pen and paper RPG Champions, this game moved to a F2P business model not long after release. 2010 saw the release of the second MMORPG based on the Star Wars license. Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventure, released by Sony Online Entertainment, was a F2P browser based MMORPG, similar to Free Realms (another MMORPG by Sony Online Entertainment released the previous year). Other F2P games released during this time include Atlantica Online, Dragonica and Runes of Magic.

In early 2011, Trion Worlds released their highly anticipated MMORPG Rift. Officially marketed as a “WoW Killer,” reviewers criticized it for its marked similarity to WoW. Rift managed to achieve a peak subscription base of only about 600,000, despite its strong initial sales. Clearly, just being a more polished version of WoW was not going to be enough to ensure phenomenal success.

The start of 2011 saw the release of MMORPGs trying new things. The first of these games was DC Universe Online, the third superhero themed MMORPG, based on the vast DC Comics license. Although not cross-platform, DCUO did release on both the PC and PlayStation 3. This marks DCUO as the first new MMORPG released on a current generation console. DCUO took many of the familiar MMORPG game mechanics and threw in an action based combat system that relies more on skill than accumulating and allotting skill points.

The second game is The Exiled Realm of Arborea. TERA, developed by Bluehole Studios, is already out in South Korea. TERA also emphasizes action oriented combat and incorporates a fantasy setting, and includes many of the MMORPG mechanics not in DCUO, such as crafting. En Masse Entertainment hopes to release TERA in North America before the end of 2011.

Five Years

When BioWare first started to plan what would eventually become Star Wars: The Old Republic, the MMO market was a very different place. WoW had already cemented its place in MMO history and most other MMORPGS failed to even come close to that game’s success. In January 2007, EA completed its acquisition of BioWare with the hopes of expanding into the MMO market. Rumors ran rampant of a new entry in the Knights of the Old Republic series. BioWare finally confirmed the development of SWTOR on October 21, 2008 at a press-only event. Of course, the combination of the Star Wars IP and BioWare, one of the most critically acclaimed game studios around, has raised interest in SWTOR up to a fever pitch.

But like anything else that takes over five years, the MMO market has changed significantly since SWTOR began production. A plethora of licensed MMORPGs, few offering any innovation, flooded the market. There was also an influx of F2P games, like Guild Wars and RuneScape. BioWare does have an ace up its sleeve, a shift in focus to differentiate it from other games: BioWare is brining story to the forefront. Story is usually an afterthought in MMORPGs. Most MMOs flesh their story out through third party means, like books or game trailers, only touching upon it through quest text. BioWare is injecting story into every facet of SWTOR. Every single quest and instance comes complete with fully voiced cut scenes fleshing out the world around the player. BioWare is also implementing the moral alignment system that has proven so popular in their other games, which affects the way each class’s unique story plays out. Companions will also debut in SWTOR: Different from pets in other MMORPGs, companions are autonomous NPCs that join your character on their journey. They not only help players in combat, but also assist with crafting and add their own storylines to your own. BioWare is putting the RPG back in MMORPG. In this way, BioWare is trying to refresh many of the old MMORPG tropes, like raiding and combat, to make them feel fresh and new.

Looking Ahead

Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of a handful of upcoming MMORPGs that will attempt to add something new to the established MMORPG formula and push the genre forward. Another example is the highly anticipated Guild Wars 2. This time around, ArenaNet is changing the combat system to be even more similar to that of an action game. Guild Wars 2 is also scrapping the traditional and familiar trinity class system; in Guild Wars 2, all classes can take or deal damage and all classes have the ability to heal others. Guild Wars 2 will also take a page from BioWare’s playbook and focus on story. Guild Wars 2 will release sometime between late 2011 and early 2012, and like its predecessor it will be F2P.

Another upcoming game is Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online developed by Vigil Games for THQ. Warhammer 40K: DMO will also forego the traditional MMORPG combat system for a combat system similar to that of a first-person shooter. THQ plans to release Warhammer 40K: DMO in 2013.

The last upcoming MMORPG of note is also the most mysterious. Officially announced in 2009 by Blizzard Entertainment, a MMORPG with the project name Titan will be their follow-up to WoW. Project Titan will be the start of a completely new franchise with its own lore, art and gameplay separate from anything Blizzard Entertainment has done before. Projections place Titan’s release somewhere in 2013. It has been a long, strange journey. In a short four decades, we have gone from text-based games to massively multiplayer games with cutting edge, realistic graphics and full voice over work.

The genre has gone from over one million players in 2000 to a whopping 21 million players worldwide in 2011. As SWTOR comes closer and closer to release, we should take a minute to look back. For some, this will be nostalgic, while others may be noticing these games for the first time. SWTOR, and games like it, may very well represent the shift needed to push the genre to the next level. For the first time in half a decade, we are seeing developers that are willing to push the envelope rather than fall back on old, safe practices. We may not know what game will be on top in the future, but one thing we can be sure of: MMORPGs are more popular than ever.