The first commercial MMORPG was Islands of Kesmai in late 1984. Using a Dungeons and Dragons based combat system, the game processed one command every 10 seconds, at a cost of around 10 dollars an hour. Several Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) existed in the 70s, but exactly what constituted ‘massive’ at this stage of MMOGs is up for contention.

The first graphical MMORPG was Neverwinter Nights (not to be confused with Bioware’s single player RPG Neverwinter Nights). Neverwinter Nights went live in 1991 and ran through into 1997, and cost $6 an hour to play.

Screenshot: Shadow of Legend

The term MMORPG was coined by Richard Garriott, the creator of Ultimate Online, in 1997. Ultima Online is the game that is credited with popularizing the genre. However, a game called ‘Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds’ was released in South Korea in 1996 and eventually gained over 1 million subscribers. Designer Jake Song went on to create Lineage, which gained millions of subscribers not just in Korea, but worldwide.

1999 saw the release of EverQuest, which brought the fantasy MMORPG genre to the Western world. It was the most commercially successful MMORPG in the US for 5 years, and has had 14 expansions and a sequel.

Runescape was the one of the first browser-based MMORPGs, released in 1991. Written in Java, the game features full 3D graphics (albeit not very high quality) and boasts more accounts than any other MMORPG in history – approximately 15 million. Most notable, Runescape remains free to play.

The second generation of MMORPGs features titles such as Lineage 2 (2003) and City of Heroes (2004), both from NCSoft (creators of Lineage), which saw them enjoy a large amount of commercial success. Square-Enix released Final Fantasy XI, the first MMORPG to span across multiple continents and multiple platforms, being available on Playstation 2, Windows and now PS3 and Xbox 360.

The current generation of MMOs include NCSoft’s Guild Wars, another free-to-play RPG boasting around 5 million players, and World of Warcraft, Blizzards juggernaut with over 10 million players worldwide. World of Warcraft remains one of the most popular games in the world.