Chapter 20. The Lighter Side of Meridian 59 s History


Chapter 20. The Lighter Side of Meridian 59's History

by Damion Schubert , Former Designer of M59

KEY TOPICS

  • Prologue

  • The Timeline

AUTHOR NOTE

We wanted to include this history for a couple reasons. First and foremost, Meridian 59 (M59) was the first of the "modern era" persistent world (PW) games , and we thought it important that the industry learn a bit about its history. There are still "professionals" running around who think Ultima Online ( UO ) was the first PW ever done. Even M59 wasn't the very first, but it did take Internet PWs to a whole new level.

Second, we tried to buy the game when we were with Engage. We were actually given first shot; Archetype called us before it called 3DO. We knew this was the engine that would let us get one of our Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) games online fast. We will always be fiercely angry that the person responsible for calling back Archetype from our parent company (Interplay) made it a low priority, even though we had decided to make an initial offer. By the time that person got around to it, 3DO had already made an offer for the entire company. Another opportunity missed .

And last of all, we wanted to include this article because it is simultaneously funny and instructive. You can learn a lot about online gaming just by reading it.


This is the lighter, more amusing side of M59 's history. One might read this and assume that we were troubled, or screwed up, or clueless. I suppose, to some degree, that this is true, but for the most part, this was the golden age of MMP games; everyone was feeling their way through the dark and trying to figure out every aspect of the business, from technology to design to management to marketing to CS and QA. Answers that seem obvious now were still waiting to be discovered . I do know that the team that worked on M59 was, while I was there, the most passionate and hardworking team that I knew of.



Developing Online Games. An Insiders Guide
Developing Online Games: An Insiders Guide (Nrg-Programming)
ISBN: 1592730000
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 230

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