[MUD-Dev] A Brief History of Commercial MUDs

[Jessica Mulligan]

<EdNote: Not sure what happened to the quote, but fixed>

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Brian Hook <bwh at wksoftware.com>
> To: <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
> Sent: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 01:19:08 -0800
> Subject: [MUD-Dev] A Brief History of Commercial MUDs

> I fear but pray that this isn't an FAQ, and I couldn't massage
> Google to do what I want, but I'm trying to get a feel for the
> history and scope of commercial text and graphical MUDs.  I am
> woefully lacking in historical context for things like DR, GSIII,
> and all the various variants of free MUDs.

> I'm specifically curious to see a ranking of commercial MUDs (text
> or graphical) based on subscribers.

For some history, you have two main sources.  You can check out Raph's
timeline at

  http://www.legendmud.org/raph/gaming/index.html

(Select Essays, then scroll down to Online World Timeline.)

You can also view mine at:

  http://www.happypuppy.com/features/bth/bth%2Dvol8%2D36.html
  http://www.happypuppy.com/features/bth/bth%2Dvol8%2D37.html
  http://www.happypuppy.com/features/bth/bth%2Dvol8%2D38.html

If you're asking for a ranking of commercial MMOGs based on
subscribers prior to the current Big Three, you're asking the wrong
question.  Until Meridian 59 launched in 1996 and UO launched in
September of 1997 with flat monthly rates, billing for commercial
MMOGs was mainly on a per minute/hourly basis (with a brief period of
free access to AOL's games from 12/96 to about 7/97).  Thus, the
number of total subscribers was less important than how long you kept
your hard core players (the top 10%) in game.  Air Warrior had fewer
overall players than GS III, but they played longer and the game
generated equivalent revenue totals.

For example: On GEnie during 1991, our average MMOG customer spent
$156 per month, the equivalent of 32 hours at $3 per hour to play.
However, the hard core players averaged three times that and accounted
for nearly 70% of the total revenue.  The top 0.5% had truly
astronomical bills, well over $1,000 per month.  We had one Dragon's
Gate player who spent $2,000 per month every month for over a year (at
the time, GEnie's access fees during the period 7am to 7pm were close
to $20 per hour, and this guy would play during that time).

To rank the games, one would have to factor in online service price
changes from 1984 (when games began to appear on CiS at a minimum of
$12 an hour) to when AOL when flat rate at the end of 1996 (when most
of the online services were charging about $3 per hour).

Without looking through my archives, an off-the-top-of-my-head ranking
of these MMRPGs, totally unscientific and based on educated guesswork
of total revenue over the life of the product, would go something like
this:

  1. Gemstone III
  2. Islands of Kesmai
  3. AD&D: NeverWinter Nights
  4. British Legends
  5. Dragon's Gate
  6. Dragon Realms
  7. Drakkar
  8. AD&D: Dark Sun Online
  9. Shadow of Yserbius
  10. Legends of Future Past

Note that this is RPGs only.  If other genres were tossed in, we'd
include popular games such as Air Warrior and MegaWars III.

-Jessica

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