[MUD-Dev] A Brief History of Commercial MUDs

[Jessica Mulligan]

At 12:03 AM 21/3/01 -0800, Dwayne A. Hall wrote:

>>> Sierra's The Realm was also first realeased in late 1996.  It
>>> probably reached peak popularity around January of 1998 with an
>>> estimated 25,000 subscribers.  The subscription model was a flat
>>> yearly rate of $49.95.  I think it is generally overlooked because
>>> it never propagated to more than one server (probably because of
>>> the subscription model).  It has since been purchased by the UK
>>> company Codemasters and is still running.  With the demise of
>>> Meridian 59 that probably makes it the longest runnng commercial
>>> MMORPG to date (assuming a single server doesn't disqaulify it
>>> from the term massively, it did have peak player useage of around
>>> 3000 simultaneously).  If anyone can find Steve Nichols he may be
>>> able to correct me somewhat, I am going on my recollections as a
>>> player and, later, an admin.

Actually, Bartle's MUD II is now the longest-running commercial MMRPG
(17 years), followed by Simutronics' Gemstone III (10 years) and a tie
between iEn's Kingdom of Drakkar and Mythic's Dragon's Gate (9 years).

-Jessica Mulligan

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