Quantum Link is about a decade before my time, but I remember connecting to BBSes in the 1990s, and playing Doom over modems. Good times.
Heh, here's a tidbit about PvP in Habitat, an early MMO that ran on Quantum Link:
At first, during early testing, we found out that people were taking stuff out of others hands and shooting people in their own homes. We changed the system to allow thievery and gunplay only in non-city regions.PvP game designers encountering PvP players, something we've been able to count on for the last 30 years.
Edit: Pallais found a really nice paper on Habitat, written in 1990. It's an interesting read.
I always thought Habitat should be something every person that works on an MMO is required to study. It seems like every succeeding MMO in existence is eventually forced to relearn one of the lessons Habitat first discovered.
ReplyDeleteThat's certainly true. In some ways, it might be more interesting to see what are the "unique" mistakes that modern MMOs make.
DeleteFound it, The Lessons of Habitat: http://web.stanford.edu/class/history34q/readings/Virtual_Worlds/LucasfilmHabitat.html. It's fun to read given the paper came out in 1990(!) for a game released in 1985 for the Commodore 64.
ReplyDeleteNice find. I've added this link to the post.
DeleteI remember the days of Wildcat and other BBS systems, particularly the old Freenet days.
ReplyDeleteMan, I miss them.