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Stanford University acquires source code for Multi-User Dungeon

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Re: Stanford University acquires source code for Multi-User Dungeon

#11

Multi-user graphical online virtual worlds, multi-user dungeons -- these things were already booming on the University of Illinois' PLATO system in 1978; they'd started popping up in 1973, maybe even '72. You had pedit5, moria, oubliette, krozair, dnd, dungeon, then in 1979 avatar, just to mention but a few. Multi-user dnd games were one of the most popular activities on PLATO all during the mid to late 70s. And thes…

It looks like they really mean first game like that on the Internet.

Re: Stanford University acquires source code for Multi-User Dungeon

#12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sigh. You're making my point for me. But the irony escapes you I guess.

Honest question, does PLATO or any other intranet count for 'first online' anything in the terms of this discussion?

PLATO was a network of systems, not just one. By 1978 there were PLATO systems in Illinois, Minnesota, Delaware, Florida, Belgium, and other locales, all internetworked using what was called "the link", a high-bandwidth connection between these various CYBER mainframes. PLATO had collectively many more users than ARPANET during this time; ARPANET's population wouldn't exceed PLATO's until probably around 1981, though it might even be later.

Re: Stanford University acquires source code for Multi-User Dungeon

#13
post #2

Though a cool artifact, it seems like the essence of something like this comes from interaction with the others using the service. There's a really interesting podcast segment[1] about the Preserving Digital Worlds[2] project which tries to answer some of the questions about how to best document / preserve something who's value comes from the experiences users share with each other [1] https://soundcloud.com/roman-ma…

99% Invisible should turn up on HN more often. It's a very interesting and very well produced podcast that should interest a lot of people here. The episodes are short and it's worth digging through the archives.

Re: Stanford University acquires source code for Multi-User Dungeon

#14

Multi-user graphical online virtual worlds, multi-user dungeons -- these things were already booming on the University of Illinois' PLATO system in 1978; they'd started popping up in 1973, maybe even '72. You had pedit5, moria, oubliette, krozair, dnd, dungeon, then in 1979 avatar, just to mention but a few. Multi-user dnd games were one of the most popular activities on PLATO all during the mid to late 70s. And thes…

> Bartle has gotten a lot of mileage over the years with the MUD1 story

It's not really his fault, considering how often he points out how unspecial MUD1 was by doing the same kind of rattling-off you did. He does leverage his fame; I'll agree with you there; but I don't see this as a bad thing considering what he does with it. (Namely, he puts all his effort into advancing game design as an academic.)

Re: Stanford University acquires source code for Multi-User Dungeon

#17
post #11

Multi-user graphical online virtual worlds, multi-user dungeons -- these things were already booming on the University of Illinois' PLATO system in 1978; they'd started popping up in 1973, maybe even '72. You had pedit5, moria, oubliette, krozair, dnd, dungeon, then in 1979 avatar, just to mention but a few. Multi-user dnd games were one of the most popular activities on PLATO all during the mid to late 70s. And thes…

It looks like they really mean first game like that on the Internet.

Probably, though that involves a little bit of retroactive attribution: at the time it was just an online game on some network. In 1980, ARPANet, PLATO, and other large multi-site networks were roughly peers. ARPANet turned out to be the one that "won" and evolved into the Internet, the global internetworked system that everything else got rolled into. But I'm not sure that retroactively changes the status of what a game in 1980 was: if one game was on ARPANet and one was one PLATO, you couldn't really say one was one "the internet" and the other wasn't, without being pretty anachronistic.

Re: Stanford University acquires source code for Multi-User Dungeon

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question, does PLATO or any other intranet count for 'first online' anything in the terms of this discussion?

PLATO was a network of systems, not just one. By 1978 there were PLATO systems in Illinois, Minnesota, Delaware, Florida, Belgium, and other locales, all internetworked using what was called "the link", a high-bandwidth connection between these various CYBER mainframes. PLATO had collectively many more users than ARPANET during this time; ARPANET's population wouldn't exceed PLATO's until probably around 1981, though…

Here is Wikipedia page on PLATO: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system)
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