The Proteus Paradox Read Online Free

Online
. Before this, many gamers referred to these games as graphical MUDs. What constitutes “massively” has never been standardized: Is it the number of total active players or the highest number of concurrent players or the greatest possible number of players a server can handle? Perhaps the best way to understand“massively” is that it differentiated the genre from other multiplayer online games available in that era. For example, multiplayer shooter games like
Quake
could handle up to sixteen concurrent players on each server. This means that there is some wiggle room as to which game can claim to be the first in the genre. After all, in 1991
NeverWinter Nights
could handle five hundred concurrent users.
    Ultima Online
’s highly successful launch in 1997 changed the playing field, and the game eventually peaked with roughly 250,000 active subscribers.
Ultima Online
made it clear that the industry was no longer looking at a niche gaming subgenre that catered to a handful of hardcore players.
EverQuest
’s launch in 1999 was an even larger commercial success, with an eventual peak of 450,000 players. With the shift to subscription-based revenues, the number of total active players mattered more than the number of hardcore players. It also meant that a retail game continued to generate revenue month after month after its purchase. Game companies were quick to realize the significant commercial potential of this model.
Ultima Online
and
EverQuest
are often recognized as popularizing this game genre and bringing online games into the public consciousness. 9
    The success of
Ultima Online
and
EverQuest
led to a surge of online games in the following years. Games such as
Asheron’s Call
and
Dark Age of Camelot
stayed within the medieval fantasy setting. Others, such as
EVE Online
and
Star Wars Galaxies,
took the gameplay mechanisms to futuristic settings. The success of the genre among older teenagers and adults led to the development of virtual worlds for preteens in games like
Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin,
and
Toontown Online
. Despite the large number of online games launched during this time, there was a general consensus in the game industry by 2004 that the online game player base had reached a plateau; new games would simply siphon players from older games. No online game in the American or Europeanmarkets had approached the million subscriber mark, and the overall number of players did not seem to be growing. Yet that year Blizzard launched
World of Warcraft
. Within months, the game had a million players. In early 2006, when the game broke the six million subscriber mark, Blizzard announced that it had more than a million subscribers in Europe—four times higher than the previously estimated size of the entire European market for online games. As of the writing of this book in 2013, no other online game in the US or European market has come close to matching
World of Warcraft
’s peak player base of twelve million paying subscribers. This is remarkable, given that it has been eight years since the game launched. 10
One Short Day
    Even though online games can have wildly different settings—ranging from medieval fantasy to intergalactic science fiction to contemporary cityscapes—their core gameplay is remarkably similar. Contemporary online games draw heavily from the conventions of miniature wargaming and tabletop role-playing games. Players begin all online games by creating their character, a weak novice who slowly gains experience and becomes more powerful. Players can select from a range of
races
(such as Elf, Troll, or Human) and
classes
(such as Warrior, Mage, or Cleric), each with unique strengths and weaknesses. Depending on the game, players can customize the appearance of their character by selecting different hairstyles, skin tones, and clothing.
    The core gameplay revolves around leveling up the character. When players kill a monster, their character gains