Best MMO that was ahead of its time

Important takeaways

• Meridian 59 introduced 3D graphics to MMOs and pioneered a technical feat ahead of its time.
• Ultima Online popularized player-driven economies in MMOs and set a standard for older MMORPGs.
• EVE Online's unique player-driven universe enables organic warfare and narrative development.

MMOs are one of the oldest and most revered subgenres in gaming, with their greatest hits surviving for decades, and each new entry requires an incredible amount of resources with no guarantee of a reward. That's why it's important to celebrate the history of MMOs and some of the key mechanics they popularized or introduced way ahead of their time.

Whether it's the first popular use of instanced environments – or the 3D environments themselves – these MMOs (in chronological order) deserve their laurels for being way ahead of their time.

8 Meridian 59

Little known pioneer in the genre

Released in 1996 for PC, Meridian 59 may be a relatively obscure game these days, but when it was released it was actually the very first MMO to ever integrate 3D graphics, which was a huge technical undertaking for the time, especially as the game allowed for first and third person play.

To this day, a small but dedicated community remains committed to keeping an open source version of the game alive. MMO fans may not have played it before, but it has been treated with much deserved respect for its graphical innovations.

7 Ultimate Online

Hometown hero

First released in 1997, Ultimate Online became one of the greatest PVP MMO games of all time, earning itself a long-standing set of fans who play the game to this day on a new and upgraded game engine with improved graphics launched in 2007. In fact, it has a good claim to be one of the very best legacy MMORPGs ever made.

Ultimate Online can be credited for being one of the first MMOs to feature a fully player-driven economy, meaning that player-to-player trade was absolutely central to the game and was bolstered by a robust crafting system. Player-driven economies would become a defining feature of many MMOs, and Ultimate Online is the game that popularized it before them all.

6 EverQuest

The old king

Released in 1999 on PC, Everquest may be relatively abandoned these days after a sequel and increasing difficulty to play, but many have fond memories of the MMO that was folded into the Sony brand and remains relatively dormant to this day, despite being one of the best MMOs that preceded its bigger brothers who World of Warcraft.

While Meridian 59 was the first MMO to introduce 3D graphics in an MMO, Everquest was the first MMO to take place in a fully 3D game engine, revolutionizing the MMO space as players know it – and directly inspiring the visual style of industry titans that World of Warcraft.

5 Dark Age Of Camelot

Arthur's legend

• Release date: 9 October 2001
• Platform: PC
• Developer: Mythic Entertainment, Broadsword Online Games​​​​​​​
• Publisher: Vivendi Universal Games (US), Wanadoo Edition (Europe), Electronic Arts (2006-present)

Given that the late 1990s and early 2000s were a heyday for new MMO releases, it's not surprising that some were left in the cultural dust, and Dark Age of Camelot is undoubtedly one of the discarded MMOs that deserves to be better remembered.

It is because Dark Age Of Camelot pioneered the concept of kingdom vs. kingdom battle where entire player factions are placed at war with each other, with much of the story detailing what would happen when the kingdoms of Hibernia, Albion, and Midgard went to war. It was novel for its time and allowed players to pledge their allegiance to different factions, long before the Alliance/Horde dynamic of World of Warcraft. The fact that it offered three-way faction conflicts created a dynamic system that few MMOs have emulated since.

4 EVE Online

Intergalactic Monopoly

Now over 21 years old, EVE Online is still one of the most feared and titanic games in the MMO market, known for its terrifying player-driven economy and real-time galaxy dominance, requiring a frankly massive amount of time, and often derided for requiring spreadsheets to play properly.

Regardless of the criticism, EVE Online is completely unique in introducing an entire galaxy for players to naturally attempt to conquer, pirate, trade and war over. This means that all wars are purely organic, with the developers only stepping in to introduce constant new content. The players define the narrative of the game, and new stories still break when a particularly massive battle occurs.

3 Second Life

First draft of Metaverse

Nowadays, gamers are all too familiar with the idea of ​​metaverses and living out alternate realities in digital spaces, but even though it was imagined in fiction for a long time, no game embraced and embodied this idea as much as Second Lifereleased in 2003.

IN Second Lifeplayers create an avatar and interact with user-generated content in an entirely virtual space, where developers often refuse to categorize the game as a game at all. This hypersocial reality is a direct precedent for games like VR Chatand it most easily embodied the fantasy of MMOs becoming brand new worlds where players could build a new life.

2 Star Wars Galaxies

In a galaxy far far away

It was only a matter of time until a definitive Star Wars-based MMO arrived during the heyday of early 2000s MMOs, and Star Wars Galaxies delivered in spades, allowing fans to truly explore the Star Wars galaxy in a whole new way.

It is not just a novel to bring to life a popular sci-fi world (Star Trek online would follow in 2010), but it also allowed players to erect their own buildings all over the world, including homes, eventually coalescing into cities with fully dynamic and organic virtual economies where players could craft the items that earned credits to go around. It's a great system that may not have been topped since.

1 Guild Wars

The road less trodden

While Guild Wars and its sequels are often overlooked in comparison to their bigger brothers in the form of World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14it is worth emphasizing how groundbreaking the original Guild Wars was, ahead of its competition by many years.

Guild Wars is beloved for its world and tight RPG mechanics, but it was also one of the first games to introduce instance scenarios, meaning parties could enter specific versions of the world where they wouldn't affect other players. It was a revolutionary idea that greatly opened the doors to what MMO mission design could be, and it directly influenced some of the biggest MMO missions that existed thereafter.