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The Game Archaeologist: GameLine
Modern MMO gamers are blessed with plenty of conveniences that we take for granted. One such convenience is the ability to simply download any online game without having to deal with the hassle of DVDs or CDs (trust me, young people, one day your children will be dubious when you tell them how you'd have to swap in discs to load a game). Game trials, downloadable content, access to a large library of titles, and simply being online are facts of life for us, not cause for us to fall on our knees in total awe. Before Steam was offering us loads of free-to-play MMOs, before Xbox Live Arcade was offering indie titles a platform for exposure, before CompuServe was making headway in online services, there was an odd artifact on the Atari 2600. Yes, that ancient console that has nary an "X" or "Play" in its name. The artifact was GameLine, and whether or not you've heard of it, it was one of the earliest pioneers of downloadable games services. When I found out about it, it just fascinated the crap out of me. I think it will impress you, too.
AOL strikes deal with YouTube to start streaming content from various brands
AOL's continuing push to boost its video presence on as many internet places as possible has just secured many of the company's brands a spotlight inside one of the world's biggest sites. According to AllThingsD, AOL and YouTube have inked a deal that will bring "branded channels" with content from sites such as Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Moviefone and even clips from the recently launched HuffPost Live over to the video streaming platform. And while AOL did previously offer some tidbits on YouTube, this move is expected to better solidify and highlight the vid work from properties like the ones mentioned above -- which, of course, could only be accomplished by reaching a new "everyone wins" type of revenue sharing agreement. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the AOL family]
The Game Archaeologist plays with MUDs: Your journeys, part 2
This is the end, my only friend, the end. Of our elaborate plans, the end. Of everything that MOOs, the end. No safety or aggro radius, the end. Man, listening to The Doors early in the morning does not put you in a happy state of writing, let me tell you! In any case, we've extended our MUD/MU* month here on the Game Archaeologist Channel to include a few more first-hand testimonies of Massively readers' favorite text-based MMOs. As much as anything else we've talked about in this column, it's vital that we not forget the roots from which our current MMOs were born nor neglect to take the opportunity to expose a whole new generation to a graphically simpler but textually richer experience. So let's kick the tires and light the fires of nostalgia as we talk with five of the baddest MUDders you'll ever know!
The Game Archaeologist and the Nights of Old Winter
Here's a question for you: How much do you really, really have to love a game to pay $8.00 an hour to play it? Considering how much we tend to whine about a flat $15/month fee, I'm guessing the answer is, "Only if it loved me long time." And yet, in 1991 this wasn't considered crazy extortionist practices -- it was dubbed "Being a pioneer." While online RPGs were nothing new by then, nobody had tackled the jump from text-based RPGs (MUDs and BBS doors) to graphical games due to the technology (limited modem speeds and access) and funding involved. It took the efforts of a Superfriends-style team to make this happen with Neverwinter Nights: Stormfront Studios developed the game, TSR provided the Dungeons & Dragons license, SSI published it under its Gold Box series, and Aol handled the online operations. Thus, 19 years ago -- six years before Ultima Online and 13 before World of Warcraft -- the first multiplayer graphical RPG went online and helped forge a path that would lead to where we are today. With only 50 to 500 players per server, Neverwinter Nights may not have been "massively," but it deserves a spot of honor as one of the key ancestors to the modern MMO.
