"... if you had a multiplayer game that exceeded sixteen, you might as well call it massive."
Raph Koster, Sony Online Entertainment
Few people today remember the simpler multiplayer creations that started the craze for shared gaming. The likes of Everquest, World of Warcraft, and even Second Life owe their existence to those who saw how much fun it would be for gamers to be able to interact with many others in an alternate reality on the Internet.
Two of the pioneers of Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) gaming were Kelton Flinn and John Taylor, who together founded the games company KESMAI. Although several text-based multi-user dungeon (MUD) games had existed since the late 1970s, they worked on a huge step forward—a graphic-based massively multiplayer game: Air Warrior.
Released in 1987, Air Warrior was a World War II flight-combat simulator that many people, hundreds' at a time, could play together online- (using a pay-for- use service called Genie). Its virtual environment was perpetual—while the players could enter and leave as they chose, the game continued. Players from around the world could log on, choose their own type of aircraft, and fly missions with and against each other.
Air Warrior was a major milestone of its time. Although the graphics were crude by today's standards, in those days anything capable of accommodating the activities of over sixteen players was a staggering achievement.
