The golden age of MMOs: 1997-2004

[MythMapper]

Was there ever a more creative period in online gaming? In just seven years we got UO, EQ, AC, DAoC, SWG, CoH, and dozens more. Each one tried something completely different.\n\nModern MMOs feel like variations on the same theme. What happened to the experimentation?

[OracleOwl]

Also the player expectations changed. Early MMO players accepted jank and bugs because the concept was magical. Modern players expect polish day one. Hard to innovate when you cannot afford rough edges.

[RuneWalker]

The budgets got too big. When a game costs 100 million dollars, nobody wants to take creative risks. The golden age happened because you could make an MMO with a small team and a wild idea.

[ArcaneArchivist]

Publishers got risk-averse after WoW proved one formula could dominate. Before that, every studio was trying to innovate because nobody knew what "the formula" was.

[NexusNomad]

I think the real loss was community size. When a server had 3000 people, everyone knew each other. You had rivalries, alliances, famous players. Megaservers killed server identity.