Since the invention of the internet, online gaming has been an integral part of modern entertainment, letting communities worldwide connect, compete and collaborate in spectacular virtual spaces. Like all areas influenced by technology, it’s accelerated at a rapid rate in recent years and this evolution is far from over. Discover the origins of online gaming, its journey so far and what we could expect in the future.
- Text-based adventures
The late 1970s and early 1980s saw the emergence of text-based adventure games where players explored virtual worlds through written descriptions. The most famous examples allowed players to input stock commands such as “go north” or “take key” to receive text descriptions of the results of these actions. With minimal graphics, these games were more like an immersive reading experience than the kinds of games we play today.
Stemming from these early text-based games were Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) – virtual worlds where players could interact in real-time to solve tasks together. This fostered the idea of group gaming online, similar to physical board games.
- Graphical MMORPGs
The 1990s marked a pivotal moment in online gaming with the arrival of graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). These games blended traditional role-playing elements with the ability to interact with thousands of players simultaneously in expansive virtual worlds.
One of the most striking defining features of an MMORPG is the persistent world. In other words, the game continues to grow and develop even when you’re not playing. This allowed for complex character progression and interaction which in turn fostered dedicated global communities and huge in-game events.
- Console gaming goes online
Prior to the turn of the millennium, video gaming was largely confined to consoles offering single-player or local multiplayer experiences. In the early noughties however, online services linked to consoles such as Xbox Live revolutionised the format, enabling people to play against others from around the world without leaving their rooms.
This expanded the player base and set the stage for modern gaming culture. Voice chat and matchmaking became standard features of games across all platforms, and playing online rocketed in popularity. Over half the UK population play video games according to recent surveys, with this percentage set to increase even more by 2029.
- Cloud gaming
With console gaming going online, the natural progression was to eliminate the need for consoles at all – and that’s exactly what the cloud has done. Video gaming on consoles is still highly rewarding and preferred by some due to the superior graphics capabilities, but cloud-based games can be streamed directly to your smartphone, tablet or laptop, making online gaming more accessible.
You’ll find everything from complex quests with multiple chapters to classic quick-fire arcade games online, and the development of smartphones means you don’t need anything better than a standard phone to play. Devoted gamers can find special gaming computers and phones with enhanced GPUs, RAM and battery life to elevate the experience should they wish to invest.
Cloud gaming also promises to further reduce the barrier between reality and gaming worlds. As the games themselves are hosted in the cloud, in theory players can stream them to a wide range of devices including Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) headsets for a fully immersive experience. With emerging technologies meeting faster internet speeds and more powerful servers, the immersive experiences of tomorrow might be closer than you think.
