The squandered potential of MMOs

When they first arrived on the scene, MMOs looked like they would redefine the concept of gaming. The idea of virtual worlds where people could be someone else, experiment with different personality types, and experience unique interactions with excited both gamers and academics.

10 years later, MMOs have become pale cousins of their MUD ancestors. Modern MMOs feel and play only a little bit different from their single player counterparts - there are just more people around and a $15 a month fee.

What happened?

This article gets at the history of MMOs and looks into how the "virtual world" part was forgotten.