History
The first computer role-playing games began in 1975 as an offshoot of the university’s first text-based mainframe role-playing games on PDP-10 and Unix-based computers, beginning with Dungeons and graphical role-playing games on the system. PLATO, pedit5 and dnd, role-playing inspired games. -playing games. Other influences during this period were text adventures, multi-user dungeons (MUDs), and roguelike games. Some of the first graphical RPGs after pedit5 and dungeons and dragons were orthanc, avatar (later renamed avatar), oubliette, dungeons of degorath, baradur, emprise, bnd, sorcery, moria, and dndworld, all of which were developed and they became widespread. popular on the PLATO system in the late 1970s, largely due to PLATO’s speed, fast graphics, nationwide network of terminals, and the large number of players with access to those terminals. These were followed by games on other platforms (but didn’t always lead directly to them), such as Akalabeth (1980) (which spawned the well-known Ultima series) and Wizardry.
The first RPG games for PC offered a single player experience. The popularity of multiplayer modes in these games increased greatly in the mid-1990s. Diablo (1996) was one of the games that greatly influenced this rise in popularity. It combined elements of role-playing and action games, and featured an Internet multiplayer mode that allowed up to four players to enter the same world and fight monsters, trade items, or fight each other. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) introduced huge worlds with open gameplay and thousands of interactive characters (both player and computer controlled).
In 1997, a new Internet craze began. Influenced by console RPGs, a large group of young programmers and hobbyists began creating and sharing stand-alone role-playing PC games, based primarily on the gameplay and style of older SNES and Sega Genesis games. Most of these games are due to simplistic software development kits, such as the Japanese RPG Maker series.
An increasing number of non-RPG video games have adopted aspects traditionally seen in RPGs, such as experience point systems, team management, and choices in dialogue. The combination of these elements with several different game engines and playstyles has created a myriad of hybrid game categories. These hybrid games are commonly formed by mixing popular game elements that appear in other genres, such as first-person shooters, platform games, and real-time strategy games.
