The Beginning With Empire - 1973
The game Empire was, indeed, the very first online video game. It was released on the PLATO network. It is an actual multiplayer game. What sets it apart is that the game is in 2D opposed to 3D. John Daleske created this game as a final project for his education course at Iowa State University in the spring of 1973. The game was changed and developed until 1977. It introduced movement around a 2-dimensional space, evolved into a more than one page movement, making it a 2D first person shooter game. Even in 1973, people could send messages to all the players, and in 1974, the development of messaging to a single player or a team was introduced. Empire also introduced the user playing as an actual person instead of just a ship. The player can move from ship to ship on the planet it lives on. Version S, introduced in 1975, allows the player to be able to move up in ranks on the ships it inhabits. Players can also compete in tournaments against each other.
The game itself is just like many other games out there because many of the games in circulation are influenced by Empire. The user plays in space and travels from ship to ship on planets in order to defeat the other players who are online playing along. There is not much information on the plot of the game because no one has put it much of it out there. John Daleske just explains the innovations and how he developed the game over the years. However, Empire was just the beginning of the online multiplayer gaming revolution.
The game itself is just like many other games out there because many of the games in circulation are influenced by Empire. The user plays in space and travels from ship to ship on planets in order to defeat the other players who are online playing along. There is not much information on the plot of the game because no one has put it much of it out there. John Daleske just explains the innovations and how he developed the game over the years. However, Empire was just the beginning of the online multiplayer gaming revolution.