Neverwinter Nights the MMORPG (1991)

[Lady Jaye]

Yes, before Bioware's Neverwinter Nights, there was another NWN, which was the first ever graphical MMORPG. It was a joint project involving AOL, SSI and TSR, and it was online from 1991 to 1997. Like its later incarnation, it was a Forgotten Realms licensed title. It was a pretty expensive game, as AOL charged players by the hour (except for the last year, when AOL switched to a flat-rate fee model).



Here's a great site with lots of info about the original game, including tons of screenshots and the possibility to play offline (let us know how well that works with current computers): http://www.bladekeep.com/nwn

(funny enough, I stumbled upon that info while looking for info about Dragon Quest IX -- I ended up on kotaku, which had an article about Gary Gygax's influence on videogames, in which the original NWN was mentioned. I had to find more info about it!)