Introduction
Since 1995, game studios begin to release full-fledged MMORPG. Meridian 59, aka M59, became the first in the line of those games.
Before we begin the review of the game itself, we need to immerse ourselves in the realities of those times, and specifically Russia in 1997. The Internet was then provided to a few, and the price of online games was surprising even by Western standards.
About Internet accessibility
Until 1992, the Internet was owned by a small circle of people. Government officials, company employees, and university employees used the network. There were only a few commercial providers, and they provided Internet at high prices.
Skipping the complex technical part, it is difficult to indicate the time of peak development of the Internet in Russia. The growth in the number of pages in the Russian segment dates from 1996 to 1997. This is probably due to the increase in the number of providers in all regions.
About prices
Let’s compare the price tags for transport, as an element of daily expenses, and the cost of the Internet in 1997:
One trip on the Moscow metro – 0.$34
Monthly pass on the Moscow metro for 20 trips – $7
Installation of a modem and connection to a 64kb/sec network – $300
Rent a modem for a month – from $10
One hour of Internet use – 4$
Price Meridian 59 for 1997 – $50
Monthly subscription cost Meridian 59 – 9.$95
__________________________________________
Average salary per month in Moscow is $450
Average monthly salary in Russia is $180
Salary data taken from the website of the Pension Fund of Russia, the Central Bank and Rosstat Prices for transport and network were found out from friends in Moscow
P.S. Analyzing the data, I was surprised at such an advantage in salary. In some cities, for example Izhevsk, the average salary was $40. In Murmansk the salary reached $400. In Moscow I met for $800. But they didn’t always pay due to default. But this is not relevant to the topic.
Conclusion:
The Internet was present in large regions and the price was high. Having access to the network did not guarantee that you would be able to buy a disk with Meridian 59.
Meridian 59
History of creation
Archetype Interactive is an American game studio founded in 1995 by brothers Andrew and Chris Kirmse. Andrew currently working in Google and is known as the creator of the service Google Now.
The original inspiration for Meridian 59 was Scepter of Goth, in which the brothers spent many hours playing Scepter in high school. In the summer of 1993, the brothers became summer interns at Microsoft. Working with test versions Windows NT, they learned how to program the client-server part. Upon returning from their internship, the brothers began creating a game.
During 1994 Andrew interviewed several software companies including Looking Glass (who worked on Terra Nova And System Shock) and Papyrus (NASCAR Racing) and conducted research on Internet MUD games. By the end of the year, Andrew and Chris began creating Meridian.
The first thing that was made was a scripting language called Blakod. The game server was running under Windows NT, and the game client is on Windows 95.
The team’s project was noticed by the publisher 3DO, famous for the series Might and Magic, and at the beginning of 1996 bought Archetype Interactive.
Beta test in April 1996. attracted 17.000 the person is tall online by those standards.
September 27, 1996. the game was released ahead of Ultima Online for a year.
Peculiarities
The method of distributing the game was innovative for those times. In the first network projects, the player paid for every hour spent in the game. M59 offered to first buy the game for 50$ and then pay a monthly subscription for 9.$95. Users could spend as much time in the game as they wanted without worrying about their wallet. For comparison, one hour of playing Neverwinter Night For AOL cost about 6$, and did not require a purchase.
Graphics made in pseudo-3D style DOOM, became the second feature. Back then, most games used an isometric view and pixel-by-pixel character graphics. And Meridian enchanted with its voluminous surroundings and drawn static characters.
Gameplay
The player creates a character and goes on a journey in the spirit of old role-playing games. No one babysat the newbie. After completing training, players found themselves in a world hostile to them. Dying after the first enemy encountered was commonplace. Development consisted of pumping up characteristics and obtaining ammunition. Instead of character classes, each characteristic developed separately according to the player’s wishes. The character was created as a warrior, archer, mage or hybrid.
The goal of the game was PvE battles with monsters together with other players to gain experience and items. There was no plot as such, there were only a few non-player characters,. That’s why M59 called MUD with graphics, not MMORPG.
Once killing monsters gets boring, Meridian opened up on the other side, providing an open PVP system. Outside safe zones the player was attacked by anyone. In addition to open battles, players could fight for a faction.
Social component
Players united in guilds for mutual assistance in battles with monsters and players.
In addition to guilds, players could join one of three factions… Each faction provided advantages and rewards for players in PvE and PvP modes. Battles between factions took place over control of disputed territories.
Cons of the game
Meridian 59 as a pioneer in the genre, he did not avoid a number of technical difficulties that were eliminated in the process of refinement. Part of the problem was due to the fact that game design rules for MMOs had not yet been invented. The game lacked modern features. At the start of the project it was impossible to: change the head of the guild, reset stat points, there was no global map.
For the modern user, the big disadvantage will be the controls. The player uses standard WASD to move, the keyboard arrows to rotate the camera, and actions are performed on the keyboard and mouse. It takes a long time to get used to this.
Meridian 59 in our time
A moment of lyricism sing-bingo-casino.co.uk Playing Meridian these days is like watching "Dead Man" by Jim Jarmusch. He’s iconic, but it’s painful to perceive. The brain and eyes have become accustomed to more modern paintings.
To get acquainted, watch the video about PVP, the spectacle is extremely “exciting”.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO4k_xaVxUQ&t=82s
The game is distributed free of charge through Steam, Anyone can try Meridian. Steam uses the original client, registration takes place on the project website.
There is a fan server with a modified client.
openmeridian.org/ – project website, for downloading the client and registering. To play on a modified client, select in the launcher Ogre Client.
Instead of a conclusion
Meridian attracted a wide audience of players and began to popularize the genre. Game mechanics have become standards for MMOs. Monthly subscription format for content, also downloaded from M59, and is used everywhere. In the west, Meridian became the originator of the genre, and many fans of the genre started with him. In the CIS, only a few caught the game at the start, for the reasons described above.
In the next part, we will talk about Ultima Online.
A project that will give a name to the genre as such and make a huge contribution to its development.
Best comments
After the second part, I want to get OS for further actions.
Should you keep the same “dry” informational language or is it more pleasant for you to read more lively speech??)
Oh man, if you could mix your news story with a more lively delivery..
It’s clear that you write consciously about the subject of the conversation and know the topic)
Purely stylistically, there is room to think and edit, to dilute it somehow, with the same formatting of texts, a clearer division into paragraphs. Add symbols (punctuation marks help understand and perceive the text, for example:
One trip on the Moscow metro – 0.$34
Monthly pass on the Moscow metro for 20 trips – $7
Installation of a modem and connection to a 64kb/sec network – $300
Rent a modem for a month – from $10
One hour of Internet use – 4$
The cost of Meridian 59 for 1997 is $50
The cost of a monthly Meridian subscription is 59 – 9.$95
Here Here, it looks like something really interesting, but it looks like just a column of text. If the names were bold, there would be an additional symbol at the beginning of each line, everything would be neater.
Personally, I really liked the idea of such a series of articles, please continue! 🙂
Thanks for the feedback and advice, I’ll take it into account)
In the next part I’ll play around with style and editing, let’s see what comes of it)