The earliest online games were simply text based games known as MUDs, Multi-User Dungeons, or MUSHes, which stands for Multi-User Shared Hallucination. These text based games could best be compared to a Dungeons and Dragons type of experience where certainties were set by the game, while other objectives and activities were left up to the player. Slowly, a new gaming experience of graphical games began to bolster in popularity, resulting in a form of a gaming revolution.

Some of the earliest, and most well known multi-player online games with graphics included Warcraft II, Civilization II, and Heroes of Might and Magic. These particular games did not involve a large server, but rather a direct connection of a limited number of people to one computer. Magic: the Gathering was also popular for direct connect play for quite some time, but the bugged game would, like Warcraft, later be replaced by a massive multi-player server instead. Other games such as Doom and Counterstrike also became largely popular during this time.

Soon, large scale gaming sites became available, as well as the revolution of free MMORPGs and web-based games. Pogo.com, BigFishGames.com, and NeoPets.com boomed quickly, offering an assortment of games. Pogo offers a variety of sports games, bingo and lottery style games, as well as puzzles. Big Fish Games is geared primarily towards action and arcade type games, as well as games with search objectives. NeoPets is focused primarily around raising up to four pets, using their in game currency, earned by playing a variety of styled games and by participating in certain offers and contests.

Another revolution would soon occur, bringing MMORPGs to life. Some MMORPGs run largely from an installed client that connects to a large server where a large number of players can test their wit and skill against each other. World of Warcraft is probably the most well known MMORPG. MMORPG stands for Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game. World of Warcraft, of WoW, is a pay-for-play service that requires the installation of an external client. WoW is so popular that even well known celebrities such as Vin Diesel take part in its cyberverse.

Runescape and Evony are examples of two very popular web based MMORPGs. Runescape runs both free and fee based servers, while Evony boasts a “free forever” slogan. Other MMORPGs such as Conquer, are free services but allows for additional items to be purchased with real-time cash. Also, you can try: