Nelson's Weblog: culture / games / catacomb

Pivot low. Place throwing knife in left hand.

Thanks to Ask MetaFilter I finally reread a story that made a big impression on me twenty years ago, Catacomb by Henry Melton. It appeared in 1985 in issue 97 of Dragon Magazine and was the first time I ever read about the idea of an online multiplayer game. It describes the adventures of a young woman in a virtual world where she seeks fabulous treasure, falls victim to a thief, and ends up making a friend.

YOU HAVE BEEN RENDERED UNCONSCIOUS ON A POISONED DART.  
YOU ARE L0GGED OFF CATACOMB FOR 00:30 MINIMUM.  
YOUR ACCOUNT BALANCE IS:  
$     0.78 FOR TODAY 
$    12.40 FOR THE GAME 
$     7.50 TREASURE BONUS {RESERVED}

Some of the story details are interesting. Our hero types her commands in like an old text adventure, but the world she experiences is rich detail: sounds, images, even smells. And the story does a great job of presaging some of the nuances that later arose in online games: player vs player combat, morality in-game vs the real world, the power of social connections online, what happens to your character when you're offline. (For context: MUDs started in 1978, True Names dates from 1981).

But the most fun part of the story is the link between treasure in-game and real world money. The idea you could make a living playing the game, either as a heroic adventurer or a thief who preyed on heroic adventurers. We're not quite there with online games yet, but we're close. There's the unofficial economies in MMORPGs, mostly realized via eBay, and a few niche games like Project Entropia. I think players making money in online games will inevitably hit the mainstream.

Ah, thanks to Majcher I now know that Cory is way ahead of me with his story Anda's Game.

culture • games
2004-12-11 02:47 Z


Mastodon @nelson@tech.lgbt Linkblog Wed 2024-11-20 Francis Williams painting The Platonic Blow Tue 2024-11-19 EmojiRain Bantam Tools Artframe Using OSM vector tiles Starlink sold out Fine-tuning LLMs at home Bluesky starter packs Mon 2024-11-18 Carbon Mapper Sun 2024-11-17 Love, Acceptance, and Screeching Modems Voyager 1 backup radio Gay Tblisi Usenet feed growth Methane mapping City99 console font Sat 2024-11-16 Lorraine Gervais Sill Justin's Linklog Thune 2004 blog campaign Fri 2024-11-15 Open source garage door Search Archives 2023 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2022 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2021 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2020 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2019 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2018 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2017 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2016 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2015 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2014 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2013 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2012 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2011 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2010 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2009 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2008 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2007 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2006 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2005 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2004 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2003 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2002 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2001 12 11 10 09 08 07 One good site MDN Nelson Minar nelson@monkey.org Blog licensed under a Creative Commons License		Pivot low. Place throwing knife in left hand. Thanks to Ask MetaFilter I finally reread a story that made a big impression on me twenty years ago, Catacomb by Henry Melton. It appeared in 1985 in issue 97 of Dragon Magazine and was the first time I ever read about the idea of an online multiplayer game. It describes the adventures of a young woman in a virtual world where she seeks fabulous treasure, falls victim to a thief, and ends up making a friend. YOU HAVE BEEN RENDERED UNCONSCIOUS ON A POISONED DART. YOU ARE L0GGED OFF CATACOMB FOR 00:30 MINIMUM. YOUR ACCOUNT BALANCE IS: $ 0.78 FOR TODAY $ 12.40 FOR THE GAME $ 7.50 TREASURE BONUS {RESERVED} Some of the story details are interesting. Our hero types her commands in like an old text adventure, but the world she experiences is rich detail: sounds, images, even smells. And the story does a great job of presaging some of the nuances that later arose in online games: player vs player combat, morality in-game vs the real world, the power of social connections online, what happens to your character when you're offline. (For context: MUDs started in 1978, True Names dates from 1981). But the most fun part of the story is the link between treasure in-game and real world money. The idea you could make a living playing the game, either as a heroic adventurer or a thief who preyed on heroic adventurers. We're not quite there with online games yet, but we're close. There's the unofficial economies in MMORPGs, mostly realized via eBay, and a few niche games like Project Entropia. I think players making money in online games will inevitably hit the mainstream. Ah, thanks to Majcher I now know that Cory is way ahead of me with his story Anda's Game. culture • games 2004-12-11 02:47 Z Nelson's Weblog • culture • games → emulation, eve, warcraft