Felipe Pepe (RPG historian) looks back at the old MMO Tibia:
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When talking about the pioneer MMORPGs of the 90s -- Meridian 59, Ultima Online, EverQuest, etc -- there is a name that is often overlooked: Tibia, a German free-to-play MMO first released in 1997.
More than just curiosity or historical artefact, Tibia has one of the longest and most interesting stories among MMOs.
Tibia 1.0, from January 1997
The game was created by students at the University of Regensburg in Germany. In 1995 they began planning to develop something similar to MUDs (text-based online games), but with graphics and more elements from single-player RPGs:
"We were inspired by the Ultima series, especially Ultima VI and the possibility to interact with everything in the world of the game. Every item that was there could be taken and used -- we wanted to combine that with the possibility to be on the move together with others in the game world."
-- Stephan Vogler, CipStudio's Founder
Just like Ultima, Tibia has a very interactive world, allowing you to move objects around and combine them. Even on the very first version you could combine flour with milk and place it over the fire to bake cookies.
While Tibia would go online on January 7th, 1997 (predating MMOs like Ultima Online and Everquest), the truth is that this first version was an alpha release with barely any content. It would take six more months until enemies and NPCs were added, and only in May 1998 would classes, skills and spells be introduced.
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