GDC-Online has announced the inclusion of a new event that will feature Meridian 59's Lead Designer Damion Schubert giving insight into the groundbreaking MMOs development and much more.

A creator and designer of games for more than fifteen years, Schubert has worked on some of the biggest titles in the online space, including Meridian 59, Sims Online, Shadowbane and Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Meridian 59 was released commercially in the fall of 1996, it was the first to charge a monthly fee, use 3D graphics, and began an era that set the stage for the MMORPG genre as we know it.  His pioneering work as lead designer on Meridian 59 at Archetype Interactive laid the groundwork for titles like EverQuest, World of Warcraft and thousands of others.

Find out about other events happening at the conference on the GDC-Online site.

I didn't recall seeing anything in the little retrospective peace about EQ saying anything about them being inspired by M59, other then the fact that it was 3d and gave the guys making EQ a lot of faith to know that it was possible. 

M59 may have been the first, but it's hardly justifiable to say that they inspired EQ or WoW, let alone thousands of MMO's.  Were are the thousands of first person sandbox MMO's at exactly?

Originally posted by Uhwop

I didn't recall seeing anything in the little retrospective peace about EQ saying anything about them being inspired by M59, other then the fact that it was 3d and gave the guys making EQ a lot of faith to know that it was possible. 

M59 may have been the first, but it's hardly justifiable to say that they inspired EQ or WoW, let alone thousands of MMO's.  Were are the thousands of first person sandbox MMO's at exactly?

M59 inspired the mmorpg genre. It was even before UO's time. Inspired doesn't necessarily mean EQ wanted to make a replica of M59.. but you can believe they respected it.

I miss this game, it was my first MMO before Ultima Online.  The people were great, the game was fun always watching dots that appear on the radar to see if they're heading for you and the possiblity of them trying to kill you.  Death was constant and almost expected though not wanted, sitting in the bar to do repairs on equipment, going to npc's for quests and then running to the spot before someone else got there first.  

It was good fun, then after this and Ultima Online full out PvP disappeared for awhile for just monster and consented dueling or battlegrounds

If i Had to choose between World of Warcraft and Meridian 59, I would choose Meridian 59.  Least the early days of general chat was nothing like it is now, was actually civil (not all the times granted).