What are some benchmarks in the history of online (multiplayer) gaming lobbies?

September 6, 2008 5:28 AM

What are some benchmarks in the history of multiplayer game lobbies?

I'm doing a bit of research on game lobbies and thought perhaps the meta hive-mind could provide me with some links and input. What was the first multiplayer (say >4 players) game that you played that had one?
I'm interested in the history of game lobbies.. what do I need to look at? I know battle.net was pretty important.. what else is out there? (I'm interested in all platforms).

posted by serial_consign to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

You probably want to look at Kali, which got a lot of its popularity from players who wanted a matching service for WCII: TOD before Blizzard had envisioned Battle.net. I think a version of Kali actually came with that game.

The main thing that Kali allowed was the playing of IPX-coded multiplayer games over TCP/IP.
posted by selfnoise at 5:38 AM on September 6, 2008

Point some attention towards The Sierra Network, one of the first and finest online gaming communities to cost billions of dollars a second for blazing dialup speeds.
posted by knowles at 5:52 AM on September 6, 2008

Also GEnie, where pioneering and now defunct online gaming company Kesmai got their start matching players in Air Warrior and other games.
posted by selfnoise at 7:48 AM on September 6, 2008

WON was a precursor to Steam and I believe it had some form of a lobby.
posted by Diskeater at 8:58 AM on September 6, 2008

I remember playing on the imagination way back
posted by SatansCabanaboy at 10:40 AM on September 6, 2008