Although email based games were available much earlier earlier, the first real online games were text based role-playing games called 'MUDs' (Multi-User Dungeon, Domain or Dimension). These games allowed multiple people to play at once in the same scenario. MUDs were in much of the same format as current day titles like WoW (World of Warcraft).The only difference being that MUDs used textual descriptions in replace of graphics. The history of online gaming can be traced back to the early 1980's with the advent of the personal computer and the internet. Instead of playing a game by yourself, you suddenly had the ability to play either against or cooperatively with another person somewhere else.

The next revolution in online gaming came with the first person shooter. Unlike MUDs before it, first person shooters replaced the text descriptions with graphical representations on the screen. Wolfenstein 3D was the first notable title to do this. Equally, if not more popular, was DOOM. Hence, the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) was born. Players could now form entire online communities in a virtual world. Popular MMORPG titles include Everquest, Guild Wars, WoW, plus many others. WoW currently has over 10 million subscribers.