So I don't know if anyone here has ever heard of Meridian 59, but it is generally considered the first 3d graphical MMO game. It was released commercially in September of 1996 as a pay to play game, and was run by 3DO for a number of years. As a disclaimer I want to say that I am in now way affiliated with the current owners of Meridian 59, or any of the former owners.

After 3DO went under the game was purchased by two of the members from the former dev team, and was re-released with a modestly updated graphics engine in 2002. The dev team formed Near Death Studios and while they started out with high hopes they slowly stopped supporting the game and moved on to other projects. In January of 2010 they officially closed their doors, and all subscriptions ended, even after many years of neglect and a lack of support, there were still many hundreds of active and paying players.

The game was purchased in February by the original creators, the Kirmse brothers, who have began supporting the game again. There has been a renewed intrest in the game from former players (at one point there were 25,000 Meridian 59 players in the late 90's). The Kirmse's have handily put a stop to cheating by updating the games anti-hacking capabilities. They are actively, although slowly, working on the game in their free time. There are now player guides who act as customer service, and changes are being evaluated to update the game.

One of the great things about the Kirmse brothers ownership of Meridian 59 is that they are supporting this classic game for free. All the people who work on the game are doing it as volunteers, and the game seems to be slowly growing.

There is a small population of players who play fairly regularly. At any given time when I log in, there are 40-80 players online. The game can easily handle hundreds of players on at a time on any given server, so there is difinately room to grow. With a community this size it is possible to get to know most of the active players, some you will hate and some you will be glad to have met.

I am posting this here to see if anyone would be interested in trying the game out. I will briefly share some of the things I really like about this game, and also some of the challenges you will face in the game, and let you decide for yourselves to give it a try.

First of all, the game is played from a first person perspective, where your sword and sheild (if equiped) are visable in your field of view. I really like the first person perspective, becuase it combines nicely with the simple interface to make the game easy to play right from the moment you log in (once you set up the keys - I don't much like the default key bindings). The game has a steady learning curve. It is not too steep when you first start out, and yet there always seems to be new things to try and I feel like I am always learning more about the game as I play. This is a testimate to just how deep the game is, as I have played off and on for 7 or 8 years and I still have new experiences with some regularity.

There is no class system, and I like this very much. Your can choose to learn spell schools, of which there are 6, and in addition to that you can choose to learn weaponcraft. The number of schools you can learn depends on your intellect stat (which you set at character creation). Typical characters have between 2 and 4 schools. There is a limit to how much any one character can learn, and no one character can have every skill. Although, if you really wanted to experience every peice of the game you could do so with two characters. Each account give you access to 2 characters, so if you are into that sort of thing go for it!

Your character doesn't have a level, instead they have hit points, which you increase by fighting monsters. In addition to that you have individual skills and spells which you can improve by using them. Once you have improved the level 1 skills and spells enough to advance to the next level you are free to buy level 2 skills and spells and so on, until you decide you have all the spells and skills you want.

There isn't much in the way of special armor or weapons in this game (there are some magical weapons, which are dropped rarely enough to be valuable, but not rare enough to realistically prevent most players from getting one or two (or more)). I like this very much as it means a fairly level playing field once you have established your character.

If find the game exciting for a number of reasons, not the least of which is how brutal the game can be, especially in PVP. From the time you hit 30hp (not a lot of HP mind you!) you can be killed by PKers, of which there are a fair amount. From this point forward, when you venture out of the towns you are potentially at risk, and you need to be on your gaurd. When you die you lose everything in your inventory (you can keep things safe in a vault, but you can't use them unless your holding them). You also lose a hit point and some number of skill and spell points. I think for a lot of MMO players this seems pretty harsh, but it is part of the game. Players die a lot, but it is all part of the fun, as nobody is safe for long.

The PVP is exceptionally exciting in my opinion, especially when you get to a point where you can survive a handful of attacks, and when you can give as good as you get. Occassionally very large battles will erupt into the streets of the main towns in the game.

There are a number of player run guilds you can join, or you can start your own. Guild warfare is more or less the end game for this game, and can be extremely rewarding.

In addition to that there are a number of somewhat difficult to very dangerous dungeons or boss type creatures which you can try and kill in a group. Higher HP players who participate in these adventures are sometimes rewarded with magical weapons and other goodies.

Anyways, I suppose thats enough banter for now.

To join the game you should go to Gilroy's Meridian 59 Reference and sign up for an account at the forums. Also, go to meridian59.com and find the email address for account creation. At the moment the account creation is not automated, and so you will have to wait for one of the volunteers to create your account for you. Be patient! It can take up to 2 weeks to get your account set up. I think you will find it is worth the wait.

You can download the client at meridian59.com.

If you decide to try it out, feel free to message me in game. My name is Reborn Hero. I will try and help you get started if I have some free time.

Cheers!