# Neverwinter Nights *The AOL original* - Work: MMORPG - Date: 1991–1997 (America Online) - Houses: Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI), TSR, Inc. - Platforms: America Online - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/works/neverwinter-nights-aol/ > From 1991 to 1997, AOL subscribers dialed into a shared Forgotten Realms city built on SSI's Gold Box engine — the first online role-playing game with graphics, and the seed of the MMORPG. **Why it matters:** Neverwinter Nights proved that a graphical, persistent, multiplayer RPG could run over dial-up modems and sustain a real community, six years before Ultima Online made the idea a mass phenomenon. ## Quick answers **When was Neverwinter Nights first released?** Neverwinter Nights was first released in 1991–1997 (America Online). **Who published or developed Neverwinter Nights?** Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) and TSR, Inc.. **What kind of work is Neverwinter Nights?** Neverwinter Nights is a MMORPG in the MMORPGs and Western Computer RPGs (CRPG) tradition, released for America Online. **Why is Neverwinter Nights important?** Neverwinter Nights proved that a graphical, persistent, multiplayer RPG could run over dial-up modems and sustain a real community, six years before Ultima Online made the idea a mass phenomenon. ## Overview *Neverwinter Nights* was an online role-playing game that ran on America Online from 1991 to 1997. It was built by Don Daglow's Beyond Software (soon renamed Stormfront Studios) on the "Gold Box" engine that [SSI](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/strategic-simulations-inc/) had created for [Pool of Radiance](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/pool-of-radiance/), and it used [TSR](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/tsr/)'s [Advanced Dungeons & Dragons](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/advanced-dungeons-and-dragons/) rules and the [Forgotten Realms](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/forgotten-realms/) setting. Players connected by modem, created a character and adventured together, in the same world and at the same time, in and around the city of Neverwinter. It is generally credited as the first [MMORPG](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/mmorpg/) to display graphics — the ancestor, in spirit and in lineage, of everything from [Ultima Online](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/ultima-online/) to [World of Warcraft](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/world-of-warcraft/). ## Origins Online role-playing already existed in 1991, but it was made of words. From [MUD1](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/mud1/) onward, the [MUDs](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/mud/) of university networks and early commercial services described their worlds in text, because modems as slow as 300 bits per second left little room for pictures. Daglow — who had written *Dungeon*, one of the earliest computer role-playing games, on the Claremont Colleges' PDP-10 mainframe in 1975 — had been designing online games for AOL since 1987, when it was a Commodore 64-only service called Quantum Link with a few thousand subscribers. One of those projects, *Quantum Space* (1989), was a fully automated play-by-email game. In 1989 Beyond Software began making Gold Box games for SSI, and within months the team realized it was technically feasible to marry the Gold Box engine to the community play of AOL's online titles. In a series of meetings in San Francisco and Las Vegas, Daglow and programmer Cathryn Mataga persuaded AOL's Steve Case and Kathi McHugh, TSR's Jim Ward and SSI's Chuck Kroegel that it could be done. Case approved funding, and the game went live about eighteen months later, in March 1991. Daglow picked Neverwinter for its magical touches — a river of warm water flowing from a snowy forest into a northern sea — and for the variety of terrain around it, and because it lay close enough to the regions of SSI's disk-based games that plots could cross between them. ## How it plays To a player of the single-player Gold Box games, the screen was instantly familiar: a window showing the view ahead, a panel of text, and the names and condition of the [The party](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/party/). Characters were created and advanced by AD&D rules, with [classes](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/character-class/), [hit points](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/hit-points/) and [experience points](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/experience-points/). When a fight began, the display switched to a full-screen tactical map where characters and monsters were icons moved around the battlefield. The difference was that the other members of the party were people. Players met in town, formed groups, and ventured out together; the adventures were Gold Box encounters, but the social life around them was new. Guilds formed, rivalries and alliances developed, and players staged events of their own. ## Reception & impact *Dragon* magazine's "The Role of Computers" column gave the game four out of five stars in 1992, and *Computer Gaming World* observed that Gold Box fans knew what to expect, "and the human element makes it that much better." The human element kept growing. Server capacity rose from 50 players in 1991 to 500 by 1995, and by the end of its run the game counted about 115,000 players, with roughly 2,000 online on a typical evening — a 4,000 percent increase over 1991. For years it was among AOL's most popular features, and it eventually became a free part of the AOL subscription. Later accounts, such as GameSpy's, stressed that the community — "politics, guilds, and alliances" — mattered more than the game itself, which is precisely the lesson later online worlds would learn. ## Legacy AOL closed *Neverwinter Nights* on July 19, 1997, as it moved its games to a new service; it was the only title not to make the transition. By then [Meridian 59](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/meridian-59/) (1996) had opened, and the shutdown came just weeks before [Ultima Online](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/ultima-online/) launched in September 1997; [EverQuest](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/everquest/) followed in 1999, along the path Neverwinter had cleared. When [BioWare](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/bioware/) made its own [Neverwinter Nights](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/neverwinter-nights/) (2002), it licensed the name from AOL and TSR in part to attract the original's devoted players, and those players used BioWare's Aurora toolset to rebuild the old game as *Neverwinter Nights: Resurrection*, which ran until 2012. In 2008 the original was honored with EverQuest and World of Warcraft at the Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards, where Daglow accepted on behalf of the partners. ## Facts - It is widely credited as the first graphical MMORPG; every earlier online RPG had been text-based. - Each server held 50 players at launch in 1991 and 500 by 1995. - Near the end of its run the game had about 115,000 players, with around 2,000 online at evening peak. - The Gold Box engine it used had been written for the Commodore 64. - AOL shut the game down on July 19, 1997; it was the only title that did not move to AOL's new games service. - In 2008 it was honored, alongside EverQuest and World of Warcraft, at the 59th Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards. - BioWare licensed the name from AOL and TSR partly to court its devoted player base. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights_(1991_video_game)) - [Don Daglow (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Daglow) - [Stormfront Studios (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormfront_Studios) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.