Early online games

Early networking and timesharing environments often featured games among their most admired features. The PLATO systems game gallery was famous, as was Maze War at Xerox PARC. When personal computers reached the general public in the 1980s, simple multiplayer text-based games, MUDs, were often played on BBS systems using a modem. These games were frequently based on fantasy settings, using rules similar to those in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Other styles of games, such as chess, Scrabble clones, and other board games, were available. Since continuous connectivity was often expensive as access was frequently charged on a per-minute basis, some games were set up as play-by-email games.