As the Chinese online game market with annual sales exceeding 300 billion, along with the birth and death of countless online games, there have been many high-quality games recognized by players, and some online games have even broken through and become classics.
So today the editor will take a look at those milestone games in the history of Chinese online games. Do any of them belong to your youth?
1. "Xia Ke Xing" – the first Chinese MUD online game
As China's first martial arts online game, "Xia Ke Xing" had no pictures at the time. It was a game composed entirely of text, and all operations had to be carried out through special commands.
Because the text online game is complex to operate and requires typing commands, most of the users of "Xia Ke Xing" at that time were Internet cafe users, college students, and foreign students. Of course, Internet cafes at that time were not as popular as large game arcades, and the prices were extremely high.
Despite this, "Xia Ke Xing" is also the enlightenment work for many players in online games, because it is precisely because of the emergence of "Xia Ke Xing" that China has cultivated the first batch of employees who love the game industry.
2. "King of Kings" – China's first graphical online game
At the end of December 1996, a Wanwan MUD game called "King of Kings" was launched. At that time, everyone thought that this game would be the main competitor of "Xia Ke Xing". What is unexpected is that "King of Kings" broke through the limitations of MUD games and was launched in mainland China as a graphical online game in July 2000, becoming China's first graphical online game.
The emergence of "King of Kings" has defined many "industry firsts", especially after it was introduced to the mainland by Huacai Software in 2000: the first Chinese graphic online game, the first online online game with thousands of people, and the establishment of the first A first-generation game guild system, and even the title of the originator of Chinese film and television game collaboration. For Chinese gamers who were still addicted to single-player games and small-scale local area network connections at the time, "The King of Kings" was indeed as surprising as thunder on the ground.
However, this game, which is the originator of the game, finally faced the competition that broke out in a large number of online games. Due to operational mistakes and constant bugs, players collectively protested and quit the game one after another. After the server was closed, game manufacturers also tried to launch "King of Kings 2" and "King of Kings 3" to continue this series. However, they also stopped serving the servers about a year after they were launched. "King of Kings" There will be no follow-up to the series.
3. "Stone Age" – the earliest Q version online game
"Stone Age" can be said to be the most popular online game in the Chinese market before Legend. When other online games of the same era were defeated by Legend one by one, it was able to successfully hold on for 15 years! Stone Age OL was born in 1999 and was introduced to China in January 2001. Unexpectedly, it became popular all over the country soon after it was launched.
According to China's online game market share statistics in 2001, "Stone Age OL" has become China's number one online game with nearly a quarter of the market share. At that time, the domestic online game market was all Korean-style, and "Stone Age OL" ol" was unique in that it introduced the "pet" system into the world of online games, coupled with the non-monetary game environment, it immediately won the love of countless female players.
However, due to the official acquiescence of the game to cheating, the game went downhill. In addition, various problems occurred in the operation team, as well as the impact of other games at that time. Finally, in April 2016, "Stone Age OL" left its historical stage. Although "Stone Age OL" disappeared, the gameplay of the game is still active in the Chinese online game market, leaving the deepest memories for countless old players!
4. "Legend" – a classic online game that changed a generation
When it comes to the development of domestic online games, "Legend" is a milestone that cannot be bypassed. "Legend" is a unique existence in the history of Chinese online games, and it is no exaggeration to say that it has influenced a generation of Chinese players. In China, the reputation of "Legend" is no less than that of "World of Warcraft". Legend has also created many habits among players in the online game industry. For example, killing requires equipment to be exploded, and skills require stacking proficiency through use. These habits have been inherited and carried forward in many current games.
At that time, there were not so many online games. When I played in Internet cafes, the Internet cafes only had Red Alert, CS, Diablo 2 stand-alone version, curse chat rooms, and more, Legend. In 2001, "Legend" was officially launched for public beta testing. In the same year, it broke the record of 10,000 people online. In that era when 3G networks were not yet popular, it seemed impossible. In October of the following year, as the network became increasingly developed, It even exceeded the 600,000 number of people online at the same time.
"Legend" was originally very promising to become a high-value golden IP in domestic online games, but the developers and operators of the game have been arguing with each other for their own interests for several years, and no one is really maintaining this IP. In the end, "Legend" was "Legend" has become synonymous with the times rather than a golden signboard.
5. "Swordsman Online Version" – the first Chinese 3D online game
In that era, online games were still dominated by 2D games such as "Legend" and "Stone Age". "Swordsman Online Version", a 3D martial arts style game that allows you to run, jump and use light skills, immediately captured the attention of Chinese players who were influenced by martial arts novels and film and television works at the time. It also had a profound impact on the future changes in the pattern of online games in China. Impact.
However, the ridiculously difficult combat levels in the game and the already thin and uncensored plot have become the biggest drawbacks of this online game.
Due to some reasons, the national server of "Swordsman Online Edition", which opened the door to domestic 3D martial arts online games, was discontinued in 2006. Fortunately, two years later, Perfect World announced the acquisition of Yuquan International's mainland team to re-develop the new Swordsman online game, which is now known as "Swordsman OL".
6. "EverQuest" – the first officially introduced European and American online game
The originator "EverQuest" produced by Sony Online Entertainment and released for more than 10 years. In October 2002, Shanghai Ubisoft signed a contract for the operating rights of EverQuest in China. It was the first officially signed online game in Europe and the United States to operate in China. .
As one of the originators of online games, "EverQuest" created a basic framework that uses level-based guidance to assist skill proficiency. This framework has been imitated by countless games so far.
In addition, the unique backpack system, reputation system, hatred system, dialogue system, macro command system, etc., coupled with the open interface, player plug-in interface and interpretation of RAID are still full of creativity even ten years later.
7. Phantom Ranger – China’s first online game to appear at a world-class exhibition
"Phantom Ranger", which was launched in 2001, participated in E3 in May 2002, less than two years after its launch. It became the second domestic game to appear at E3 after "Three Kingdoms" and the first domestic online game. . At the same time, after the paid operation in March 2002, more than 50,000 people were online at the same time.
As one of the few domestically produced online games at the time, "Phantom Ranger" also had some advanced and interesting systems. For example, the martial arts self-creation system allows you to create your own names, effects and images. The self-created skills can be taught to other players, but attacks on the teacher are invalid; there are also functions such as acupuncture, stealing, and launching hidden weapons. Social networking was also a topic at the time. Compared with today's "Jian Wang 3", "Phantom Ranger" more than ten years ago was already known as the "first matchmaker online game".
Unfortunately, due to improper official operation strategies in the later stages of the game, as well as some design flaws due to inexperience, as well as the impact of plug-ins and other competitors, "Phantom Ranger" eventually disappeared from NetDragon's game list.
8. "Miracle MU" – the first game to conquer Chinese players with its "handsomeness"
On September 30, 2002, "Miracle MU" officially landed in China from South Korea. It was represented by "The Ninth City", which was not well known at the time, and started open beta. As one of the earliest batch of 3D online games, after the public beta test of the national server, the players’ eyes lit up, as if they had gone from the high slope of the yellow map to a fantasy wonderland. For example, the mysterious empire of Atlantis under the sea. This map may be the first time many people have seen the light and shadow effect of sunlight penetrating the water in an online game.
Not only that, the characters in "Miracle" are also shining and cool. Players' skills can sweep away a large area and kill the whole audience instantly. There are also a variety of wings, ranging from cool and shiny to thin and see-through, which is an eye-opener for Chinese players. , it turns out that online games can be so handsome. Starting from "Miracle", Korean games began to become synonymous with good graphics, leading the aesthetic trend of Chinese players and becoming a learning target for Chinese game manufacturers.
On March 14, 2003, "Miracle MU" was updated to version 0.87 and opened the way to the top. At that time, the number of registered users of Miracle had reached 10 million, and the highest number of people online at the same time exceeded 300,000. This number made "Miracle MU" 》has undoubtedly topped the list of online games in China.
However, although "Miracle MU" has developed rapidly, the rampant private servers and the rampant plug-ins have caused the life cycle of "Miracle MU" to decline again and again. The duplication of game props, the generation of full-screen plug-ins, and countless private servers updated simultaneously with the official server. When these conditions come together, miracles begin to slowly come off the altar.
9. "Fantasy Westward Journey" – the pinnacle of turn-based combat
"Sentiment", "economy", and "leisure", these three words should be the evaluation of this game by many veteran Fantasy players. It has been nearly 20 years since "Fantasy Westward Journey" was launched in public beta in 2003, but it has Not only has it not died out, it has even successfully transitioned from PC games to mobile games.
Generally speaking, the game has a zero-Krypton gameplay, and the local tycoon also has the fun of the local tycoon. It is not like other games at the time where there are huge class differences. In addition, Fantasy Westward Journey itself is a turn-based game and does not have high requirements on gameplay. Therefore, after it was later transformed into a mobile game, it also received unanimous praise from a large number of players.
The huge world view in the game provides planners and officials with a lot of materials to create new professions, new characters, and new plots, which in turn provides players with more choices and matching gameplay. The emotion of Fantasy is mainly reflected in the various dungeon matching options. Compared with other turn-based online games, Fantasy puts more emphasis on lineups and strategies.
Whether it's teamwork, the control of first speed, second speed, stuck speed, or the use of stunts, drugs, skill coordination, point kills, blocks, formations, etc. Fantasy Westward Journey has successfully defeated other turn-based games with its excellent game combat operations. In 2012, the highest number of online users exceeded 2.71 million, making it the pinnacle of turn-based combat.
10. "Swordsman Love Online Edition" – the first domestic online game sold abroad
It created the first domestic ARPG and is still a top IP in the Chinese game market after more than 20 years of development. Together with "Legend of Sword and Fairy" and "Xuanyuan Sword", it is known as the "Three Domestic Swords" and is "Swordsman Love". The overall world view of the game "Swordsman Love 1" released in 1997 is very rich. It not only includes the love between sons and daughters that players talk about, but also national justice and chivalrous grievances. Even though the price was as high as 128 yuan at the time, it still made 25,000 yuan. An impressive set of results.
After the sequel "Jianxia Qian Yuan 2" was launched in 2000 and became popular again, "Jian Xia Qian Yuan OL" (commonly known as Jian Wang 1) was officially launched. After many tests, Jianwang 1 was officially put into public beta on September 20, 2003. Thanks to the reputation accumulated by the single-player series, the number of online users of the game exceeded 80,000 at the end of 2003. In 2004, the number of simultaneous online users of "Jian Wang 1" in the Taiwan server exceeded 40,000. Subsequently, "Jian Wang 1" was launched in Southeast Asian countries and won simultaneous online games in Vietnam. With the number of users reaching 200,000, official data shows that the number of registered users of “Jian Wang 1” exceeds 10 million.
The success of "Jian Wang 1" also marked Xishanju's emergence as a first-tier online game studio in China. Its subsequent "Jian Wang 2" and "Jian Wang 3" also successively achieved success in domestic martial arts online games. In particular, "Jian Wang 3" has become one of the three domestic online games and is still active in the first-tier market after more than ten years.
11. "Audition" – the first music and dance game
In that era when online games had just become popular in China, players who often went to Internet cafes to surf the Internet must have been deeply impressed by the game "Audition." In addition to the iconic "smashing the space bar", the large number of female players has also become one of the features of this game.
Since its official public beta in 2005, it has been in the Chinese game market for 11 years. Official data shows that the total number of registered players of the "Audition" PC game exceeds 540 million. In other words, on average, there is one Audition for every three Chinese people. Group players, and users are very loyal to the game. The player who has been online the longest has been online for nearly 9 years.
To this day, the Korean version of "Audition" was suspended due to various reasons as early as 2015, but the Chinese version of "Audition" is still operating in an orderly manner. According to the agent Jiuyou, the game can "keep fighting for another ten years." ”, it seems that the legend of this game is far from over.
12. "Zhengtu" – the first free play + item charging model, breaking the legendary online number record
In April 2006, Giant Network's first self-developed online game "Zhengtu" launched open beta. Just 7 months later, it broke "Legend's" record of 670,000 simultaneous online games, making domestic online games the first in China's online game market. At this time, "Zhengtu Network"'s monthly profit reached as high as 8.5 million US dollars, becoming the second largest domestic game company!
"Zhengtu" has created many firsts in the history of Chinese games: the first free play + item charging model; the first server "no boundary" technology, making it possible for millions of players to fight in the same zone; the first "payment" model for players… …These innovations ushered in a new era for the domestic gaming industry, making “Zhengtu” one of the products with the most profound impact on the Chinese gaming industry.
However, due to the setting of paying to be king in the game, more and more players realized that the nature of the game was changing. Coupled with the emergence of a large number of free online games at that time, many players decisively chose to leave "Journey". This has led to the end of this game that once had the largest number of online users.
13. "Dungeon and Fighter" – one of Tencent's fortune games
"Dungeon and Fighter", which was released in public beta in 2008, can be said to be the key game for Tencent to gain a foothold in the gaming industry. At that time, the domestic market was almost dominated by some established game companies such as NetEase and The9. At that time, Tencent could be said to have broken out of the siege by relying on DNF. It is no exaggeration to say that the history of DNF is the history of Tencent Games and China. A history of changes and transitions in the gaming industry.
Over the years, countless competing products have tried to copy the "side-scrolling fighting" gameplay of "Dungeon & Fighter", and even Tencent itself has launched similar products; however, in the face of "Dungeon & Fighter", which does everything to the extreme, imitation The players are completely unable to loosen their player base.
According to released third-party data, DNF has consistently ranked among the top three in the global PC game revenue list every year since 2013, and ranked second in 2016 and 2017, second only to LOL. As of June 2018, in ten years, DNF had brought a total operating revenue of 10 billion US dollars to the company. This figure far exceeded Steam and the most profitable game on the console platform, "GTA5", which had a total revenue of 60 One hundred million U.S. dollars.