Adventure Quest Worlds Online

Its amazing to see just how far the old Adventure Quest franchise has come. With the ever developing advent of free browser based games - the likes of Adventure Quest being morphed online are becoming more and more popular.

Even the old school classics from Sierra such as : Space Quest, Police Quest and Leisure Suit Larry have all been ported into smart, sleek browser based games.

(Not sure if you could ever call these games sleek, but there were certainly lots of fun.)

For those that dont remember these games, they were unique because they were based on 'typing' or offering commands to hero character at the centre of the game.

It took the focus away from the games graphics - and suddenly gamers were more interested in 'finding a date' in Leisure Suit Larry; or using a Police Extender in Police Quest; or funnily enough buying a droid in Space Quest.

All quirky but hugely popular.

Sierra was THE leader in offline games in the 90's - but where they really screwed up, was with one of the first real MMORPG games called 'The Realm'.

At the time, Sierra was kicking goals with their huge offline range of games. When they first developed 'The Realm' which was basically a World of Warcraft in its earliest form - they were giving away trial accounts with many of the new Sierra games purchased offline.

The internet was still in its infancy, with mostly dialup internet access - but this game was an MMORPG which didn't really need the real time battle speed of ADSL and Cable internet. It did just find on low ping connections.

However, Sierra couldn't turn a profit from the game quickly enough and basically took their focus totally away from it.

Looking back now, they could have really been the pioneer in online games - but now, the big boys such as Blizzard Entertainment are killing it, which some massive titles and huge online followings. (They also dont have to worry about software piracy, as the accounts require online authenticity - a handy trait for the new era)

They are also worrying less and less about game CD and DVD production, as they are selling the software online in many cases and having the game downloaded instantly in digital format - saving massively on production costs.

Who knows what will happen to the online gaming market in 10 years. Given the recently release of Evony Free Forever and the massive user uptake (8 million plus accounts in less than 1 year) - the ever improving graphics of these games is taking online gaming to a new level.