Today, China's online game market has been called a behemoth with annual sales of 300 billion yuan, from 2000 in the first year of online games to 2022, countless online games have been launched and suspended. Some online games have left an indelible record in the history of Chinese online games; some have disappeared in history in the short term; some are still operating; and some foreign popular games have broken the sand in China.
Although 2000 is the first year of domestic online games, the games at that time were only "King of Kings" and "Three Kingdoms of the Internet", and there was not much competition, and earlier there was only MUD (text online game). The real outbreak of online games in China should start from 2001, and a large number of online games have sprung up like mushrooms, robbing the domestic online game market. Today we will take stock of the ancient online games that once appeared in China in 2001.
Stone Age
Beta: January 2001
If you are a veteran player, you should be familiar with Stone Age, after all, this game is the most popular online game in the Chinese market before the legend (there is no one)! As can be seen from the 2001 market share chart above, Stone Age ranks first, accounting for a quarter of the game time. It is worth mentioning that at that time, "Legends" killed many games of the same era, but "Stone Age" was not defeated and lasted for 15 years.
Stone Age is a 2DMMORPG online game developed by the Japanese company JSS (later transferred to Huayi International) and released in 1999. In Japan at that time, the Stone Age was only a small fire for a while, until 2000, when the fire spread to China Bay and caused a sensation.
As the first Japanese online game in history to be introduced, "Stone Age" opened the era of "turn-based" online games in China. Although there is competition from the three Korean online game giants of "Millennium", "Red Moon" and "Dragon Clan", thanks to the user base laid by the early Japanese stand-alone machine, Japanese painting style, turn-based and other elements have made "Stone Age" gain a large number of users, with nearly a quarter of the market share, becoming China's first online game.
Interestingly, the original of the plug-in that players hate now has more or less something to do with the Stone Age. As the earliest game, at that time, game manufacturers did not resist plug-ins as they do now. Of course, the plug-in function at that time was very simple, in today's technical terms, it is actually a simple script hang-up function, and there is no perverted function at all.
Due to the lack of understanding of plug-ins, this kind of "software" that can make the game easier is very popular. All players do not contradict the "plug-in", but the agreement is customary, everyone opens and hangs, no hanging is not happy, and although the official surface does not say, it is basically acquiescence.
Unfortunately, by the time the official realized the badness of the plug-in and intended to rectify the plug-in, it was too late. At that time, the entire Stone Age was in a state where everyone was plugged in, and the cure for plug-ins would only make the game called ghost clothes. Coupled with the appearance of "Legend" in the later period, copyright disputes and many other problems, "Stone Age" was officially discontinued in 2008.
After that, the agent was replaced by Jinshan, but the good times were not long, and Jinshan was soon replaced. It wasn't until 2013 that Shengsi became the new agent of Stone Age, bringing the game back to life! However, after all, feelings are not omnipotent, and finally on April 8, 2016, a generation of legendary online games "Stone Age" was announced!
Millennium
Beta: March 2001
Millennium is a martial arts online game developed by Actoz in South Korea, which constructs a wonderful virtual world of ancient martial arts. Through the cultivation of various martial arts that are mutually exclusive, they can experience the fun of the game by breaking into the rivers and lakes, and become the overlords of the martial arts and a generation of masters to create this thousand-year-old jianghu with endless grievances.
The vast map in Millennium is dotted with towns, each with a different architectural style. Towns are hubs where people congregate and you can buy and sell here. Beyond the town are rolling mountains and endless plains, with beautiful scenery and dangerous mountains and rivers, where you will encounter all kinds of animals and monsters, killing them will not only hit coins and potions, but also pick up good weapons and equipment.
"Millennium" was listed in South Korea in 2000, and was launched in China by Baalia Interactive in 2001, which was a boom in the country when online games were just emerging, and "Dragon Clan" and "Red Moon" were divided into three parts of the world, dominating the domestic online game market. However, with the launch of many new games and the replacement of agency companies, it eventually went to the end due to poor operation, the flood of private servers caused by the leakage of original code, etc.
But that's not the final outcome of Millennium. In 2004, Shanda acquired about 29% of developer Actoz and restarted Millennium operations in 2008. Subsequently, in May 2008, Shanda launched a new Millennium 3 on the basis of the old version of "Millennium", and it is still in normal operation in China.
On the other hand, it is regrettable that on May 17, 2016, south Korea's official release announced that the "Millennium", which has been in operation for 16 years, was officially suspended, which also represents the official end of this old game.
Red Moon
Beta: May 2001
The fantasy-filled science fiction genre has always been a hit in the film and game industry. I believe that many players still remember the huge heat set off when "The Wandering Earth" was released before. Compared with science fiction movies, science fiction games are also the most popular genres of the player group.
As the first science fiction theme online game introduced in China, "Red Moon" has a lot of influence in the Chinese online game industry, in that era of Chinese online games, compared with the "fantasy" and "martial arts" of the rotten streets in the world, the science fiction theme of "Red Moon" made the players shine at that time, and also made the game quickly popular.
Red Moon is a 2D online game developed by ShiLi Network Co.Ltd. in South Korea. The game is based on the original manga of the same name by Korean manga artist Hwang Min-na, and takes place in a fictional world called Siganis. With a full personality plot and rare sci-fi themes, as well as a sense of speed gameplay, the game has been well received by players in the early 2000s, and it is also an MMORPG end game that led South Korea to enter the early domestic terminal game market.
Interestingly, in addition to its contribution to the game, "Red Moon" has made a lot of contributions to the legislation of false wealth and the "spike" boom in China.
In 2003, a player named "Li Hongchen" in the game was stolen, resulting in the official deletion of equipment. So Li Hongchen and the game agent got on the bar, and walked step by step to the court. This bar has directly sensationalized the entire game industry, and a new and serious question has come: Does the virtual property in online games need legislative protection? This problem was not settled until the "General Provisions of the Civil Law" adopted by the two sessions in 2017, and the "virtual property into the law" was settled!
Now the "second kill" of various activities in the market, I believe you have long been accustomed to it, and this "second kill" boom is actually derived from "Red Moon".
At the beginning of the listing of the national service, some mainland players ran to the Taiwan service forum to check the raider information, and the Taiwan service players would say "xx seconds" during the discussion, so this image statement also spread to the mainland, and the second kill was also popular in online games. Then the second kill prevailed in major online games and became the hottest word in the game industry at that time! In 2007, "spike" became a new Chinese word announced by the Ministry of Education!
Unfortunately, the three games "Millennium", "Dragon Clan" and "Red Moon" in China's good days soon came to an end. Because a powerful opponent has qualified, that is, the grand "Legend of Blood". The legend was so successful that in 2002 it directly unified China's online game market with 500,000 simultaneous online!
What's even worse is that in the face of the decline of the game, the agent actually directly picked the pick and ran away. On the evening of May 12, 2005, Red Moon "abruptly" shut down all servers overnight, still in the form of "three noes" – no announcements, no notices, and even no greetings! The customer service phone was also cancelled at the same time, and the player had no way to complain, as if the game had never existed in the world!
Dragon Clan
Beta: June 14, 2001
Earlier we mentioned the other two games "Dragon Clan" and "Red Moon" that were standing on their three legs in China at that time, and then we will talk about "Dragon Clan". Dragon Clan is an MMORPG online game jointly developed by South Korea's eSofNet company and Samsung Electronics in 2001. The work is developed in the background of the fantasy novel "Dragon Clan" written by Korean writer Lee Young-do, and can be regarded as one of the representatives of fantasy online games.
There are 5 classes in the game: Warrior, Thief, Archer, Wizard, priest, and players must choose one of them to start the game. Class choice is the most important, different classes will affect the character's various ability values, combat style, differences in ability to use weapons, class's special abilities, and the items they carry at the beginning.
The Novel "Dragon Clan" had a record of 2 million copies sold in Korea at that time, and was originally published on the Internet in October 1997, and was loved by a wide range of readers and published together, becoming a best-selling novel in South Korea. With a large readership and fan base, the game has gained a high degree of popularity since its launch. After being introduced into China in 2001, with many professional gameplay and beautiful picture effects, it quickly swept the domestic Internet cafes and became one of the hottest games at that time.
"Jin Yongqun Hero Online"
Beta: July 20, 2001
For Mr. Jin Yong, I believe that everyone here will be familiar with it, and his martial arts novels are the beginning of the martial arts dreams of countless players. Such a classic theme, of course, will inevitably be changed into a game. In fact, as early as 2001, China NetDragon used Jin Yong's novel as the background to produce a semi-real-time 2D online game "Jin Yong Qunxia Online".
"Jin YongQunXia Online" adopts a high degree of freedom of gameplay, and the current statement is an open-world sandbox gameplay. The game does not set character levels, no occupations, and no main plot of any characters, from the moment you step into the game, you will be on your own in this virtual jianghu piled up by Mr. Jin Yong's 14 original novels.
The creative gameplay mode of living alone also allowed "Jin Yongqun Hero Online" to break the domination of the game market by games such as "Millennium", "Dragon Clan" and "Red Moon" as soon as it was launched, and became the TOP1 game of major Internet cafes in one fell swoop.
As a domestic online game, "Jin Yongqun Hero Online" is not only the originator of martial arts online games, but also seized the market from Korean online games, and also rushed domestic online games out of the country for the first time to export to other countries. It has opened Southeast Asian servers and set off a boom in martial arts online games in Southeast Asian countries, so that today there is still a Southeast Asian player group on FB that specifically discusses the legend of Jin Yongqun.
It is worth mentioning that "Jin Yongqun Hero Online" also created a publicity model for online games to invite game spokespersons, and put TV advertisements on CCTV 8 with Zhou Xun as the spokesperson that year.
Later, because of the policy relationship, the game advertisement was not related to the TV screen for a long time, so the game advertisement of "Jin Yongqun Hero Online" became one of the few game advertisements that had been broadcast on CCTV.
Surprisingly, in fact, "Jin Yongqun Hero Online" is still alive and even opened a new suit, and interested old players can go back and look at it.
Legend of Blood
Beta: September 28, 2001
If you look back at the history of China's online game development, then Chen Tianqiao's grandeur and Shanda's "Legend of Blood" are definitely a milestone node.
In 2001, the tepid "Legend of Blood" in South Korea was introduced into China by Shanda Agent, and then opened the legendary history of "Legend of Blood" in China. Two years after entering The Country, that is, in 2003, "Legend of Blood" ushered in the most prosperous period. For a simple example, when "League of Legends" was all over the country, that kind of scene everyone had experienced, and everyone was black as soon as they entered the Internet café. And the pomp and circumstance of "Legend" is only beyond that.
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Although computers and Internet cafes have become the most common things in our daily lives, in 2001 these two things can be regarded as new things, and the overall popularity rate in the country is quite low, but "Legends" has reached 30 million players under these conditions, and the number of people online has exceeded 700,000. This data has not been easy to achieve until now, and if any game reaches this data, it may be a big announcement to celebrate. From this, we can see how hot and crazy "Blood Legend" was at that time.
To this day, in the face of many new games with sub-era graphics and complex gameplay, "Blood Legend" still has a strong vitality. Not only the official server, a variety of third-party "Blood Legend" theme games are also emerging, a variety of page game advertisements I believe everyone has seen a lot, "Blood Legend" still creates a lot of profits every year.
"Journey to the West Online"
Beta: December 2001
For NetEase domestic players will certainly not be strangers, although now NetEase's game business is basically focused on the mobile game business, but once upon a time, the end game was also the top priority of NetEase. If you want to evaluate NetEase's end games, then the two games "Journey to the West" and "Fantasy Journey to the West" must not be missed.
Now if the player mentions "Journey to the West", it basically refers to the "Journey to the West 2". In fact, before "Journey to the West 2", NetEase also launched "Journey to the West 1", and many players may not have played it, or even heard of this game. There may also be players who have also been curious, since they all have 2, why haven't they seen 1? I was curious at the beginning.
As for the reason, it is also very simple, "Journey to the West 1" is really bad. After the game was launched, it was devastated by technical and bug problems, and "Journey to the West 1" was completely suspended in only half a year, and even did not leave too much information on the Network.
However, the failure of the speed of light of "Journey to the West 1" is not a bad thing, as the saying goes, failure is the mother of success, with the experience and lessons accumulated by "Journey to the West 1", NetEase then developed two works that carry the handle, "Journey to the West 2" and "Fantasy Journey to the West".
How many of the above have you played?