[wink]

You have your timeline slightly wrong because GW1 (if we take dev time into account) basically launched at the same time as WoW - and WoW wasn't the first subscription MMO. I suppose if this was a major reason, EverQuest would be the one to inspire it.

[ethbr1]

Everquest was 1999. Ultima Online was 1997 and had a $10/month subscription price.

[wink]

True, I had forgotten about UO, but for the sake of the argument I don't think it really matters. I don't have numbers ready, I had always seen EQ as the bigger mainstream success, could be wrong. Also was a bit before my time, I didn't pay sub fees for my games until 2004/05ish.

Edit: I didn't actually want to say that EQ invented it, but I had phrased that badly.