Guild Wars 2

Hey all!
I´ve been playing mmos for some years now and something that i have allways thought about is why we say “dungeons”. Does any1 know when “Dungeon” as a Word for (special mission instances) got named a dungeon? Was it original a dungeon instance in an mmo? Was it just called dungeon out of the blue?..

When i do dungeons i allways have a big smile on my lips and Think, why do i call this a dungeon, where does it come from, who invented the concept Word “Dungeon” to discribe a instance based mission?

I dont have a better name for it, and i dont disslike it, im just curious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_

RPGs, both pen and paper and computer versions developed from ‘dungeon crawlers’ where you played an adventurer fighting their way through a literal dungeon. From that it became a common term for any section of a game with similar mechanics in all kinds of games, not just MMOs.

For example the more combat/puzzle orientated sections of the Legend of Zelda games are commonly called dungeons even though most of them are actually abandoned temples and some are castles or towns or woodlands.

Same way the big, final enemy is commonly called a Boss even if they’re not actually in charge of the rest of the enemies in the area.

From the pen &paper dungeons and dragons

Yes, from pen & paper RPGs, usually the Game Master made missions where you had to solve puzzles, fight some enemies, then a “boss” type to get a reward was usually in dungeons.

EDIT: Old MMOs like Ultima and Tibia, those quests with a reward in the end guarded by a boss was usually in a dungeon.

The name of (possibly) the oldest Pen & Paper RPG IS “DUNGEONS & Dragons”.

I recall buying the first D&D boxed set back in the mid 70’s (gawd, I’m old)…..

This is also why nearly all mmo’s with dungeons have dragons too… It’s so cliche it’s expected.

even before MMOs were around dungeons were well established part of normal console RPGs as well, so it was/is an expected part of adventuring. RPGs came from the idea of the pen & paper RPG D&D. there are even some games out there where your ENTIRE game takes place in a huge, multi-leveled dungeon such as Ergheiz and the likes.

Tman.6349:

multi-leveled dungeon such as Ergheiz and the likes.

The fighting part of that game is terrible, but the RPG … so good and so hard, I think not many people know that game.

Lil Puppy.5216:

This is also why nearly all mmo’s with dungeons have dragons too… It’s so cliche it’s expected.

It’s funny you should say that. I was ridiculously happy when I played Neverwinter Nights and it actually had dragons in one of the side quests because I’d played numerous DnD computer games before and none of them had included dragons.

I was starting to feel like it was false advertising.

Belzebu.3912:

Tman.6349:

multi-leveled dungeon such as Ergheiz and the likes.

The fighting part of that game is terrible, but the RPG … so good and so hard, I think not many people know that game.

One of the best fighting based RPG Square ever did was Vagrant Story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagrant_Story

Amazing game-play with at surprisingly deep crafting system for a console game. Story was one of Square’s best…..