| Bofferbrauer2 said: Also, isn't it funny that CRPGs basically started with MMOs before become single-player games? |
One could say that history almost repeated itself - original D&D was not game that you play with few friends around the table, it was more of a club were there is shared world in which different DMs host many different parties.
As for topic of first, I'll give example of D&D. Before D&D there was Blackmoor and before it there was Braunstein. And while there is direct design thread leading from Braunstein through Blackmoor to D&D, this is good example for introducing term proto-(insert name of genre) into debate, since Braunstein could be labeled as proto-TTRPG, while Blackmoor is an actual TTRPG and direct predecessor of D&D.
Often games that are most influential early on in the genre end up as one treated as one's that created the genre, though, if we're really honest, most likely none of them are.
