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Revision as of 20:31, 10 April 2007 editMonsieurbandwidth (talk | contribs)37 edits Added external link to the Internet Archive to see the old TEN web site. Added Checkers to the list of games supported by Planet Optigon's beta version of TEN.← Previous edit Revision as of 22:42, 10 April 2007 edit undoFixIt2000 (talk | contribs)93 edits Undid revision 121766512 by Monsieurbandwidth (talk) - reverted to more accurate factsNext edit →
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'''Total Entertainment Network''' (TEN) was an ] network founded in 1991 by CEO ], founder of the ], and VP Content Development ]. ], now the President of iWin<ref>iWin, http://www.iwin.com</ref>, was VP Business Development for Optigon and co-founder of TE Networks.
'''Total Entertainment Network''' (TEN) was an ] service that existed from September, 1996<ref>"TEN goes commercial; Leading interactive entertainment network for game players offers special introductory pricing to first 25,000 members," ''Business Wire'' Sep. 23, 1996. Available online at http://www.thefreelibrary.com/TEN+goes+commercial%3b+Leading+interactive+entertainment+network+for...-a018698627</ref> until October, 1999. T E Network, Inc., which created and operated the TEN service, was formed from the merger<ref>"Planet Optigon, Outland to merge and form "The Total Entertainment Network"; Online Entertainment companies merge, receive venture financing from Kleiner Perkins, Caulfield & Byers," ''Business Wire'' Apr. 24, 1995. Available online at http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Planet+Optigon%2c+Outland+to+merge+and+form+%22The+Total+Entertainment...-a016857194</ref> of ] and ] in June, 2005 when they received their first round of VC funding from ].


In 1994, Planet Optigon launched a beta of '''Total Entertainment Network'' via Sprint's national. This service was a community portal and casual game service, with games such as Chess, Checkers, Descent and SimCity available to its subscribers, as well as "web" based email and usenet news. ], founded in 1993 by ] and ] was the first "game only" service on the Internet which required a paid subscription.
The service offered PC game players a place to play DOS and Windows-based games online with and against other players, to chat, to download game-related content, and to compete for high scores and to win tournaments. The service was bundled with many PC games and offered as a subscription service. Some of the games supported on TEN include ]<ref>"3D Realms Titles Go Exclusively to TEN for 5 Years; TEN to be exclusive online partner for all upcoming titles, including Duke Nukem 3D," ''Business Wire'' Mar. 19, 1996. Available online at http://www.thefreelibrary.com/3D+Realms+Titles+Go+Exclusively+to+TEN+for+5+Years%3b+TEN+to+be...-a018104297</ref>, NASCAR Racing Online Series<ref>"NASCAR Speeds onto the Internet: TEN Puts Pedal to the Metal with Sierra On-Line and NASCAR," ''Business Wire'' Dec. 3, 1996. Available online at http://www.thefreelibrary.com/NASCAR+Speeds+onto+the+Internet%3a+TEN+Puts+Pedal+to+the+Metal+with...-a018896455</ref>, ], ], ], ]<ref>"TEN Shakes Up the Gaming World With Addition of QUAKE; First commercial Internet entertainment network adds to list of high-quality content," ''Business Wire'' Sep. 30, 1996. Available online at http://www.thefreelibrary.com/TEN+Shakes+Up+the+Gaming+World+With+Addition+of+QUAKE%3b+First...-a018731815</ref>, ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ].


Kleiner Perkins, the first major investor in TEN, also invested in Concentric Networks, a low latency ISP, and ], a search engine and web portal.
Many online games, especially PC games adapted for online game play, require low and consistent latencies to play well. It was a major challenge circa 1996 for consumers to find consistent low latency connections to central servers or to other game players because of the latency intrinsic to dial-up ] and the heavy congestion at the ]s. T E Network, Inc. partnered<ref>"TEN and Concentric Forge Alliance to Provide Fastest Possible National Gaming Network," ''Business Wire'' May 16, 1996. Available online at http://www.thefreelibrary.com/TEN+and+Concentric+Forge+Alliance+to+Provide+Fastest+Possible...-a018290454</ref> with Concentric Network Corporation to offer consumers Internet access dial-up numbers that would provide the reliable low latencies they needed to play online games. Concentric optimized their network and their dial-up technology for the TEN service.


In 1995, as part of the investment from ] at ] Planet Optigon's eighteen employees merged with Outland's three to form TE Network. The resulting company maintained the "Total Entertainment Network" brand and the executive team of four VP's and the Chairman/CEO from Optigon were joined by the CTO from Outland. The ] for the companies shifted to serving the ], including connecting players to online opponents while providing a ] connection between them. A new windows operating system based and ] based server and client were created with a greater focus on low latency.
After the success of ]'s free ] service for Diablo and their claim that offering online play as a feature of the game boosted retail sales by 10%, PC game publishers started following Blizzard's lead and offering free online game play. This undermined the subscription business model of TEN and their strategy to be the exclusive place to play popular PC games online. As Internet advertising was starting to gain traction, T E Network decided to focus on easy-to-access and easy-to-play browser-based games that would appeal to a broad audience and attract enough unique users to drive an advertising-based business model. T E Nework, Inc. became<ref>"TEN Becomes pogo.com: Bingo Beats Quake," Wall Street Journal Interactive, Oct. 1999. Available online at http://www.costik.com/pogo.html</ref> ], Inc. to pursue this new strategy.
The TEN brand and management continued with new service offerings, provided online ]s, gaming ]s, one of the first MMORPGs, the D&D based Dark Sun Online, and match-making services to gamers.


The service offered PC game players a place to play DOS and Windows-based games online with and against other players, to chat, to download game-related content, and to compete for high scores and to win tournaments. The service was bundled with many PC games and offered as a subscription service. Some of the games supported on TEN include Duke Nukem 3D, NASCAR Racing Online, Magic: The Gathering Online, ARC, AD&D's Dark Sun Online, Quake, Quake 2, Shadow Warrior, Wulfram, Warheads, Masters of Orion, Blood, WizWar, Red Alert, Command & Conquer, Panzer General, Twilight Dawn, Diablo, Warcraft, Deadlock, and Myth.
== Beta Version from Planet Optigon ==


The site charged either an hourly or monthly fee for this service. The site had some exclusive content, but failed to grow quickly enough to support itself as more and more competitors began offering Internet based game services ].
] developed and launched a beta version of an online gaming network and community portal that was called the Total Entertainment Network. It was a subscription service with a DOS client that offered ], ], ], email, and chat<ref>"Showdown at the Virtual Corral," San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 5, 1995. Available online at http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/1995/01/05/DD7710.DTL</ref>. It was available via Sprint's national dial-up network. This version was discontinued soon after T E Network, Inc. was formed.

In 1996, TEN began its slow shift back to its roots in casual gaming. T E Network acquired Michael Riccio's WebDeck service, which offered Java-based versions of Euchre, Spades, and Hearts that ran in the popular web browsers circa 1998, to accelerate this transition. Excite was their first partner. On ], ], TEN completed its repositioning by relaunching itself as Pogo or ].


In ], Pogo.com was sold to ].

This is a ] excerpt from the now-] TEN website (www.ten.net): <ref>Internet Archive, http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.ten.net</ref> written by ], who went on to found ], a leading developer of ]s

{{cquote|You've just taken the first step into the underground world of TEN. Right now, thousands of people are playing hit multiplayer games like Duke Nukem 3D, Deadlock, AD&D DARK SUN, Command & Conquer, Red Alert, Diablo, Blood, and QUAKE over the Internet. Not to mention the hit games that will soon be playable over TEN such as Shadow Warrior, Twighlight Lands, and NASCAR Racing Online Series. You also get chat rooms, tournaments, game rankings to determine the best players, member profiles and more. All you need to do is install the TEN software to join in the action.}}


== References == == References ==
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== See also == == See also ==
*], a popular game playable on the TEN network
*] *]


== External Links == ==External links/Press Releases==
*
* Internet Archive of the TEN website, http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.ten.net
*
*
*
*
*

Revision as of 22:42, 10 April 2007

Total Entertainment Network (TEN) was an online gaming network founded in 1991 by CEO Daniel Goldman, founder of the Inner Circle BBS, and VP Content Development Janice Linden-Reed. Greg Harper, now the President of iWin, was VP Business Development for Optigon and co-founder of TE Networks.

In 1994, Planet Optigon launched a beta of 'Total Entertainment Network via Sprint's national. This service was a community portal and casual game service, with games such as Chess, Checkers, Descent and SimCity available to its subscribers, as well as "web" based email and usenet news. Outland, founded in 1993 by William Lipa and David King was the first "game only" service on the Internet which required a paid subscription.

Kleiner Perkins, the first major investor in TEN, also invested in Concentric Networks, a low latency ISP, and Excite, a search engine and web portal.

In 1995, as part of the investment from Vinod Khosla at Kleiner Perkins Planet Optigon's eighteen employees merged with Outland's three to form TE Network. The resulting company maintained the "Total Entertainment Network" brand and the executive team of four VP's and the Chairman/CEO from Optigon were joined by the CTO from Outland. The business model for the companies shifted to serving the hardcore gamer, including connecting players to online opponents while providing a low latency connection between them. A new windows operating system based and IP based server and client were created with a greater focus on low latency. The TEN brand and management continued with new service offerings, provided online rankings, gaming tournaments, one of the first MMORPGs, the D&D based Dark Sun Online, and match-making services to gamers.

The service offered PC game players a place to play DOS and Windows-based games online with and against other players, to chat, to download game-related content, and to compete for high scores and to win tournaments. The service was bundled with many PC games and offered as a subscription service. Some of the games supported on TEN include Duke Nukem 3D, NASCAR Racing Online, Magic: The Gathering Online, ARC, AD&D's Dark Sun Online, Quake, Quake 2, Shadow Warrior, Wulfram, Warheads, Masters of Orion, Blood, WizWar, Red Alert, Command & Conquer, Panzer General, Twilight Dawn, Diablo, Warcraft, Deadlock, and Myth.

The site charged either an hourly or monthly fee for this service. The site had some exclusive content, but failed to grow quickly enough to support itself as more and more competitors began offering Internet based game services free of charge.

In 1996, TEN began its slow shift back to its roots in casual gaming. T E Network acquired Michael Riccio's WebDeck service, which offered Java-based versions of Euchre, Spades, and Hearts that ran in the popular web browsers circa 1998, to accelerate this transition. Excite was their first partner. On September 1, 1999, TEN completed its repositioning by relaunching itself as Pogo or Pogo.com.


In 2001, Pogo.com was sold to Electronic Arts.

This is a 1997 excerpt from the now-defunct TEN website (www.ten.net): written by Jason Kapulka, who went on to found PopCap, a leading developer of casual games

You've just taken the first step into the underground world of TEN. Right now, thousands of people are playing hit multiplayer games like Duke Nukem 3D, Deadlock, AD&D DARK SUN, Command & Conquer, Red Alert, Diablo, Blood, and QUAKE over the Internet. Not to mention the hit games that will soon be playable over TEN such as Shadow Warrior, Twighlight Lands, and NASCAR Racing Online Series. You also get chat rooms, tournaments, game rankings to determine the best players, member profiles and more. All you need to do is install the TEN software to join in the action.

References

  1. iWin, http://www.iwin.com
  2. Internet Archive, http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.ten.net

See also

External links/Press Releases