Editing Roguelike (section)

== Origin ==

The term "roguelike" came from [[Usenet newsgroup]]s around 1993, as this was the principal channel the players of roguelike games of that period were using to discuss these games, as well as what the developers used to announce new releases and even distribute the game's source code in some cases. With several individual groups for each game, it was suggested that with rising popularity of ''Rogue'', ''Hack'', ''Moria'', and ''Angband'', all of which shared common elements, that the groups be consolidated under an umbrella term to facilitate cross-game discussion.<ref>{{cite newsgroup | author = Solovay, Andrew. | title = CFV: rec.games.roguelike reorganization | date = July 27, 1993 | newsgroup = news.announce.newgroups | message-id = rec.games.roguelike-CFV1@uunet.uu.net  | quote = I would like to propose formally that a new hierarchy be created, namely rec.games.roguelike. This hierarchy would contain groups dedicated to discussion of rogue-type games.}}</ref><ref>{{cite newsgroup | author = Panitz, Aliza. | title = Time for a new level of hierarchy? | date = June 18, 1993 | newsgroup = rec.games.moria | message-id = 1vsuhk$mj7@bronze.lcs.mit.edu | url = https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/rec.games.moria/cMzFkzyfzyY/AfRupGIliEcJ | access-date = May 17, 2018 | quote = It seems to me that we'd do a lot better taking all of the dungeon-adventure games, including ones that don't have their own newsgroups like larn and omega, and reorganizing them under rec.games.dungeon – recognizing the intrinsic similarities of all these games.  It would make it a lot easier for people who like one of these games to find newsgroups about other, basically similar games, and would finally provide a home for all those random posts about Larn and other games of the same genre that keep popping up in rec.games.hack and other inappropriate places. | archive-date = January 22, 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110122130054/https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/rec.games.moria/cMzFkzyfzyY/AfRupGIliEcJ | url-status = live }}</ref><ref name=originSlashie/> Debate among users of these groups ensued to try to find an encapsulating term that described the common elements, starting with <code>rec.games.dungeon.*</code>,<ref>{{cite newsgroup | author = Solovay, Andrew. | title = RFD: rec.games.dungeon.* hierarchy | date = July 2, 1993 | newsgroup = news.announce.newgroups | message-id = 211gvmINNsnp@rodan.UU.NET | url = https://groups.google.com/d/msg/news.groups/CdWOd-M6g-w/cgNn2b9uU2sJ | access-date = May 17, 2018 | quote = I would like to propose formally that a new hierarchy be created, namely rec.games.dungeon. This hierarchy would contain groups dedicated to discussion of rogue-type games. | archive-date = November 7, 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211107234935/https://groups.google.com/g/news.groups/c/CdWOd-M6g-w/m/cgNn2b9uU2sJ | url-status = live }}</ref><ref name=originSlashie/> but after three weeks of discussion, <code>rec.games.roguelike.*</code>, based on ''Rogue'', which was at the time considered to be the oldest of these types of games, was picked as "the least of all available evils".<ref>{{cite newsgroup | author = Solovay, Andrew. | title = 3rd RFD: rec.games.roguelike.* hierarchy | date = July 20, 1993 | newsgroup = news.announce.newgroups | message-id = 22ie07INNbaa@rodan.UU.NET | quote = Those people who agree on a name seem to favor "roguelike" as the least of all available evils. }}</ref><ref name=originSlashie>{{cite web |url=https://blog.slashie.net/on-the-historical-origin-of-the-roguelike-term/ |title=On the Historical Origin of the "Roguelike" Term |last=Zapata |first=Santiago |date=November 13, 2017 |website=Slashie's Journal |publisher=self-published |access-date=October 14, 2018 |archive-date=October 14, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181014204102/https://blog.slashie.net/on-the-historical-origin-of-the-roguelike-term/ |url-status=live }}</ref> By the time it was suggested that a group be created to discuss the development of these kind of games in 1998, the "roguelike" term was already established within the community.<ref>{{cite newsgroup | author = Grabiner, David. | title = RFD: rec.games.roguelike.development | date = March 9, 1998 | newsgroup = news.announce.newgroups | message-id = 889443102.8279@isc.org | quote = With the large number of Roguelike games and variants in existence and in development, there are occasional discussions about programming problems such as dungeon-generation algorithms which are of interest to designers of several games. }}</ref> This usage parallels that of "[[Doom clone]]", a term used in the 1990s that later evolved into the more generic "[[first-person shooter]]".