Neocron
Neocron is the world's first and only well-known MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) that creates a dense Cyberpunk atmosphere. It is also the first MMORPG that looks, feels and is almost as easy to play as a 3D first person shooter.
The player's character, in Neocron-lingo the so called „Runner“, may be chosen from four distinct human races. Available are genetically bred super soldiers, („Tank“), the puny, yet technically skilled „Spy“ or the mentally over- and physically underpowered “Psi Monk”. Just like in most RPGs there also is an allrounder class, the “Private Eye”, who can do everything, but nothing really good.
Later the player may choose from manifold professions, which usually can be performed in its basic form by all classes, but often only mastered by one due to skill restrictions. Jobs range from the notorious hacker, who dives into the alternative reality of the Cyberspace, over technicians who research or construct items and (especially) weapons, to the common grunt, who fights alongside his clan for the outposts, spread around the wastelands.
The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic Twenty-Eigth century. In the mid-22nd century rising tensions between an expanded China, and a joint Europe/America government leads to a nuclear exchange. World War 3 starts on February 17th, 2143. China launches a nuclear strike against the west under the impression that they were responsible for the destruction of the first Chinese space colonization starship. Three missles are detected at a radar base in Germany, and after collaboration the leader of the west decides to utilize second-strike.
Civilization returns fairly quickly, thanks to a United States run "Ceres Project", which aimed at storing every aspect of human life onto a series of newly invented Holodisks. The disks are discovered after the war, which gives one primitive tribe supreme power over all the others.