Total Entertainment Network History
type: WebSite
alternate name: TEN History
alternate name: Total Entertainment Network
description: The history of Total Entertainment Network, from its Optigon Interactive origins and 1994 launch through multiplayer SimCity, Descent, Quake, competitive gaming, and Pogo.
language: en-US
about: Optigon Interactive
about: Total Entertainment Network

The History of Total Entertainment Network
type: CreativeWork
abstract: Optigon Interactive launched Total Entertainment Network in 1994 as a graphical online community built around identity, communication, user-created environments, editorial material, and games. The service put multiplayer SimCity online in 1994 and brought WizWar, Descent, and other two-player games online in 1995. After Kleiner Perkins financed Optigon's acquisition of Outland, TEN shifted toward low-latency action games. It integrated Quake in 1996 and built rankings, events, and professional competition around networked play. The company became Pogo in 1999 and was acquired by Electronic Arts in 2001, returning the service to familiar games and persistent community.
temporal coverage: 1983/2001
spatial coverage: Emeryville and San Francisco, California
is part of: Total Entertainment Network History
about: Optigon Interactive
about: Total Entertainment Network
about: Pogo.com
mentions: SimCity Online
mentions: WizWar
mentions: Descent
mentions: Quake on TEN
has part: page

Optigon Interactive
type: Organization
alternate name: Planet Optigon
alternate name: Tangent Online
founding location: Emeryville, California
founder: Daniel Goldman
founder: Janice Linden-Reed
description: The company that conceived, developed, funded, and launched Total Entertainment Network before acquiring Outland in 1995.

Total Entertainment Network
type: Organization
alternate name: TEN
alternate name: T E Network, Inc.
founding date: 1994
founding location: Emeryville, California
founder: Daniel Goldman
founder: Janice Linden-Reed
description: A graphical online community and game network launched by Optigon Interactive in 1994. TEN combined profiles, communication, editorial material, software distribution, user-created environments, and multiplayer games.

Pogo.com
type: Organization
alternate name: Pogo
founding date: 1999
parent organization: Electronic Arts
description: The community-centered game service created when TEN's surviving business was renamed Pogo in 1999. Electronic Arts acquired Pogo in 2001.

Daniel Goldman
type: Person
job title: Co-founder
job title: President
job title: Chairman
job title: Editor-in-chief
works for: Optigon Interactive
description: Co-founder of Optigon Interactive and Total Entertainment Network; product and technical leader who funded the early service with SimCity royalties and led its game, capital, and distribution relationships.

Janice Linden-Reed
type: Person
job title: Co-founder
job title: Design Director
works for: Optigon Interactive
description: Co-founder and design director responsible for TEN's interface, visual system, game design, user experience, art direction, and product-management practice.

Sukhbir Sidhu
type: Person
job title: Product, games, and community systems
description: Worked across user-interface and game design, community features, rankings, and tournament infrastructure through Optigon, TEN, and Pogo.

Marvin Pletner
type: Person
job title: Early technical contributor
description: Remembered by the founders as one of the early technical contributors who helped make the service real.

Gino Antone
type: Person
job title: Early technical contributor
description: Remembered by the founders among the early technical contributors who built TEN.

Tahd Frentzel
type: Person
job title: Community management
description: Optigon's first employee and a community pioneer whose work continued through TEN and Pogo.

Chris Lombardi
type: Person
job title: Editorial Director
description: Joined TEN from Computer Gaming World in 1995 and developed editorial, community-event, and distribution ideas for the service.

Greg Harper
type: Person
job title: Business development
description: Worked on game licenses, publisher relationships, and commercial partnerships at Planet Optigon and TEN.

Jonathan Zimman
type: Person
job title: Finance and operations
description: Served as chief financial officer and vice president of operations and finance during TEN's early growth.

Alan Buder
type: Person
job title: Brand, finance, and operating counsel
description: Helped shape TEN's brand, positioning, financing, and company form, drawing on experience at Colossal Pictures and TriStar Pictures.

Michael Lipson
type: Person
job title: Brand, positioning, and operating counsel
description: Alan Buder's consulting partner and a formative contributor to TEN's public identity and operating shape.

Art Kern
type: Person
description: TEN's first outside angel investor, introduced through his friendship with Alan Buder. Kern came from Westinghouse and Group W and had managed KPIX Channel 5 in San Francisco.

SimCity Online
type: VideoGame
date published: 1994
publisher: Optigon Interactive
description: Optigon's real-time multiplayer version of SimCity, announced with Maxis in August 1994 for cooperative and competitive play.

WizWar
type: VideoGame
date published: 1995
description: An early game shown inside TEN's graphical community and placed online during the Optigon-era service.

Descent
type: VideoGame
date published: 1995
description: A two-player action game connected through the Optigon-era TEN service in 1995.

Quake on TEN
type: VideoGame
date published: 1996-10-09
publisher: id Software
description: TEN's commercial integration of Quake 1.06, including Arenas, chat, profiles, rankings, modifications, events, and later professional competition.

Online Gets Hip: Optigon Provides a Sneak Peek at New Total Entertainment Network
type: Article
genre: Press release
date published: 1994-06-25
publisher: Optigon Interactive
about: Total Entertainment Network

Total Entertainment Network To Feature Online Debut Of Popular SimCity Game
type: Article
genre: Press release
date published: 1994-08-10
publisher: Optigon Interactive
about: SimCity Online

Total Entertainment Network timeline
type: ItemList
item list order: https://schema.org/ItemListOrderAscending
item list element: ListItem
  position: 1
  item: The Inner Circle BBS
    type: Event
    start date: 1983
    description: Daniel Goldman writes and operates an online bulletin-board community with a simple friend graph.
item list element: ListItem
  position: 2
  item: Epic and the Optigon idea
    type: Event
    start date: 1986
    description: Goldman and Janice Linden-Reed begin collaborating on a mythology-and-folklore MMO called Epic and the technical framework that becomes Optigon Interactive and TEN.
item list element: ListItem
  position: 3
  item: Optigon and Maxis build the technical base
    type: Event
    start date: 1988
    end date: 1993
    description: Optigon develops and ports Maxis simulation work while its online-service architecture matures.
item list element: ListItem
  position: 4
  item: Total Entertainment Network launches
    type: Event
    start date: 1994
    description: Optigon unveils TEN, announces multiplayer SimCity, runs a national beta over Sprint's X.25 network, and registers TEN.NET on October 31.
item list element: ListItem
  position: 5
  item: WizWar, Descent, and two-player games go online
    type: Event
    start date: 1995
    description: The Optigon-era TEN service brings WizWar, Descent, and other two-player games online.
item list element: ListItem
  position: 6
  item: Optigon acquires Outland
    type: Event
    start date: 1995
    description: With Kleiner Perkins financing, Optigon acquires Outland and renames the company for its Total Entertainment Network service; public announcements describe the transaction as a merger.
item list element: ListItem
  position: 7
  item: Quake launches on TEN
    type: Event
    start date: 1996-10-09
    description: TEN integrates Quake and adds community interfaces, network optimization, rankings, modifications, and events.
item list element: ListItem
  position: 8
  item: Professional Gamers League
    type: Event
    start date: 1997
    description: TEN develops professional competition around Quake and Red Alert with rankings, referees, sponsors, broadcasts, and prizes.
item list element: ListItem
  position: 9
  item: TEN becomes Pogo
    type: Event
    start date: 1999
    description: The surviving company closes the paid action-game service and rebrands as Pogo.com.
item list element: ListItem
  position: 10
  item: Electronic Arts acquires Pogo
    type: Event
    start date: 2001
    description: Electronic Arts acquires Pogo, where familiar games and persistent community return to the center of the service.