Let’s start at the beginning – it is, after all, usually a good place to start. The origin of Instancing as a mechanic used in online games. First, I have to admit, I’m not sure when and where it all started, or if you could even pin it down, given all of the variations on the theme that have been tried in various degrees over the last decades. Raph Koster probably does have it written down and all figured out somewhere, but I don’t keep notes as well as he does. But in any case, I think the origin is important to understand, even if you don’t know the ‘when’, because from the origin comes the reasons why developers (and other forces) often, and more so as of late, want to employ it. And these reasons I think we’ll find are very revealing. Or at least fun to think about if you’re really bored.