Friends of the MMORPG genre, let us take a nostalgic trip back in time. Back to the year 2001 when the developer and publisher Funcom tried its hand at launching an online role-playing game for the first time.
The Norwegian company Funcom is now 31 years old and is an essential part of the MMO and MMORPG genre. Just think of Age of Conan, The Secret World, Conan Exiles, or the upcoming Dune: Awakening.
However, Norwegians had their first experiences with the MMO genre as early as 1995. Even before Meridian 59, Ultima Online, and EverQuest were released, work began behind closed doors on Anarchy Online, as a kind of research project. In fact, they were uncertain at the time whether this thing called the Internet would have a future.
Karsten therefore knows the launch of Anarchy Online only from reports. Perhaps that’s a good thing. The later release of Age of Conan left enough marks.
Pioneers at Work
This should not be the only uncertainty factor. There was also uncertainty about how far to plan the content for Anarchy Online in advance. Many at Funcom did not believe that such a game could function as a service for more than a year. Fun Fact: You can still play Anarchy Online today, for example via Steam.
The universe of the sci-fi MMORPG was created by Ragnar Tørnquist, the clever mind behind The Longest Journey and The Secret World. In the coming years, the team grew to 70 developers who dove into the project without references or previous MMO experiences.
The official announcement only came at E3 in 2000. The US launch was planned for June 27, 2001. A public beta with a server stress test took place just two weeks earlier. About 100,000 interested participants were reportedly involved in the test at that time. Today it is clear that this was far too little time to properly prepare for the launch of the ambitious MMORPG.
The next MMO from Funcom will take you to the desert of Dune:
A Launch Accident for the History Books
When the developers at Funcom flipped the switch on June 27, 2001, to let the first players onto the servers of Anarchy Online, the proverbial tree was on fire within moments. Under the pressure of about 35,000 subscribers, the entire infrastructure collapsed almost immediately.
Not only were the registration servers affected, players also could not create accounts. Those who somehow made it onto the servers experienced a slideshow or got kicked off the server. The launch was so bad that the developers appealed to the press to refrain from reviews for the time being. A press release was also sent out, stating among other things:
“There have been some significant issues in recent days that our customers have had to deal with. Due to the massive traffic, it was difficult to log in, and the game is unfortunately still unstable. We apologize for the inconveniences this has caused our customers, and we are working around the clock to fix things.”
Launch problems also occurred with many other MMORPG launches. However, most developers managed to fix the worst problems within the first days or at least weeks. In contrast, players of Anarchy Online had to wait half a year (!) until simply logging into the game was reliable. A disaster.
The last major content package was released in February 2009. After that, there were mainly smaller updates, events, temporarily running classic servers as well as an engine upgrade (currently in open beta). Nevertheless, MeinMMO reported only in March 2024, that Anarchy Online continues to enjoy some popularity. One reason for this: The complex equipment system that relies on implants.
Lesson Learned?
You have to give Funcom credit: Despite the launch debacle, they stayed in the game and turned Anarchy Online into a functioning MMORPG that is still live today. At the same time, however, Funcom must also be criticized for the problematic launches of Age of Conan and The Secret World later on.
Especially with AoC, the story repeated itself. In the list of the best MMORPGs of all time, I wrote about Age of Conan, which at least made it to 20th place:
“However, Funcom did not release a game but a construction site. With content gaps during the leveling phase that were as large as the list of bugs. Additionally, basic systems such as PvP and trades did not function properly. This was an alpha for which you had to buy a ticket and subscribe.”
It will be exciting to see if Funcom can deliver a smooth launch with Dune: Awakening next year. After all, countless players are supposed to roam again in a vast world in this survival MMO. Colleague Benedict Grothaus has already played it: The survival MMO offers exactly what I hoped for after Conan Exiles
