The Vanishing of Online Worlds

87% of classic games are no longer commercially available. For online worlds, the loss is even more absolute — when the servers die, the world vanishes.
Source: Video Game History Foundation, 2023

Still Running Community Preserved AI Resurrected Fading Lost

Text-Based Worlds (MUDs)

1978 MUD1 Preserved MUD
Revived 2000 as British Legends; source code on GitHub. Created by Richard Bartle & Roy Trubshaw.
1987 AberMUD Fading MUD
~20 servers still running; tiny player base.
1989 TinyMUD Lost MUD
Shut down 1990; resurrects once per year on "Brigadoon Day."
1990 DikuMUD Preserved MUD
Valhalla MUD running since 1990; many living descendants.
1990 GemStone IV Running MUD
35+ years — longest-running multiplayer game in history.
1992 Legends of Future Past AI Resurrected MUD
Shut down 1999; resurrected in 2026 via agentic AI from 30-year-old artifacts. Read the story.
1994 LegendMUD Running MUD
30+ years of continuous operation. Co-created by Raph Koster.
1996 DragonRealms Running MUD
~400 daily players; still actively supported by Simutronics.
1996 Threshold RPG Running MUD
Roleplay-enforced MUD still running after nearly 30 years.
1997 Iron Realms (Achaea) Running MUD
Achaea and four other MUDs still actively developed; mobile clients available.

Graphical MMOs

1996 Meridian 59 Preserved MMO
Open source on GitHub; free on Steam. First 3D multiplayer game.
1997 Ultima Online Running MMO
Official servers still live + hundreds of fan-operated freeshards.
1997 Tibia Running MMO
Continuously running since launch.
1999 EverQuest Running MMO
Official live servers + Project 1999 (licensed community emulator).
1999 Asheron's Call Preserved MMO
Shut down 2017; community-built ACEmulator keeps it alive.
2001 Anarchy Online Running MMO
Still operating after 25 years.
2003 Star Wars Galaxies Preserved MMO
Shut down 2011; SWGEmu + SWG Legends active with thousands of players.
2003 The Sims Online Lost MMO
Shut down 2008; EA sent cease-and-desist to emulator projects.
2004 City of Heroes Preserved MMO
Shut down 2012; Homecoming officially licensed by NCsoft in 2024. 100K+ fans returned.
2005 The Matrix Online Fading MMO
Shut down 2009; limited emulator allows exploration only.
2008 Warhammer Online Preserved MMO
Shut down 2013; Return of Reckoning active since 2014.
2011 Club Penguin Lost MMO
Shut down 2017; Disney aggressively shuts down fan servers via DMCA.
2014 WildStar Lost MMO
Shut down 2018; no working emulator exists.
87%

of classic games released before 2010 are no longer commercially available. Online worlds face an even starker reality: when servers shut down, the world itself ceases to exist. Only 13% of gaming history remains accessible.

Legends of Future Past is the first online world resurrected using agentic AI — proving that when creative artifacts survive, lost worlds can be rebuilt.

Further Reading