Virtually dead worlds

I first came across Wagner James “Hamlet” Au about twenty years ago when he worked as an embedded journalist inside Second Life, at the point that it symbolised the future of the web, the internet, and human communication.

He ran, and still runs, a blog called New World Notes and, as will become obvious, I continue to read it.

Last week he published an entry about documenting sunsetted virtual worlds, which he has worked on with Julian Reyes and the Virtual Worlds Museum.

They have catalogued about 50 virtual worlds and Au writes that

We’re defining “sunsetted virtual worlds” as platforms which are a) a multi-user but non-MMORPG virtual world depicted in 2D or 3D graphics, b) where users can customize their own space/room/realm/etc., and c) are no longer generally or commercially available to access online.

The list includes big hits like Club Penguin as well as many others I had never heard of (although you might have). The earliest two in the list consist of Habitat (which operated through a video game) which ran from 1986 to 1988, and MicroMUSE which ran from 1990 to 1994.

It’s already later than you think.