Indie MMO Developer Funcom Celebrates Seven Years of Anarchy

You don't hear much about indie MMOs. By their very nature and ambition, large-scale virtual worlds are an expensive endeavor. Sure, there are scores of indie MUDs (multiple user dungeons), but text-based worlds are a genre of their own. The moment you add graphics to your design document, costs explode and suddenly you find yourself competing with huge companies like Sony and Blizzard. And of course the rumble of the hordes of players tramping Blizzard's megapolis, World of Warcraft, are enough to smash even the best laid plans.

That's why Anarchy Online is so interesting. Fortunate enough to enter the market in the days before WoW, the (then) tiny Norwegian developer built a science fiction universe based around the classic struggle between corporate colonization and the pioneering spirit of the individual. Despite a rocky launch and heavy competition from the juggernaut of the time, Everquest, Anarchy Online is now celebrating its seventh year.

Overshadowed now by the recent success of Age of Conan, Funcom's Sumerian fantasy fest, Anarchy Online has grown well beyond the four-year story arc originally devised by the game's designers. In fact, in 1995, when the game was just a tiny creative mote in the mind of creator Ragnar Tornquist, the developers (only half) joked about whether there was even a future in Internet-based entertainment.

The success of Anarchy Online is largely attributable to Tornquist, and later lead designer Gaute Godager. By the sheer force of their dedication to the power of storytelling, the Funcom team has managed to create and maintain a loyal community, even though the game was nearly unplayable when it first launched and despite the brutal financial constraints of being a small fish swimming in a glass full of sharks.

Of course, Anarchy Online is a game, not a novel, and great story and compelling lore alone wouldn't have prevented the game from becoming just another curious footnote in the history of virtual worlds. A constant stream of innovation in gameplay and marketing kept Funcom competitive, even through some very harsh economic times. For example, Anarchy was not only the first science fiction universe, it was also the first MMO to offer a free trial, a marketing tool that's now almost de rigeur. Anarchy was also the first Western MMO to use advertising to offset the cost of offering a free-to-play version of their world.

On the gameplay front, Funcom invented instanced dungeons, where parties can enter into their own private version of an encounter, away from the hue and cry of campers, killstealers and other griefers. The instanced dungeon mechanic is now a cornerstone of online RPGs, and is central to the on-demand content that's made World of Warcraft so successful. They were also among the first to offer in-game housing, player-built towns and dynamically scripted raid encounters.

In celebration of their unlikely triumph, Funcom has put together a short documentary video on the history of the game and features interviews with both Tornquist and Godager. The video is a great look at how a small studio converted its vision into a living dream we all can share.