Inactive ‘Active Worlds’ MMO Explored With An Eerie Discovery Or Just A Nostalgic Revisit?

MMO-related games have been around for quite some time, and Active Worlds is no exception. Kotaku reported that YouTuber Vinesauce decided to take a visit to the ancient MMO to explore the nearly-abandoned world. The reason for the word “nearly” is that it’s up to interpretation of the live-streamer’s encounter.

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The Active Worlds game is probably considered ancient by technology standards, but is still apparently explorable and thought to be completely abandoned — until the discovery of a questionable NPC. It was thought by Vinesauce to be an NPC, asking if he was in need of assistance, until it was responding in a fashion a human being would.

The Active World’s character was starting to give dialogue in a fashion that was a bit organic, but role-playing at the same time. As if an actor playing a part in a mysterious role. Vinesauce even asked it, him, or her questions that would elicit a non-scripted response, and it seems to have done so.

Should Scully and Mulder be called in on this one?

The ambiance of music playing in the background was akin to the mood, considering the hair-raising discovery of a lone wanderer by the name of Hitomi Fujiko. According to Vinesauce, he said this encounter wasn’t planned, and having had a YouTube presence for two years, he admits he’s been known not to be the type to plan ahead according to his video.

Just like Vinesauce/Vinny and Hitomi, perhaps they were just feeding a nostalgic moment along with around 6,000 other live streaming viewers?

(Not safe for work. Some profanity in the commentary.)

Active Worlds is an MMO in a sandbox format that’s been around since 1995, and is still being acknowledged via a website to have celebrated 20 years of existence, with even scheduled events throughout the course of 2015. The premise of the platform is as follows via the site’s statement.

“Welcome to ActiveWorlds, a sandbox platform for creating anything you can think of, inside a universe with hundreds of worlds, millions of objects, and a dedicated and friendly community.”

Vinesauce mentioned that about 6,000 people were watching his live streaming video of Active Worlds, but unable to register an account with the site which “clusterf**ked their servers”, according to Kotaku via Vinesauce’s YouTube comments.

Perhaps this would mark a rebirth of the popularity of the Active Worlds game itself? Would this garner so much interest in a newly trending internet piece, feeding upon the nostalgic minds of those who once played the MMO game?

This wouldn’t be entirely shocking as a couple of months ago in January, the abandoned MMORPG Greed Monger is back in development. It actually hit a few speed bumps with the Kickstarter venture last year, but there’s been a declaration for fans to move forward toward the game’s development. So would it stand to reason that Active Worlds would in the future gain popularity?

Just like historical activists who decide to start a petition or movement to preserve an old landmark or house, there are people out there that enjoy the nostalgia that vintage video games can offer.

It wasn’t at first thought that value could be placed upon software that’s no longer in use, but around the end of last year the Electronic Frontier Foundation saw to it that a petition be put forward in order to preserve online games, minus the MMORPGs, according to Massively Overpowered. The exemptions were approved by the Library of Congress as it renewed and expanded protections for fair uses.

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Although Active Worlds servers look to be running and with the 20-year anniversary acknowledgement, there doesn’t seem to be much in danger as said about in the aforementioned vintage games.

It is interesting to relive past memories of a once flourishing MMORPG, regardless of the simpler graphics. Perhaps others that played Active Worlds online in unison back in 1995 may bump into each other once more and play some virtual catch-up after what was witnessed here?

[Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images]