Wowee let's all try not to succumb to existential dread and realize there's only two weeks left in 2021 and we're still processing 2020! Woo! Anarchy Online's winter festivities begin December 15th through January 7th. Join the action, collect your free gifts, and take advantage of membership offers!

Father Time returns and should now be on a more robust and consistent spawn system! He drops that good seasonal loot, so get at him.

Santaleet, Gift-Wrapped Leet, and Gingerleet all return across Rubi-Ka with their own special tasks to complete!


Returning from the vault: Silencer's Armor!

Purchase a 3 month subscription to receive the Silencer's helmet along with one Combat Nano Can: Premium Experience Boost.

Purchase a 6 month subscription to receive the Silencer's helmet and bulwark along with two Combat Nano Can: Premium Experience Boost.

Purchase a 12 month subscription to receive the full Vacuum-Packed Silencer's Armor which includes all pieces of the set plus four Combat Nano Can: Premium Experience Boost!

The armor set should be available for all characters on the account.

Wow, twenty whole years. You did it! We did it! Anarchy Online celebrates 20 years of service this year, and to celebrate a universe of the far-flung future, we’re inviting you on a trip through the past.

We managed to wrangle up some former devs on AO to have a chat with em; you may recognize some familiar faces! Here's a trip down memory lane for the lot of you:

https://youtu.be/MZQ1yyLsUu8

And below, a retrospective on the early days of AO and a look the oddities and quirks that makes Rubi-ka special!


In its infancy, Anarchy Online began development in Norway as a research experiment in 1995.

You see, back then, consumer internet access was nowhere near as fast (or as ubiquitous) as it is today; dial-up modems were still the norm, and access to higher-speed connections was prohibitively expensive. This left us with the question of if crafting a persistent online world was even worth it.

Some in Funcom’s leadership felt that going online was the future. Many others in the company then thought they were crazy. Both are true!

- AO Intro Cinematic

We didn’t have a ton to go off of then - sure, there were MUDs and text-based adventures, but there weren’t many graphical MMORPGs to speak of - and heck, the actual term ‘MMORPG’ didn’t even really enter mainstream circulation until 1996/1997. Even by late 1999, there were only a handful of major games in the genre, and even then they were all sword-and-sorcery types; nothing like the sprawling sci-fi universe we sought to create with Anarchy Online.

We were determined and ambitious - and as previously mentioned, a little crazy - and were flying by the seat of our pants.


And then, June 27th, 2001.

A day that lives on in glory and infamy in the hearts of many - the day Anarchy Online officially launched. Those around then may recall the release... well, to quote our post-launch statement, did not go “as smoothly as we had expected.”

In fact, to this day AO holds a seat on the pantheon of history’s rockiest game launches - a distinction we’re not exactly proud of – but after launch, we truly put the metal to the grindstone to make things right.

In the months following the launch, the team worked tirelessly to pull up and recover; fixing bugs, working with customers, and the like...and we’re still alive and kicking two whole decades later.

And you know what? We’re dang proud of that.


Anarchy Online wasn’t just a pioneer forging new ground as the first sci-fi MMORPG; there’s a whole bunch of features considered standard in the genre that we helped break ground on. Take the humble but not-to-be-underestimated hyperlinking in chat: ubiquitous feature in online gaming now, but we were one of the first (maybe the first?) to ever utilize the function in a game. The future is now!

On a more serious note, Anarchy Online forged the path for some now-common features in online gaming, such as randomly-generated mission parameters, aka “ACG” or “AGC” Missions - often paired with the community app ‘Clicksaver’ to select a contract with just what you want - along with instanced dungeons and encounters.


Even crazier was our original foray into dynamic music; audio that changes based on your settings, context, and surroundings. There hadn’t been any other online game which attempted interactive music that shifts with your location, so we took our own stab at it despite there being little reference for gaming.

In gaming, you want to make sure the audio and background music complements the environment without being distracting, irritating, or too repetitive. It should seamlessly integrate into the context of what the player is doing and should elevate the overall experience, enhancing the activity or focus of the player without necessarily taking center stage (unless the situation calls for it, of course).

Since Anarchy Online was a game where you could potentially spend tens to hundreds of hours in a single playfield, one of our primary goals was to avoid repetitive audio loops that you’d begin to recognize and find annoying.

Our solution was to break up each composed track into tons of short soundbytes that then layer upon each other depending on the situation. To say it required a ton of additional care and work to make...well, work is an understatement:

“With AO, we aimed at having interactive music, something which we neither had any technical or musical experience with. No developer had ever done interactive music with an online title (or any other title for that matter) so there were few leads to follow. After a lot of back and forth with the technical design, we came up with a solution we believed was plausible, and with that the composing of the music started. All composers are used to thinking in a linear fashion when writing music, and I knew that writing music for this title would be a very different process and approach.

However, I was not prepared to face so many different issues. When doing non-linear music, you run into so many problems. Melodies not making sense, harmonic movements which are "off", tempo-issues etc etc... But in the end, I think it turned out quite nicely, and as a testament to that, some players still play with music on after many years and thousands of hours in-game.”

- Composer Morten "Jazzid" Sorlie, quote from http://arcanum.aodb.us/community_mortensorlie.html

A deeper analysis on the design and process used for our music system can be found on Gamasutra, written by former audio engineer and composer Bjorn Arve Lagim. You can find the article here!

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131361/the_music_of_anarchy_online_.php


(Image taken from YouTube channel uoham)

On the topic of music and audio, Anarchy Online was also one of the first games to perform a virtual concert in the MMORPG sphere, and among the first in all of online gaming - using tech engineered by Microsoft’s Massive Inc.!

In a nutshell, this tech allowed us to display dynamic content to billboards throughout Anarchy Online’s various zones, and we repurposed this system to broadcast a feed of the band “All American Rejects” for a special event in August 2007.

Perhaps not quite the same experience as attending a show in-person (and in retrospect, could be a neat experiment in today’s era of remote communication and event streaming), it was nonetheless a novel concept and a bit of unique fun for Rubi-Ka!

This also begs the question on how the band could exist twenty-five thousand years in the future and broadcast to a region untold lightyears away from Earth…

See our press release here:

https://pr.funcom.com/Anarchy-Online-Makes-Cyber-Concerts-a-Reality-for-Gamers



Of course, what’s a massive multiplayer game without its social elements and community? We’d be nothing without the actual players leading the way through Rubi-Ka and its extradimensional spaces. In no particular order, let’s walk through some of the initiatives and programs that have existed through AO’s lifespan and their legacy!



Originally founded as an in-universe department of the ICC, the ARK program has evolved into an autonomous volunteer organization of incredibly passionate members of the community. Their true identities generally hidden to the public, ARK staff have access to a multitude of special commands and powers at their disposal, including teleporting other players, summoning items and creatures, and otherwise interacting with the world and its inhabitants in a way not normally available to the average citizen of Rubi-Ka.

“The Advisors of Rubi-Ka are a special group of veteran players who freely volunteer their time and energy. It is the Advisors number one wish to further enhance the overall game experience of every player they meet on their way.

In the early days of ARK, the group was responsible for greeting new players, creating in-character, storyline, and out of character events, testing and investigating bugs on the Test server, and handling in-game petitions. As time and conditions have changed, ARK still remains largely responsible for in-game, in-character RP events as well as out-of-character events and parties in coordination with both GridStream and other players; as well as helping with bug investigations.

On a personal note, I've been around AO for 16 of its 20 years and a member of ARK for almost as long. It is incredible that the game has such longevity and means so much for so many people. I have great memories of the ICC Shuttleport and trying to find my way around the Subway. Of zoning into the Temple of the Three Winds, only to be annihilated by GOT in the first hallway. My first steps into so many zones. The triumphs of team successes, and the bitterness of raid wipes.

The people I've met along the way, both as a player and as an ARK, mean a lot to me. The fact that the game has so much to do and so many different ways to accomplish things has really added to its longevity, and I look forward to what the future brings.”

- Sywyyn, ARK Director


ARK and GridStream Productions (see below) were also behind some of the very first in-person meetups within the community, and ARK themselves have historically made regular appearances at Funcom’s Oslo and Durham studios!

You can find ARK staff today holding special in-game events focusing on roleplay and in-universe interactions. They can also occasionally be found chatting away in the official AO Discord channel.

You can read more about ARK here: https://www.aoark.org/



Founded in 2002, GSP is a nonprofit online radio station which was founded by Lan Tarryk Kozar and friends for Anarchy Online. Since then, the station has branched out into The Secret World/Secret World Legends, and remains committed to bringing the highest quality of audio entertainment to both games via their “one stream, one community” philosophy.

“For 19 years GridStream Productions has been the source of not only a multitude of music but parties, prizes and of course many relationships for the people of Rubi-ka. Friendships, marriages and families have been formed through GridStream Productions both in and out of Anarchy Online over the last 20 years. The staff of GridStream Productions hope to carry on forming those bonds with our listeners and aim to keep the liveness going for our communities who just keep subsisting. We appreciate you all and hope to party soon!”

- Gemmikins, GSP Board Member and DJ

Today, GSP is maintained by a colorful crew of supercharged hosts; find them and their DJs holding regular shows and seasonal events in and out of the game!

Tune in here: http://www.gridstream.org/



With 14 professions available in the game, balance was always a tricky thing. One solution around 2004 was the foundation of The Professionals program: a player council, of sorts, where a couple prominent players from each profession would be chosen to represent their class and provide feedback to us!



This is more of a personal thank-you from myself and some of the folks in Customer Service, but we’d like to give a huge shoutout to some of the player-run resources and pages that exist for AO - they’ve been a huge help for us when we need to look up specific information, and we reference them on a constant basis.

These resources include, in no particular order:

• https://www.ao-universe.com/main/news
  
• https://aoitems.com/home/
  
• https://auno.org/
  
• AODB.us Wiki [wiki.aodb.us]
  
• Caloss2’s YouTube and Twitch [www.twitch.tv]Channels
  
• Saavick’s Map of Rubi-Ka [forums.funcom.com]
  
• r/AnarchyOnline subreddit

...and many, many more! Too many to mention, really, including sites from the past, such as Anarchy Mainframe, Anarchy Online Arcanum, AO Vault, Towerwars.info, Faunlore, Tir School of Engineering, etc... (If we missed you we’re sincerely sorry!! Please reach out!)




We’d like to include a special mention to “bitnykk”, an intrepid player who made it their mission to collect AO’s full soundtrack make it all available in one location

Their efforts and determination ultimately resulted in the release of AO’s full audio collection, a 4-volume anthology complete with every track and even formerly unreleased content! We reached out to bitnykk themselves for a little insight on their efforts:

“Gathering "Anarchy Online Music Collection" of 4 volumes all started in a personal call to launch AO music out of game, like while driving or such.

First step, game files were small chunks isolated & quite hard to assemble. Turning towards some sound archive (RKM) & forum (GSP) allowed to go further ...

... but the puzzle really started to complete by magic after contacting original musicians : one by one, they joined in to contribute old & even new pieces:

M. Sørlie, T. Linløkken, B.A. Lagim, L. Willett & Ayria provided files & agreement to see 56 tracks playlist of over 4h released by Funcom's CEO R.M.M. Casais!

Piled by extension (RK, SL, AI, LE) the full collection endly allows whole AO community to enjoy such unique SciFi Fantasy mix the MMO offers since 20 years.”

-bitnykk, 2021



You can read more on bitnykk’s mission here:

http://forums.gridstream.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=28727

And you can find the complete music collection, for FREE, here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/663420/Anarchy_Online_Music_Collection/

Thank you, bitnykk!



Whew! If you’ve read this far, thanks for joining us on this brief retrospective of 20 years of AO! It’s been a wild and sometimes bumpy ride, and from everyone on the AO team and from everyone at Funcom, we’d like to extend our sincerest thank you for your creativity, passion, and support.

If I missed anything or if you’d like to add your own personal shoutout or memory of AO, feel free to join the discussion on our forums [forums.funcom.com]or on Discord[discord.gg]!

Stay safe out there Citizens!


Lots of love,


AndyB
Community Manager
& The Anarchy Online Team

0mgwtf.  20 years. 

...We made it!

It’s not every day a game can say they’ve been up and running for 20 years, and yet here we are.  We’re not even sure where to begin - aside from our fateful launch on June 27, 2001.  It was… well, a little rough, but we think you’ve handled it with GRACE and Proficiency.  

We’ll take a trip down the memory wormhole a little later, but for now we’d like to simply offer our sincerest gratitude for your passion, your imagination, and your support through TWO DECADES of Anarchy Online! 

So, hey, let’s talk about what we’ve got in store this year!  Our 20th anniversary celebration runs June 16th through July 14.

---

A new subscription offer is now available!  This year’s reward, the Preserved Colonist set, is an all-new armor set available for those who take advantage of the special offer.  Purchase 3 months for the back slot, 6 months for the chest piece and back slot, or get a vacuum-packed set at 12 months containing everything but the helmet!  

You’ll also get Combat Nano Can: Premium Experience Boost at each tier.

Like last year, there’s also a Shadowlands-only offer for sloobs who’re looking for a special deal when upgrading.  Please note: this special bundle will upgrade your Shadowlands subscription into a full subscription!

Items from this offer may be claimed on each character on your account.

AND, finally, you’ll get the Funcom Points you would have gotten from a vanilla subscription in the special offer, too!  

---

For a limited time during the event, you’ll get access to special daily login rewards featuring unique rewards and absolutely, totally original and 100% legally distinct items that aren’t in any way referencing other classic video games released in 2001!  Plus, one of the rewards is the helmet from the new Preserved Colonist, so try not to miss out!  

---

The Tinker once again arrives at Newland Desert!  Help her eliminate Desert Nomads to find parts for the many gifts she wants to make. Desert Nomads spawn across Newland Desert, Mort, Perpetual Wastelands and Broken Shores.   

The beloved Desert Rider world event is also back, spawning everyone’s favorite raid encounters throughout the world.  Defeat them for extra gifts and rewards, and a chance to storm the Desert Nomad fortress!

Upon defeating a Desert Rider, a personal teleport beacon is left behind. Access it before it deactivates to gain access to a hidden Desert Nomad fort! This incursion scales to players of all levels. Desert Nomads encountered here will offer unique rewards, with the Officers potentially dropping pieces of the Elite Desert Nomad armor! 

The Tinker will reward you for your efforts, especially if you walk the extra mile to get her the items she needs! Extra vanity rewards await you if you assist her in collecting 250 items. She will complete a gift with 500 items!

New with the 20th anniversary event is the Desert Nomad Arena: a single-team endgame raid encounter where you may challenge The Desert Rider’s lieutenant! This encounter is accessible after killing the Desert Rider.  You must be Level 201 to challenge this boss. Good luck: You mess with this bull, and you’ll get the horns! 

---


The BIG TROX Loren Warr is back once again as an outdoor raid boss!  Warr may be found along the outskirts of Newland.  They’re as tough as ever, so don’t let yourself get stomped into dust!  Unless, you know... you’re into that sort of thing. We’re not here to judge.

New to Rubi-Ka “5”, big and bad reimaginings of classic bosses are back as world bosses!  Abmouth, Zaal, T.A.M., Cerubin, and Atma must be stopped, and you can look forward to some sweet loot as a reward for defeating them!

---

Well, that’s about it for what to expect ingame this year!  Stay tuned a little later for a look back at the history of Anarchy Online and a special interview with veteran developers coming soon!

And hey, thanks so much again for everything.  It’s been an incredibly challenging year for many, and we’re thrilled to have you with us.

Yep, even you troublemakers on Discord. 💋

xoxo,

The Anarchy Online team

Valentine's Celebrations begin February 11th through the 25th!

Don’t miss out on free claims and seasonal items in the shop!

Qi Qiao Jie has returned to the major cities, and has brought his gifts and delicious treats, for either yourself or a loved one. Claim these through the Item Store, or seek out this love-fueled Yutto.

Adrienne Lefebvre is someone who has dedicated her life to finding and fostering love wherever she goes, even in the war torn world of Rubi-Ka. During Valentine’s Celebrations, she will be returning to Borealis, giving everyone the opportunity to spread joy and happiness around to those who need it. Seek her out and reap the rewards from aiding her in her virtuous mission.

Thank you everyone for joining us for our Valentine’s Celebration!

hey

hey

hey

look at us, getting by 2020 like champs

Happy holidays friends, may your spirits be merry and your nanos frosty

ch33rs,
Funcom & the Anarchy Online team

Happy holidays to all! Anarchy Online's winter festivities begin December 16th through January 5th. Join the festivities, collect your free gifts, and take advantage of membership offers!


Returning from the vault: The Dust Brigade Parasite set!

* Purchase a 3 month subscription to receive pauldrons, along with one Combat Nano Can: Premium Experience Boost.
* Purchase a 6 month subscription to receive pauldrons and the life support system, along with two Combat Nano Can: Premium Experience Boost.
* Purchase a 12 month subscription to receive a Vacuum-Packed Dust Brigade Parasite armor pack which includes eight pieces of the set plus four Combat Nano Can: Premium Experience Boost!





Both RK5 and RK19 get special event login rewards this year! Log in to claim free goodies every day!



Santaleet returns to Omni-Trade, Borealis, and Old Athens with seasonal missions to tackle! This year, Santaleet needs your help to rid his workshop of an alien menace - defeat the aliens and take the fight to their turf! There’s also business in Broken Shores that needs attending to...


Father Time is back and meaner than ever! He’s still searching for something - band together and defeat him before he causes too much ruckus! Father Time is now more formidable and drops brand-new seasonal loot, so get on it before time runs out!


The Gift-Wrapped Leet’s own greed has lead him once again to trouble! He’s stolen Santaleet’s shinies again, and needs you to clean up this mess so that he can celebrate the "Wintar holidals" like all the other leets!


The adorably delicious Gingerleet returned to Rubi-Ka and is hiding from all the hungry people who would like to eat her. Drop by Stret West Bank if you would like to ask her for a snowball lantern or perhaps a gingerbread yutto tent. With a little assurance that you won't eat her, you might become her friend.

Abmouth is back and swears vengeance for all the times you meddling lowbies beat him up!

Supercharged and reimagined for a single-team raid, experience the classic Condemned Subway instance like never before! Remixed monsters and encounters await, along with a whole pile of new loot to obtain!

To enter, simply be in a team and be level 201 or above. You may enter the Subway Raid via the usual Subway entrance found in the ICC HQ.

Good luck!

This year's Halloween Event festivities end November 3! Don't miss out on limited-time offers and bosses!

Today, Anarchy Online celebrates its 19th year of service! It’s been a heck of a ride so far, and it’s only possible because of your love and dedication! You make all the things in this universe keep spinning, so thank you!

To celebrate, let’s party beginning June 17th through July 8!






Purchase a 3 month subscription to receive the Zenith Commando Helmet, along with one Combat Nano Can: Premium Experience Boost.

Purchase a 6 month subscription to receive the Zenith Commando Helmet and Body Armor, along with two Combat Nano Can: Premium Experience Boost.

Purchase a 12 month subscription to receive a Vacuum-Packed Zenith Commando armor pack which includes a whole set, and four Combat Nano Can: Premium Experience Boost.

There is an exclusive offer for Shadowlands-only subs, or ‘Sloobs’, too! Purchase 12 months of membership at a special rate to get all the goodies in the regular 12-month bundle! *(Please note: Purchasing this bundle will upgrade your Sloob subscription to a full subscription)*

Items from this offer may be claimed on each character on your account.



New this year is a revamped classic: Temple of Three Winds, remixed and reloaded! Aztur has returned and has sworn revenge for years of abuse! Gather your strongest allies and take a trip into a single-team raid version of ToTW with upgraded enemies and loot! To access this new challenge, simply enter ToTW while in a raid and be level 201 or higher.


Out in Newland, Loren Warr marks her return as an outdoor raid boss. Warr may be found in the outskirts of Newland and will test the mettle of anyone who dares defy her. Defeating Warr may net you some unique lewt, so get out there and thwart her re-emergence!


The Tinker returns to Newland Desert, ready to make things come up explodey for her favorite foe, The Desert Rider! Join her in her madness and eliminate Desert Nomads to find parts for the many gifts she wants to make. The Desert Nomads will be located in Newland Desert, Mort, Perpetual Wastelands and Broken Shores.

Upon defeating the Desert Rider, a personal teleport beacon will be left behind. It will not have much energy remaining, so access it before it deactivates to gain access to a hidden Desert Nomad fortification. This initial incursion into a Desert Nomad outpost will be a single-person encounter that will scale to players of all levels. Desert Nomads encountered here will offer unique rewards, with the Officers being able to drop pieces of the Elite Desert Nomad armor. The Desert Rider himself will also be carrying 2 Vacuum-Packed Elite Desert Nomad armor packs.


The Tinker will reward you for your efforts, especially if you walk the extra mile to get her the items she needs! "Vacuum Packed Desert Nomad Armor" await you if you assist her in collecting 250 items. She will complete a gift with 500 items!

When defeating a Desert Rider, all you need to do is approach the large present that is left behind, and claim a prize from the Desert Rider's personal stash!

Finally, the SBC-Xpm Sites once again feature a cadre of Desert Nomad Commandos, tasked with protecting additional rewards from the Desert Rider's private storage.

Thank you all again for your love and support!