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Anarchy Online Celebrates Its Twentieth Anniversary

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Funcom celebrated a major game milestone over the weekend as Anarchy Online officially hit its 20th Anniversary. The game originally launched on June 27th, 2001, and while the launch was a bit rocky with issues in account registration, lag, and crashes,  it overcame those issues and before the year was out, it won the MMO Of The Year award from PC Gamer. The company released some quotes from the staff about the game and a special retrospective video for you to enjoy!

Credit: Funcom
Credit: Funcom

"I remember when we all gathered in the dungeon in the old Funcom office, there must have been 100 of us," says former World Designer Viljar Sommerbakk. "We had a specially made keyboard, with a red Enter key. The CEO stood on a chair, held up the keyboard, and then Martin Amor, the lead programmer, went up and pressed the red button to signal that we were live. That was actually quite moving, because we had worked very hard to make Anarchy Online a real product," he recalls.

"I'm so proud to have been part of that legacy," says former Anarchy Online Game Director Craig Morrison. "And to get to create this wonderful game and this wonderful place that players have called their home for 20 years," says Morrison, who worked at Funcom for more than nine years. "Even to this day, as I travel and do conventions, talk to player communities, and meet with gamers and indeed game developers, I am always struck by how well-received the game is and how people have such fond memories of Anarchy Online," he says.

"Fast-forward a few years and that same friend mentions that there is a job opening at Funcom in Oslo. I was finishing my degree at the time and decided to apply. And guess what, I got the job! I went to Oslo and started working on a few pathfinding bugs on Anarchy Online," says Funcom CEO Rui Casais. "I'm very happy to be here this many years later as CEO, still holding the torch, proud of everything the game as accomplished, proud of everything the team has accomplished, and proud of the community that keeps the game alive, running, and as a pillar of the MMO community that has been going on for so long." 

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Gavin SheehanAbout Gavin Sheehan

Gavin is the current Games Editor for Bleeding Cool. He has been a lifelong geek who can chat with you about comics, television, video games, and even pro wrestling. He can also teach you how to play Star Trek chess, be your Mercy on Overwatch, recommend random cool music, and goes rogue in D&D. He also enjoys hundreds of other geeky things that can't be covered in a single paragraph. Follow @TheGavinSheehan on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Vero, for random pictures and musings.
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