History Videogame / AnarchyOnline

* FanNickname: Some of the nicknames for ''AO'' that have popped up over the years include Aimed Shot Online (due to a commonly used special attack), Alpha Online (due to the most common method of PVP combat--using {{Alpha Strike}}s), Arithmetic Online (due to the amount of number crunching involved in tweaking characters), Atrox Online (due to the unisex race available that's good at a number of professions), and Adventurer Online (due to the power of the Adventurer profession).

Developed by the Norwegian company [=FunCom=] and launched on June 27, 2001, ''Anarchy Online'' is a rare breed in the MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame industry. ''Anarchy Online'' is noteworthy for setting a number of firsts (or at least being part of the first wave); it's one of the first {{Sci-Fi}} [=MMORPGs=], one of the first to implement instanced content in the form of on-demand randomized missions, one of the first to implement a "free to play" business model, and also one of the first with a completely open-ended PointBuildSystem. It's also one of the first [=MMORPGs=] that gave [[AnAdventurerIsYou Petmaster]] classes the ability to control more than one pet.

** Some time after the second civil war on Rubi-Ka, an EccentricMillionaire bought substantial land from the Clans and used it to [[StartMyOwn start his own clan]]--the Knights of Avalon, who dedicate themselves to reviving the old Earth traditions of chivalry. Everything about the Knights draws right from Arthurian Legend--they named their land Avalon, they built a modernized medieval village and castle (which they, of course, call Camelot), and all the prominent members have named themselves after Arthurian figures (with the millionaire claiming the name "Lord Galahad"). As might be expected, all of the Knights use medieval-inspired armor and weapons. They even have their own genetically-engineered dragon!

* MagicByAnyOtherName: A number of nanotechnological concepts in ''AO'' are functionally identical to magic in a typical fantasy setting. Nano-programs can be thought of as spells, and nano-programming as spellcasting. "Executing nano-programs in their NCU" might as well be "casting spells on them."

* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Leets were designed for this, despite also being a TakeThat to certain types of players as a form of SmallAnnoyingCreature. Their sound effects in ''AO'''s directories are even labeled as "cute." Over the years [=FunCom=] has put less emphasis on the mocking aspect; dozens of unique Leets have turned up, as well as Leet [=NPCs=] which can carry on conversations, albeit in cutesy [[WebOriginal/LOLCats kitty pidgin]].

* ShootingSuperman: Especially after ''Lost Eden'' and recent patches, a sufficiently leveled character has enough power to casually ignore most monsters that aggro them in the wild. The Meta-Physicist profession and Soldier profession both stand out with their unique flavors of DeflectorShields.

** IP reset points, costing 250 million, with the release of Lost Eden.

* PlayerDrivenEconomy: As might be expected of an MMO, ''AO'' has one. Unfortunately, the game economy has been subject to serious player-driven inflation despite multiple {{Money Sink}}s. Among the player market, it's common to find items selling for far more money than a single character can hold. Players get around that cap with "mules" (characters that exist just to hang on to more money).

* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: The game economy has been subject to serious player-driven inflation. Among the player market, it's common to find items selling for far more money than a single character can hold. Players get around that cap with "mules" (characters that exist just to hang on to more money).

* PVPBalanced: Initially ''AO'' was designed this way, but over the course of two expansions the dynamic became considerably unbalanced. The ''Lost Eden'' expansion helped to correct this problem.

* EverythingIsOnline: The Nano Controller Units every character has work this way. [=NCUs=] are critically important, since characters control their nanomachines through nano-programs active in the NCU's memory. Characters can also upload and execute nano-programs into others' [=NCUs=]--and hack the [=NCUs=] of their enemies to make their nanomachines execute [[DamageOverTime harmful]] or [[StandardStatusEffects debilitating]] nano-programs.

* MagicFromTechnology: Thanks to the aforementioned Notum, characters are capable of achieving effects that are described as being almost like magic, and would be considered such [[MagicByAnyOtherName by any other name]].

* [[FiveRaces Four Breeds]]: Unlike most other settings where the player can choose a race for his character, the choices available in ''Anarchy Online'' are all different species (or breed) of homnid. The type of breed determines how costly it is to spend points building up a specific trait or skill.
** Solitus: Descendants of modern humans which naturally evolved after apocalyptic events on Earth. The only breed that ''wasn't'' created via genetic engineering (and therefore [[HumansAreAverage the yardstick by which the other breeds are measured]]).
** Atrox: The first of the breeds developed by Omni-Tek, designed for work in the Notum mines. Designed to maximize strength and stamina, [[DumbMuscle but at a cost of capacity for intelligence and nano-programming]]. Of the breeds, they're only ones that are genderless, completely lacking sexual organs.

** Nano: The youngest of the breeds, developed for high intelligence and skill at nano-programming at a cost of physical durability. Trace amounts of Notum were added to their DNA, which not only prevents them from living off-world, but also renders most of them sterile.

* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Played with to different ends, both in the setting and game mechanics--
** Thanks to Notum, Rubi-ka is one of the only places in the known universe where this is possible through "Insurance Technology," which transfers a dying person's life force into a [[BodyBackupDrive fresh copy of their body]]. It can't halt aging, though--the new body has to be created from recently scanned data--and it doesn't allow for immortality as it stops working once a person gets too old. Regardless, [[http://www.anarchy-online.com/wsp/anarchy/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&template=content&func_id=1762&table=CONTENT getting killed on purpose]] actually became ''a sport'' among the young, rich, and reckless. After insurance technology was deregulated, Omni-Tek even tried to attract new colonists with the advertising slogan "Rubi-Ka: Where Death Isn't Fatal!"
** On the game mechanics side, the early game averted this by having various penalties for dying--up to and including losing all items, credits, and experience acquired since the last visit to an insurance terminal. Typically these would remain on one's corpse, free for looting. Later patches gradually removed these penalties save for "resurrection sickness," in which skills and abilities are lowered for a short period. Any experience lost now goes into a pool that is regained with additional experience earned.

** Some time after the second civil war on Rubi-Ka, an EccentricMillionaire bought substantial land from the Clans and used it to [[StartMyOwn start his own clan]]--the Knights of Avalon, who dedicate themselves to reviving the old Earth traditions of chivalry. Everything about the Knights draws right from Arthurian Legend--they named their land Avalon, they built a modernized medieval village and castle (which they, of course, call Camelot), and all the prominent figures have named themselves after Arthurian figures (with the millionaire claiming the name "Lord Galahad"). As might be expected, all of the Knights use medieval-inspired armor and weapons. They even have their own genetically-engineered dragon!

** By ''Alien Invasion'', new characters (who weren't a ''Shadowlands'' Keeper or Shade) instead received a JustifiedTutorial: they would be en route to the island-based ICC Shuttleport as a new arrival to Rubi-Ka, only to have their shuttle shot down by Kyr'Ozch forces who are attacking the facility. From there, they would [[http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&site=AO-Universe%2FKnowledge%2F&pid=425&lang=en#4 embark on a number of quests]]
to help the emergency crews and the joint Omni-Tek/Clan forces fend off the invaders before departing.

* FanNickname: Some of the names that have popped up over the years include Aimed Shot Online (due to a commonly used special attack), Alpha Online (due to the most common method of PVP combat--using {{Alpha Strike}}s), Arithmetic Online (due to the amount of number crunching involved in tweaking characters), Atrox Online (due to the unisex race available that's good at a number of professions), and Adventurer Online (due to the power of the Adventurer profession).

** The [=DPSer=]: Shades outdamage whole teams, with Soldiers and Martial Artists bringing up the front. In theory, this is also the Agent's role.

* BackStab: The "Sneak Attack" special available to 2 professions, as well as a similar attack for the ranged professions, known as Aimed Shot.

** Thanks to Notum, Rubi-ka is one of the only places in the known universe where this is possible through "Insurance Technology," which transfers a dying person's life force into a [[BodyBackupDrive fresh copy of their body]]. It can't halt aging, though, and beyond a certain physical age, it won't work. Regardless, [[http://www.anarchy-online.com/wsp/anarchy/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&template=content&func_id=1762&table=CONTENT getting killed on purpose]] actually became ''a sport'' among the young, rich, and reckless. After insurance technology was deregulated, Omni-Tek even tried to attract new colonists with the advertising slogan "Rubi-Ka: Where Death Isn't Fatal!"

* KingArthur: Much of the Shadowlands--and some parts of Rubi-Ka--have motifs that draw right from Arthurian legend, despite the fact that the events hinted at in various flavor texts happened at the very least several thousand years before KingArthur was around. Commonly drawn motifs are: Merlin, Arthur as the FisherKing, often hinted at as being the Beast, the final boss of the whole dimensional area you're in, and the Redeemed Lord Galahad and Unredeemed Lord Mordeth (Mordred) as the final sided leaders before the blasted hell of Pandemonium.

It turns out, however, that Rubi-Ka and mankind have a much older shared history than anyone would have thought--and humanity is not the only species with a vested interest in the planet. Scientists discover the Shadowlands, a parallel world linked to Rubi-Ka that holds secrets on the origins of life in the universe. As adventurers started plumbing those secrets, the alien species known as the Kyr'Ozch invaded Rubi-Ka. Now the situation on the planet has become truly chaotic as Omni-Tek and the Clans continue to wage war on one another even as they fend off the aliens.

* ShootingSuperman: Especially after ''Lost Eden' and recent patches, a sufficiently leveled character has enough power to casually ignore most monsters that aggro them in the wild, but the Meta-Physicist profession and Soldier profession both stand out with their unique flavors of DeflectorShields.

* [[FiveRaces FourBreeds]]: Unlike most other settings where the player can choose a race for his character, the choices available in ''Anarchy Online'' are all different species (or breed) of homnid. The type of breed determines how costly it is to spend points building up a specific trait or skill.

* GunsAkimbo: The Adventurer profession has the option to wield either two swords or two pistols as their WeaponOfChoice, and yes, this means the Adventurer also is lucky enough to have DualWielding, but not one gun with one sword...yet!

* MagicFromTechnology: Thanks to the aforementioned Notum, characters are capable of achieving effects that are described as being almost like magic, and that would be considered such [[MagicByAnyOtherName by any other name]].

** The rodent-like Leets and parrot-like Reets were designed as this from the start. Both of them are parodies of players who speak exclusively in internet shorthand and who have no respect for the "RP" in "MMORPG" (for example, attacking a Reet might get it to scream "MY FRIENDS WILL KILL U" in response). The original "Backyard" tutorial zones have billboards informing players that leets are vermin and are to be killed on sight.
** A subtle more one--after months of complaints from the Meta-Physicist players that their summons were underpowered, the devs finally gave them an adequate endgame summon called "[[SignificantAnagram The Rihwen]]." Rearrange the letters and you get "The Whiner."

Conceivably the first 3-D {{Sci-Fi}} {{MMORPG}}, Anarchy Online is likely noteworthy for being one of the first MMO's to be able to produce content on demand in the form of missions the players can pull and run through. Still alive after ''12'' years and 4 expansions, and set on the desert planet of Rubi-Ka, where 2 factions fight for control of the planet and its resources.

That's the short tagline, the longer story is that AnarchyOnline is a game that has managed a few firsts from when it was launched in 2001. The first game to have 'on demand' content (we'd call it instancing these days), the first MMORPG that allows for control of more than one pet by the respective [[AnAdventurerIsYou Petmaster]] classes, the [[strike:first]] [[AsheronsCall second]] to step away from the traditional mold of what skills any given class is allowed to use: You have access to every skill, your only limit being skill points allocated upon leveling up. Also suspected to be the first game to survive the launch, notorious for the numerous bugs that abounded at the time.

Survived and thrived, apparently. Two booster packs (Notum Wars and Legacy of the Xan) and three expansions (Shadowlands, Alien Invasion, Lost Eden, thought to be VaporWare) later, despite cries from the trolls that the game is dead, lo, it lives and breathes still.

!!This game provides examples of:

* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: While not the TropeNamer, epitomizes this trope, with player-driven inflation above and beyond what any given character or 10 can hope to earn (or even HOLD) just for an item only usable by one player. Thankfully mules are allowed.

* AnAdventurerIsYou: By the given archetypes on that page, professions are broken down as:

** The Nuker: Nano-Technician owns this hands down but Bureaucrats and Meta-Physicists reside here too.
** [=The DPSer=]: Shades outdamage whole teams, withs Soldiers and Martial Artists bringing up the front. Agents are supposed to be here too in theory, not so much in practice.
** The Mezzer: Bureaucrat specialty, while Nano-Technicans and Traders aren't slacking, and Adventurers and Meta-Physicists in a pinch..maybe.
** The Jack: If you haven't guessed: The Adventurer and Meta-Physicist are the primary Jacks of the game. Agents go here too....if you can find 'em.

* BilingualBonus: The "songs" sung by Yuttos [=NPCs=] are actually taken from a Norwegian song that was entered in the [[EurovisionSongContest Eurovision contest]] (and lost spectacularly).
* CoolShades: In the old days of the game, the Fixer profession was known for wearing these at all times, supposedly because they sucked so badly that there wasn't any point to wearing armor instead.
** The class specific "magic" armour, only allowed wearing it with certain items. Enter the shades...
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: While the early game truly averted this with having various penalties for dying up to and including losing items you hadn't saved recently as well as credits and experience, all going to whoever killed you if in pvp, later patches slowly but surely removed all the various potential ill effects of dying barring only resurrection sickness, where your skills and abilities are lowered for a short period, being the only ill effect of dying, and any experience lost goes into a pool that you can regain as you gain more experience.

* EliteTweak: The game uses an implant system to buff skills on top of whatever buffs are available, and almost any skill can be buffed in this way with limitations. What this winds up with are some of the most grossly overpowered and impressive 'twinks' to walk the deserts of Rubi-Ka, single-handedly capable of wiping the floor with platoons of lesser characters.
** Recently heavily nerfed by implementing "soft" level limits - utilizing equipment or pets of significantly higher level causes them to operate at reduced effectiveness, depending on how far they are above you, and simply not function at all if they're too high.
* FanNickname: Usually called [=Aimed Shot Online=] (after a special attack), [=Alpha Online=] (for how people tend to pvp), and [=Arithmetic Online=] (for how much you'll be doing while 'twinking' your character out. Also Atrox Online (after the unisex race available that is a very good... anything) and Adventurer Online (because Adventurers are just that powerful).

* ImprobablePowerDiscrepancy: There are fleas which could easily kill a lot of dungeon bosses.
* KingArthur: A lot of the Shadowlands and some parts of Rubi-Ka have motifs that draw right from Arthurian legend, despite the fact that the events hinted at in various flavor texts happened at the very least several thousand years before the 'real' KingArthur was around. Commonly drawn motifs are: Merlin, Arthur as the FisherKing, often hinted at as being the Beast, the final boss of the whole dimensional area you're in, and the Redeemed Lord Galahad and Unredeemed Lord Mordeth (Mordred) as the final sided leaders before the blasted hell of Pandemonium.
* LeetLingo: Leets are actual [=NPCs=] in the game, small, furry and very rodentlike, but can speak and usually speak exclusively in LeetLingo. Boss [=NPCs=] have leet-based names, while there's also a series of unique low-level boss-type [=NPCs=] that have names based on leet lingo, best example: Pwnz the Leet.
* LethalLavaLand: The aptly named Inferno.
* LevelGrinding: An estimated 320 levels to work through (though not in straight progression) makes for much grinding. Broken down as follows:

** Shadowlevels which can only be earned in the shadowlands and cover 201-220.
** Alien levels which is earned by killing aliens, which is counted as a separate number from the 1-220, so you have 220/30.
** Lost Eden Research levels, which can be earned at any time by diverting some of your xp into 'research', and has 7 lines with 10 levels apiece, so now you have 220/30/70.
* MagicFromTechnology: Thanks to the above Notum, characters are capable of achieving effects that are described as being almost like magic, and that would be considered such if it happened elsewhere.
** MagicByAnyOtherName
* {{Mascot}}: Unofficially, the humble Leet.
* {{Megacorp}}: Omni-Tek. Whether or not they're evil is up for debate, but Shadowlands threw a wrench into the "both sides are morally ambiguous" thing via Keeper Fury skills, at the very least. [[DarkIsNotEvil Oh wait...]]
* MoneySink: This game has been an interesting experiment on how to get people to spend billions of credits while not giving them so much of an edge over normal players that game balance would be trashed. Examples are:

** Special orbital apartment, only 989 million, of 1 billion credits.
* {{Nanomachines}}: Pretty much everything under the twin suns of Rubi-Ka has something to do with nanomachines -- either built by, maintained by, destroyed by or recycled by nanomachines. Nano Programs are used to tell the nano bots in the air around you what to do and how to do it. Much of the flavor text on many items also goes into how nanomachines are applied to the item in question.
* PVPBalanced: While in the beginning this was the case, through 2 expansions pvp has been very unbalanced, only recently becoming rebalanced (to the woe of the former lovechildren) with Lost Eden.
* ProductPlacement: One of the ingame bars plays music recently released in RealLife. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the fact that although the game takes place over 27,000 years in the future, Rubi-Ka is on the far side of the galaxy from Earth -- over 90,000 light-years away; thus allowing the presence of the music to be HandWaved as having been found in "broadcast signals still echoing in the deepest regions of space".

* RandomlyGeneratedLevels: Missions you get from terminals have procedurally generated descriptions, goals, enemies, locations, and layouts.

* ShapeShifting: Mostly voluntary (with very rare exceptions) the Adventurer profession is considered king of this particular domain, being the resident [[{{Animorphism}} Animorph]].
* ShootingSuperman: Characters, especially after Lost Eden and recent patches, are practically bush-league gods on earth and have enough power to casually ignore most any pvm play, but the Meta-Physicist profession and Soldier profession both stand out with their unique flavors of DeflectorShields.
* SlippySlideyIceWorld: Penumbra replaces the "Slippy Slidey" part with "will freeze to death without the proper gear", but otherwise qualifies.
* TakeThat: a subtle one, from the devs to the players: after months of complaints from the Meta-Physicist forums about their summons being underpowered, the devs finally gave them an adequate endgame summon called "[[SignificantAnagram The Rihwen]]" [[spoiler: rearrange the letters and you get "The Whiner"]]

----

Conceivably the first 3-D {{Sci-Fi}} {{MMORPG}}, Anarchy Online is likely noteworthy for being one of the first MMO's to be able to produce content on demand in the form of missions the players can pull and run through. Still alive after ''10'' years and 4 expansions, and set on the desert planet of Rubi-Ka, where 2 factions fight for control of the planet and its resources.

* RandomlyGeneratedLevels: Missions you get from terminals have procedurally generated descriptions, goals, enemies, locations, and layouts.