When you think of MMO giants that shaped the industry, you likely think of games likeWorld of Warcraft. There’s no doubt thatWoWis one of the longest-running MMOs in the history of online gaming. The game launched in November 2004 and is still regularly releasing expansions, patches, and events to this day, including its own 20th anniversary last year—and yet, it’s not the oldest MMO.
In fact,WoWdoesn’t even make it to the list of the top five longest-running online games, with games likeTibia(1997),Ultima Online(1997), andEverQuest(1999) releasing even earlier and still going today. And yet, none of those games even come close tothe truly longest-running MMO of all time, a game you may not have even heard of,Avalon: The Legend Lives.If it weren’t forAvalonpaving the way for other games to follow,your favorite modern MMOsmay not exist today.
Avalon, The Longest-Lasting Game In Gaming History
From Six Dedicated Computers To A Worldwide Audience
Lands of the Crownwas released in 1988 as a simple text-based adventure for up to eight people, written in very basic code. The following year, the game was rebranded asAvalonand was reworked using a custom code by Yehuda Simmons (later helped by Daniel James). The title was officially released on July 09, 2025, and ran through 2023, when bugs and lack of upkeep finally took it down,making its total run time an unbelievable 34 years.
Avalon created some of the features that remain staples of MMOs to this day.
Avalonwas the first of its kind. While others followed in the footsteps ofMUD1,resetting the world every day and offering limited, automated PvP,Avaloncreated some of the features that remain staples of MMOs to this day. The game introduced professions and skill systems, weather effects, elected governments, as well as true interactive PvP, trade, banking, and evenin-game real estate.
Eagle-eyed readers might have spotted a discrepancy in the dates above: Online connection didn’t become commonplace in homes around the world until the mid-1990s,makingAvalonolder than the internet. In the early days, the multiplayer text adventure was played via LAN in a dedicated public location in Camden, London, where fans couldplay in person on one of six dedicated computers or phone in via modem to playon 10 other machines remotely (an excruciatingly slow process at the time).
According to the officialAvalonwebsite, the in-person locations in Camden, UK, and later, Sheffield, UK had “sleeping quarters,” presumably for players to use in between gaming sessions.
Avalonarrived on the World Wide Web in 1994 with five years of experience already under its belt. The game continued to grow through dedicated writers and player interaction, paving the way forother MMOs and MUDs(Multi-User Dungeons). Games likeWorld of WarcraftandEverQuestshifted the experience from text to 3D visuals,building on the game mechanics thatAvalonhelped to design.
The Rise And Fall Of Avalon
Unfortunately, The Legend No Longer Lives
For 34 years,Avalonpresented fans with a way to immerse themselves in a world of thieves, magicians, warriors, and more. The text adventure was a grand fantasy RPG from the beginning. Players were placed in a war-torn land following a devastating Divine War, where a dark god was defeated by an army formed by the other gods. While they emerged victorious,the battle left the lands destroyed and the gods weakened.
WhileAvalonwas the first to create a lot of modern-day staples, it wasn’t the only MUD to continue well beyond the age of text adventures. Other titles that have been running for many years include the purely PvPGenocide(1991), the Discworld MUD (1991) set in the world of Terry Pratchett’s books, and the medieval fantasy LegendMUD (1994), to name just a few that are still up and working.
As time passed in the real world, it also passed in the game. Over its nearly four-decade run,Avalonprogressed all the way from 800 aDW (after the Divine War) to the 1500s, with the entire incredibletimeline of wars, political shifts, and other world-shaping eventsstill available to view on thewebsite.
Unfortunately, the grand and multi-decade adventure ofAvalonwent out not with a bang but with a fizzle. The game was never officially sunset, but around 2022, it began to experience outages, andat some point in 2023, the servers went down for good, ending the saga once and for all.
Avalon’s Legacy Lives On In The MMO Genre
MMOs Still Present Players With A Way To Immerse Themselves In Another World
There are mixed reports of what happened to the game,as indicated by the comments in a Reddit thread started byFar-General6892in July 2024. Some say several fans tried to buyAvalonoff the developers but were quoted a ludicrously high price. Others claim that the developers had been trying to get rid of the game for years, but the code was so convoluted due to its age that it was impossible for newcomers to make sense of it.
Either way, it seems thatAvalon: The Legend Livesis officially gone for good. The website is still up and active, inviting potential players to enter “a fantasy game world of magnificent proportions.” Sadly, when I tried to create a new account, the button to register didn’t actually work.
In the wake ofAvalon’send, traditional MMOs remain a gaming powerhouse, withWoWstill boasting over 1.3 million daily players despite its age, according toActive Player. Now, onlytheAvalon: The Legend Liveswebsite remains as a monument to the text adventure gamethat gave rise to what was perhaps the most influential online multiplayer game of all time.
Games likeWorld of Warcraft,Final Fantasy XIV,and evensmaller titles likePaliagive players a way to join others from all over the world and see a world grow and be shaped through their interactions with it. And they owe it all to the MUD that set the bar for all online multiplayer games that followed, thanks to its innovative features and expansive lore and world. Avalon may have come to an eventual end, but its legacy lives on in every MMO that exists today.
