Released in June 2001, the game was the first in the genre to include a science-fiction setting, dynamic quests, instancing, free trials, and in-game advertising.

[1] Fighting for military and political power on Rubi-Ka are the Omni-Tek corporation (who own a thousand-year lease to the planet), as well as separatist clans, terrorist groups, extraterrestrial life, and ancient civilizations.

The narrative was developed to be played out as a series of virtual "role-play" events over the course of four years, influenced by the actions of those taking part in the game.

Research of Notum and its properties led to major leaps forward in nanotechnology, making possible the creation of powerful new technology, as well as the resurrection of the dead.

After terraforming a portion of Rubi-Ka and constructing several cities, outposts, and transportation infrastructure, the company began importing colonists under contract as miners and other professions.

[2] The first five-hundred years of Omni-Tek's control of Rubi-Ka were marked with an exemplary record of worker treatment, but as time passed, their policies degraded.

ICC peacekeeping troops later moved into some cities to protect neutral observers of the war who had rejected their contractual obligations with Omni-Tek, but did not align themselves with the Clans.

Organizations are able to build their own cities across the game world, control areas of land, run player markets, and access other special content.

This allowed for a pure PvP environment where Clan and Omni players could square off in a spacestation arena, with Neutrals able to join any side.

[27][28] In a 2007 interview, former project leader Gaute Godager said Funcom's management wanted to put substantial resources into developing a new MMORPG; they believed the genre's user base would expand in the coming years.

[32] In a 2001 interview, gameworld designer Morten Byom said that the process of creating Rubi-Ka's virtual world had "taken more time and effort than anyone imagined" when they first started.

[33] Composers Morten Sørlie, Tor Linløkken, and Bjørn Arve Lagim created the soundtrack and music of Anarchy Online.

By starting, stopping, fading, and layering samples based on where the player is, and what they are doing, the game creates a continuous stream of background music.

[39] A public beta test began two weeks before launch, during which 100,000 players downloaded and played pre-release versions of the game, helping the company find bugs and other technical problems with the software.

[40] Anarchy Online officially launched to the public on June 27, 2001, in the United States and Norway and on September 28 of the same year in the rest of Europe.

Two months after its release in August 2001, Funcom began offering free trial subscriptions, now common practice for other games in the MMOG genre.

[48] In December 2004, Funcom replaced trial subscriptions with a business model supported by in-game advertising called the "Free Play" program.

The "Free Play" program, started in 2004, allows new players indefinite access to the original game in return for viewing in-game advertisements.

[59] While the current engine — Funcom's proprietary Dreamworld — had received incremental improvements with the Notum Wars booster in 2002 and Shadowlands expansion in 2003, the 2008 announcement stated that it would be completely replaced with more modern software to "release the game fresh".

Current game director Colin Cragg revealed that Anarchy Online's "small development team" could not afford the "growing [cost] estimates" involved in making the necessary modifications to it.

[64][65] No new release date has been announced, although periodic status updates are published in the game's official weekly development blog Friday With Means.

[55] These paid points may be used to purchase items that were given as pre-order bonuses such as a fully decor-able apartment in game, or newly created vehicles that are otherwise not available through in-game currency called credits.

[67] All items available for purchase with paid points are strictly cosmetic in nature, with the exception of a Personal Scout Mech, a combat vehicle that was a pre-order bonus for the Lost Eden expansion.

[74] Composer Leon Willett joined in for Lost Eden extension in 2006 and electro band Ayria in 2009 during the addition of the virtual club named "The Grind" accessible ingame from ICC.

All the music linked to the game, unreleased and animated series included, were gathered into a collection of 4 volumes of 56 tracks free to download (packed with all visuals to self-print CDs & booklets) through Steam[75] for AO's 16th birthday.

[22][50] While Anarchy Online's launch problems had a negative effect on initial critics, the game itself was generally reviewed favorably; it scored an average of 7.6 out of 10 from GameSpy, GameSpot, and IGN.

PC Gamer called it a "brilliant" solution to camping — the practice of waiting for a computer - controlled character in the outdoor game world to appear so that it can be killed and items looted.

[83] Computer Games Magazine said that while the missions were a good idea in theory, they are "too simple and similar", claiming that this caused players to become bored and camp for items outside anyway.

They wrote that after AO's abysmal launch and well-deserved public drubbing, Funcom dedicated itself to fixing the game's mayor problems and the result was admirable.

[51] GameSpy wrote that the expansion's new features, such as improved user interface and chat system make the game more enjoyable to play.