Initially created in 1985 by Randy Farmer, Chip Morningstar,[6] Aric Wilmunder and Janet Hunter, the game was made available as a beta test in 1986 by Quantum Link, an online service for the Commodore 64 computer and the corporate progenitor to AOL.

The client software provides the user interface, generating a real-time animated display of what is going on and translating input from the player into messages to the host.

Players in the same region (denoted by all objects and elements shown on a particular screen) could see, speak (through onscreen text output from the users), and interact with one another.

Randy Farmer, Chip Morningstar, Aric Wilmunder and Janet Hunter created the first graphical virtual world, which was released in a beta test by Lucasfilm Games in 1986 as Habitat for the Quantum Link service for the Commodore 64.

[13] Originally, the initial plan was for the team to work from the Fujitsu Habitat code and bring it to the Mac and Windows operating systems.

Morningstar and Farmer argue that this mentality only leads to failure as the potential capabilities and imagination of a game would remain confined within the small niche of developers.

[18] An example of this approach was when Wilmunder, the programmer responsible for developing both backgrounds for the Habitat World and Avatar animations noted how the original specification only included a single generic male and female character.

The best method to manage and maintain such an immense project, they have discovered, was to simply to let the people drive the direction of design and aid them in achieving their desires.

[20] The project was headed by Alex Handy, founder of The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (MADE), who received the game's source code from its original developers.

The project was requesting volunteer contributors to aid in developing code, region design, documentation and provide other assistance.

Due to the volunteer contributors, original source files, maps created during development and database backups were unearthed.

WorldsAway is an online graphical "virtual chat"[25] environment in which users designed their own two dimensionally represented avatars.

This meant that the world had a monetary token system and virtual business endeavors could be set up such as Clover's famous auctions with commissions for sales, or Dennis S's nightclub with admission charges, or the payments for the various street games such as bingo.

Avatars received tokens based on the number of hours played, from sales of objects, from gifts, and other sources such as running enterprises.

Clover's famous auctions were held weekly and people bid vast amounts of tokens to acquire rare items such as heads, clothing, furniture, and other useful or artistic objects.

The avatar can text chat, move, gesture, use facial expressions, and is customizable in a virtually unlimited number of ways.

[6] Much of the second and third seasons of the American TV series Halt and Catch Fire is centered around the development and troubles of the fictional tech startup Mutiny, heavily inspired by the story of PlayNET and Quantum Link in the 1980s.