At its height on the AOL server, thousands of players competed simultaneously in arenas of two to eight participants, battling in team games or free-for-alls.
After AOL initiated its hourly pay-for-play system, the majority of players moved to the GameStorm service, which operated for a number of years until its purchase by Electronic Arts.
During its run, the game's player-driven community grouped themselves into armies representing the various Successor States, or independent stables, or mercenary units.
Though the in-game software did not support official groups, the player-driven units became close-knit communities, even after the games cancellation in 2001.
The magazine's Steve Bauman called it "the definitive online BattleTech experience.