Anarchy Online

It's safe to say that Funcom's online role-playing game, Anarchy Online, has been one of the most widely and eagerly anticipated games this year. After all, it's the first so-called next-generation online role-playing game and the first to be released after its groundbreaking predecessors--EverQuest, Asheron's Call, and Ultima Online--and it should be the first to improve upon them. Up until Anarchy Online's release, press coverage of the game discussed its unique science-fiction setting, its intriguing playable characters, its innovative solutions to common gameplay problems, and its enormous and colorful gameworld. But when the game was released, it caused an uproar. Unsatisfied customers flooded the game's official Internet message board with angry complaints about severe problems, such as insecure registration, CD key errors, and in-game bugs and stability issues.