Venerable browser-based MMO Urban Dead is closing this week after a 20-year run, not with a bang but with a whimper

Urban Dead, the browser-based MMO that nearly got me kicked out of college, is shutting down this week after 19 years, 8 months and 11 days.

The MMO, which put players in control of either survivors or zombies in the fictionalised city of Malton, played out in real time, with players given one “tick” of activity every 30 minutes. Sessions could be wrapped up in about 10-15 minutes, but players soon grouped together to take their actions at the same time, injecting a large-scale strategic element into the action, and the early IRC chat around the game meant it could become all-encompassing.

At least, it was for me. Back in 2005 I was part of a big organising of players that led to the creation of emergency services (the Malton Fire Department and Malton Police Department) that eventually became a citywide anti-zombie effort. Although I stopped playing back in 2007 or so, it was a blast and one of the first games of this kind that I’d played.

PC Gamer’s Andy Chalk had a similar experience with Urban Dead at the infamous first siege of Caiger Mall: “It may be hard to imagine, looking at Urban Dead’s simplistic interface, but holding the line for weeks against crashing hordes of zombies—the first time survivors ever successfully stood their ground against the onslaught—was incredibly intense and satisfying, and a remarkable feat of spontaneous coordination among people around the world. I fell away in 2006, but it still breaks my heart a little that it’s all coming to an end.”

It’s been a few years since any meaningful update, but that hasn’t stopped a handful of die-hard players from staying involved and keeping the lights on across Malton, and occasionally grouping up to try and break into the last few remaining safehouses.

The final destruction of Malton isn’t down to a new zombie mutation or a win for the scant few survivors remaining, though. The blame is, instead, the UK’s Online Safety Act which comes into effect later this month. In an update on the website, creator Kevan Davis writes, “With the possibility of heavy corporate-sized fines even for solo web projects like this one, I’ve reluctantly concluded that it doesn’t look feasible for Urban Dead to be able to continue operating.”

That shutdown is coming on March 14, when the game will be ended at 12 noon UTC and its wiki will be set to view-only, turning it into an Urban Dead memorial. Davis notes there will be “no grand finale. No final catastrophe. No helicopter evac. Make your peace or your final stand.” Regardless, players from throughout the years are flooding back to the game, with the Ridleybank Resistance Front, one of the most renowned zombie groups in the game, intending to harass the last few survivors until it all comes to an end.

Other groups are presumably observing the shutdown in their own way: I’m just happy to be in the RRF Discord so I get to see all their secret plans. Elsewhere, veterans of the game are reaching out to each other and gathering together in one Discord server to swap war stories, put old rivalries to bed or even just confess with some of their alts. As someone that used to hunt player-killers with his primary character, I won’t be confessing the name of my player-killing alternate character, thank you very much. The community at large is eulogising the game on the Urban Dead wiki.

Davis is also shutting down Chore Wars, a game that gives experience points to players who do housework in the real world. Speaking to PC Gamer, Davis said, “It’s been heartening to hear from people getting in touch who’d played it back in the day and formed lasting friendships through it, or who were inspired to get into writing or programming or creating their own stuff. It’s a great pity that the modern internet is making it less and less viable for people to try out these kinds of weird standalone projects.”

Live games are shutting down constantly these days, but I’ve gotta say, this one cuts deep. Urban Dead was my first taste of leadership in the real world and I forged friendships there that have lasted for my entire life. There’s something about how simplistic the game was that created space for bureaucracy and endless chatter in a way that Halo 3, my other college staple, just couldn’t match.