Manyland
Manyland was a browser-based, 2D metaverse consisting of an enormous grid of 19x19 pixel placeholders where users could drop custom made pixel-art objects dubbed "things". These user created pixel-art "things" made up most of the game's graphics. Users could collect and exchange said "things" and also chat with each other via text. The game was created by Philipp Lenssen and Scott Lowe. Manyland launched in 2013 and shut down in 2024. Prior to closure, Meta (which owns Facebook) had blocked Facebook-based logins to Manyland, locking many users out of their accounts. Manyland had no association to Meta/Facebook other than using them and Google for OAuth.
The game was launched with mixed reception, with some commentators praising its simplicity, with others warning it would simply become a collection for spam. Users of Manyland were dubbed 'Manyzens'. The game utilized a user reputation system for Manyzens devised of multiple trust, "rings". Those in the most privileged trust rings had power to limit spam and contain areas closest to the universal spawn point. Despite this, spam, trolling, griefing, harassment, and related ran rampant in the game throughout its entire life.
Life[edit | edit source]
Manyland was popular the first few years it launched and also during the various COVID lockdowns. Outside of those years it had very few daily players, often fewer than 20 and sometimes even less than 5 players at any given hour, providing little revenue to the owners via advertisements. Despite this, Manyland developed a small, loyal following among those who grew up with it.
Players averse to Manyland's more dangerous public spaces utilized the game's ability to create private rooms to bond with friends, family, and even extended family members across the world. The game also helped facilitate the social life among those who were disabled.
Chat[edit | edit source]
The game utilized a very unique chat system that contained each user's messages directly above their avatar in the game world. After a user pressed an alphabetical ascii character on their keyboard, it would show up as the same character in a small white font above their avatar. This made it so each user could type sentences above their avatar which constituted all of their in-game conversations. This chat feature allowed for many users to have multiple, unrelated conversation close to each other, involving multiple people and without complicated group chat or private message features. One downside was that chat messages were ephemeral between a few sentences, as the chat messages would slowly move up in space after being typed, until they made their way off each user's screen.
Arguably, this style of chat led to shallow, rapid conversations rather than more reflective conversations. But, it also reflected how people typically chat in the real world.
Death and successors[edit | edit source]
Philipp claimed he needed to shut down the game down due to lack of funds during 2023. This claim was not audited, but users still offered funds to help continue the game. Despite this, Philipp shut the game down anyway during 2024, along with a similar game he created named Anyland. He made a rare appearance near spawn of Manyland near its death, casually interacting in a friendly way with those gathered, and then shut down the server permanently. Philipp had done little to publicly preserve the mountains of user created art, but multiple teams and individuals worked to preserve almost the entirety of the games public spaces, using it mostly for their own purposes. Philipp himself hosts a small collection of user created art in a memorial online museum.
A user banned from the game ran the Manyland Discord chat for some reason, and while Manyland existed. After Manyland shut down, he then recruited an acquaintance to start an unofficial relaunch of the game without Lenssen or Lowe's permission. A similar clone was started by users who accuse the prior banned users of homophobia, releasing a private, unauthorized Manyland clone that requires invites. There are no authorized Manyland relaunches and user safety in both relaunches are arguably even worse than in the original.
Technical specifications[edit | edit source]
The game utilized a single, obfuscated Javascript file written with ImpactJS as the main client side code. This is now typically known as the 'Manyland.js' file, parsed and re-hosted by unauthorized relaunches. The game's server side code was closed-source. The game invited users to work on the obfuscated Javascript and submit modifications informally to the game's creators. The game also incorporated a scripting system throughout much of its life that was vulnerable to XSS attacks quite often.