While online role-playing games let you create a character so that you can then explore an online world with thousands of other players--usually in a high-fantasy realm--Funcom's Anarchy Online was the first of these to take place in a futuristic, sci-fi setting. The game is set in a far-flung future on the remote mining colony of Rubi-Ka, where the repressive Omni-Tek megacorporation seeks to plunder the colony of its precious notum resource, and only the rebel clans can provide opposition. Most recently, the story of Anarchy Online was extended with the Shadowlands expansion pack, which opened up a netherworld in which players could discover the precursors of Omni-Tek and the clans. However, once the Shadowlands were opened for exploration, something apparently went very wrong because the balance of the universe was disrupted, thus causing sudden, unpremeditated deaths on Rubi-Ka. Worse still, a new species of hostile alien creatures, armed with superior technology, began to invade the planet's surface.