{"id":24224,"date":"2026-08-03T08:37:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T06:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/03\/the-end-of-the-world-how-players-mourn-the-death-of-their-favourite-online-games\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T08:37:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T06:37:36","slug":"the-end-of-the-world-how-players-mourn-the-death-of-their-favourite-online-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/03\/the-end-of-the-world-how-players-mourn-the-death-of-their-favourite-online-games\/","title":{"rendered":"The end of the world: how players mourn the death of their favourite online games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Online multiplayer changed the trajectory of games, but the cost of keeping servers running means every virtual world is doomed to die \u2013 sooner or later<\/p>\n<p>Nevan Hagarty had an idea. If he and other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/games\/halo\">Halo<\/a> 3 players stayed online the night of 13 January 2022, they could delay the impending server shutdown. Players knew this was coming: it had happened to Halo 2<em> <\/em>when its Xbox Live servers were turned off in 2010, and a group managed to stay logged into the multiplayer servers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/culture\/last-halo-2-player-finally-leaves-xbox-live\/\">for weeks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And so, players gathered online before the server shutdown to pay homage and to mourn the game they loved so dearly. And, maybe, to keep it online for a little longer. \u201cI must have played \u2019til about 4am the night of the shutdown, trading stories with so many players about their love of the game and their experiences over the last 15 years,\u201d says Hagarty, 22. \u201cIt was a really wholesome experience I won\u2019t forget.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/games\/2026\/aug\/03\/the-end-of-the-world-how-players-mourn-the-death-of-their-favourite-online-games\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/b9104a3017654831e3e4a165fa1f35258ec82491\/366_130_1186_950\/master\/1186.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=361e804af0b144449516881c5bfe6251\" title=\"The end of the world: how players mourn the death of their favourite online games\" \/>Online multiplayer changed the trajectory of games, but the cost of keeping servers running means every virtual world is doomed to die \u2013 sooner or later<br \/>\nNevan Hagarty had an idea. If he and other Halo 3 players stayed online the night of 13 January 2022, they could delay the impending server shutdown. Players knew this was coming: it had happened to Halo 2 when its Xbox Live servers were turned off in 2010, and a group managed to stay logged into the multiplayer servers for weeks.<br \/>\nAnd so, players gathered online before the server shutdown to pay homage and to mourn the game they loved so dearly. And, maybe, to keep it online for a little longer. \u201cI must have played \u2019til about 4am the night of the shutdown, trading stories with so many players about their love of the game and their experiences over the last 15 years,\u201d says Hagarty, 22. \u201cIt was a really wholesome experience I won\u2019t forget.\u201d Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Online multiplayer changed the trajectory of games, but the cost of keeping servers running means every virtual world is doomed to die \u2013 sooner or later Nevan Hagarty had an idea. If he and other Halo 3 players stayed online the night of 13 January 2022, they could delay the impending server shutdown. Players knew &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/03\/the-end-of-the-world-how-players-mourn-the-death-of-their-favourite-online-games\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The end of the world: how players mourn the death of their favourite online games<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":24225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24224"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}