Castle Infinity

Castle Infinity was a freeware MMOG for Microsoft Windows developed by Castle Infinity, Inc., an American non-profit organization.

The official language of the characters in Castle Infinity was a modification of Esperanto.

History
Castle Infinity was first released in 1996, making it the first fully released MMOG designed for children. It was originally designed by Russell Ginns, Gregg Foster, and Scott Wallin. It was developed by Starwave, but the company was bought three times and eventually acquired by Disney. The game itself changed owners several times, from Digital Evolution to US Interactive. Access to the game became intermittent starting in 1998 and shut down entirely by 2000. Soon after, the game servers were rescued from a dumpster by Kevin Quitt, a C programmer, who happened to be one of the game's lead players, and improvements on the game started up. From this group, Castle Infinity, Inc. a non-profit organization was born. The player population has dwindled in the years since, leaving only a few die-hard fans. Nonetheless, in 2005 there was fresh media coverage of the game by way of Slashdot and BoingBoing. Officially, ownership never left Starwave as one of its original employees bought out the company and its remaining assets including Castle Infinity even after being thrown into the dumpsters.

Corruption and Closure
On October 6, 2008, it was announced that the database had been corrupted following a programming error. Kevin D. Quitt, the administrator of Castle Infinity, made the following announcement: "I have... with great reluctance and many tears, closed the Castle - almost certainly forever."

Gameplay
Castle Infinity placed a heavy emphasis on player interaction. Users took on challenges which required users to participate together to activate new levels and to advance to deeper tasks in the game. For example, in order to jump to higher levels, at least 3 or 4 members were required to stand on the same spot for the lift to activate. Once all members were present, the jump would activate and players would advance to a higher level.