Anarchy Online is an online role playing video game published by Funcom, known for its The Longest Journey, Dreamfall, and Age of Conan titles.Development of the science fiction themed game was led by project director Gaute Godager and story developer Ragnar Tørnquist at a time when most role playing games made use of the more common fantasy setting.

As a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), players log on to a virtual world that persists indefinitely with or without player interaction. Players create unique characters that they improve by killing enemies, collecting resources, fighting each other, and various other activities. The game's ongoing storyline takes place on the fictional planet Rubi-Ka, and its extra-dimensional twin.

After Anarchy Credits release in June 2001, a number of server-stability and registration issues negatively affected public perception of the game. Those problems prevented many customers from registering or accessing content for several weeks afterward. The game and its expansions packs have since received praise from most reviewers, not least the Shadowlands expansion which was awarded with several Editor's Choice awards.