Zanpo Virtual Cities (lost inaccessible multiplayer online game; 1999-2017)

The Home screen of the main flash interface

Status: Lost

Zanpo Virtual Cities was a multiplayer "online game, virtual world, and social network" created by Geoff Gaudreault in 1999 which closed in 2017.

Gameplay

On the site, users collaborated with each other to create virtual cities presented in an isometric view. Users could build blocks for cities, submit blocks to cities, vote on submitted blocks based on whether it should be added, view cities from above, explore cities as a robot, and chat in each city's community forum. Users could also pay a monthly fee to become a mayor of their own cities, where they could add blocks submitted by other users to their cities, move blocks in their cities, delete blocks in their cities, delete other users' messages in the community forums, and appoint moderators that can also do the above with the exception that they cannot add their own blocks to cities.

Shutdown

In September 2017, Zanpo was shut down, and the website was left with only a picture of Zanpo's robot mascot and the text "Zanpo 1999-2017" until 2018, when the website become completely inaccessible.