This is 99% Invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

A few months before the end of the world, Paul Monaco posted this message on YouTube.

Hello, everyone. Paul Monaco here. Buddha Paul is most of you.

Know me as...um...you probably all heard the news, Yeiland. The Sims Online, closing down.

The world that was ending was called The Sims Online.

It was an online version of one of the most popular computer games ever made.

You've all been wonderful. You've helped me through a hard time in my life when I first got online.

But ironically, the online version of The Sims was not very popular.

They ended up losing tons of subscribers and changing the name to Yeiland.

And then they finally pulled the plug.

Thank you. And that, please. Let's try to stay in touch.

And it's not to go back with whatever you choose to do and move on to.

As you can probably hear, Yeiland is not a normal video game.

There were no monsters, no killing. And although it had some competitive elements, for many players competition wasn't the point at all.

Unlike a lot of other games where you might be shooting people or slaying dragons or something, this is a game about socializing.

That's Robert Ashley.

And Robert Ashley? He produces a very popular and fantastic internet radio show that's been on a very long hiatus.

I'm the creator of a life well wasted.

A life well wasted. It's about video games and the people who love them.

And Yeiland was a video game that had dedicated few absolutely loved.

The crowd that had attracted, I think, were people who just wanted to get together and sort of chat, meet strangers.

It was a nice place.

...