Who Is the Last Active Player in This Long-Dead MMO?

March 30, 2016, 5:00am

YouTuber Vinny is well-known for streaming all types of PC games, from recent and classic titles to terrible games that no one should ever see.

Last week, he devoted his channel, Vinesauce, to the long-forgotten virtual universe Active Worlds, a formerly active MMO from 1995. The game has since degenerated into a digital cemetary where you can meet a few NPCs, but no actual live characters.

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Initially, Vinny aka Vinesauce wandered alone for 40 minutes through various user-created game worlds before eventually arriving at Wild Active Worlds—a rather dark and sinister underworld of AW. Approximately 6,000 users were watching live on Twitch when Vinny came across a mysterious figure named Hitomi Fujiku.

At first, Vinny thought he’d just met another innocent NPC, perhaps an in-game wizard intended to help players understand the game. Several times, Hitomi asked Vinny whether he needed help: “Are you lost?”

But slowly, Vinny began to realize what he was dealing with was no bot, but an active gamer.

While talking to Hitomi, Vinny noticed the character started to display more and more human characteristics. Mysteriously, he said: “The history of this land is rich. I presume you are human? We are very wary of humans, traveler. We, the proud elves. I will not report you, human. But I must leave you to find your own way out…”

Suddenly, Hitomi ran away. As Vinny ran after him, he heard him murmur: “He will never know my true intentions. Mwahahaha.”

“I’m the only hiker here, you’re not real.”

When Vinny caught up and confronted him, Hitomi was aggressive. “I told you, you shall leave this country. There can’t be more than one wanderer of these empty lands.”

“I’m the only hiker here, you’re not real,” replied Vinny. “I’m real,” whispered Hitomi, who then morphs into a large, black monster and urges Vinny to “run far away from here.”

Vinny did as he was told but eventually stumbled across Hitomi again. Hitomi revealed that he knew Vinny’s real name, even though he was logged in as Vinesauce. Then Hitomi dissolved into thin air.

That was the end of Vinny’s bizarre Active Worlds experience. Both the full-length version and a 15-minute “best of” reel have been published on YouTube. His journey kicked off a few great investigative threads on Reddit, YouTube, and Vinesauce’s own forum.

Is Hitomi just a lonely Active Worlds character, created by someone in the game’s underworld to frighten visitors? Or has someone put way too much effort into scaring a well-known YouTuber?

In an attempt to do some of their own internet sleuthing, many ex-Active Worlds players logged into the game, found Hitomi, and spoke to him.

According to the Active Worlds Wiki, which may or many not be reliable, Hitomi has been part of the game for a few years. Apparently, he registered in 2009.

Hitomi also has a website that appears to be just a few days old. It includes Morse code that translates to “JUSTYOUWAIT, HUMAN,” and also ten links that lead to inactive pages.

But there’s a trick: If you click on the links in the order of 1,0,5,6—which is the user ID of Hitomi—you land on this Imgur page, which reveals the date 04/04/16. It also includes an ASCII code with the message, “I cannot feel,” which is a line Hitomi repeated to Vinny multiple times as they first spoke to each other in the game.

As an ex-Active Worlds player describes on Reddit, most users left the game long ago for other games like Virtual Paradise. But, he adds, a few “old people” still hang around to “play bingo and build birthday builds for each other.” Whether Hitomi is one of these people or something altogether more mysterious is still up for debate.

Perhaps we’ll find out for sure on April 4, 2016.