Wurm Online will be a community-centric fantasy MMORPG fully developed in Java. Gameplay will be free at first, but when you wish to develop your character beyond basic skills, you're going to have to pay a monthly fee.
The world will have a real economy with a fixed pool of money and resources, and almost all items in the world will be created by other players. When the game is first launched, it will pretty much just only be a huge forest, and it will be up to the players to build the towns and create the items needed for both everyday use and more exotic practices. Wurm Online will neither have levels nor hitpoints. Instead, you have a set of skills that define your character, and a list of any unhealed wounds the character has.
Gameplay is expected to be very down to earth and community-based for most players, with each town serving as a small community. Towns will also remain safe as long as the computer controlled guards are alive. You won't be able to attack other players or perform any other illegal activity inside the town without first killing all the guards. Outside the towns, however, you can do anything you want, but performing illegal activities will lower your status in the nearby villages
Last week, Wurm Online suffered from an unfortunately timed server crash. The makers of the game estimate that “more than 500 000 hours worth of playing time has been wiped away.” The good news is that the game will be up and running on May 5th and players will be reimbursed for the lost time.