The WorldForge Project began in October/November? of 1998, under the original name of "Altima" as it was originally envisioned to be an "Alternative to Ultima?". It would most likely have foundered and disappeared like so many other internet-based game development projects, however it fatefully gained a mention on the Slashdot news website, and thereby drew in a vast horde of interested developers.
The original founder of the project (in fact, pretty much all of the pre-Slashdot developers) disappeared, but the general community nature had taken hold strongly and it was able to "take care of itself": It determined a new governing system for itself and select coordinators, establish a new direction and mission (the general feeling was that people wished to work on something much more significant than a "mere Ultima clone"), and vote itself a new name.
WorldForge's objective is to be for games what GNU and Debian have been for general purpose computer software, focusing on providing frameworks for making free games, rather than merely produce a single game (the idea being that the more widely used the framework and libs are, the more incentive there will be to make them very good.) While it still emphasizes an interest in producing "massively multiplayer online fantasy roleplaying games", it has much broader interests. In fact, it adopts the view that "massive" is unnecessary in a non-commercially motivated game project, and has focused on "community" sizes - a few hundred players per game world, rather than a few hundred thousand. Given the bandwidth and machine requirements of large scale gaming, this principle has practical benefits, too.
Several independent game projects have joined the project over time, so that presently there is a healthy amount of parallel development. One game, a pig farming simulation called Acorn, has been produced and released by the project as a prototype/testbed and proof of concept for its software and its development processes; this is (intentionally) a rather simple game by commercial standards but it is significant because it provided proof that the project can actually integrate and deliver software, artwork, and media, and that it possesses enough creativity within its community, that it need not merely clone an existing game.
Development of Acorn has tapered off, as the project has obtained the bulk of value out of this prototype, and is ready to begin focus on new games. The primary focus will shift to a tactical building game called Mason, which focuses on competitive construction and invention of buildings, traps, and mechanisms; the intent is to use this as an opportunity to develop powerful, generic "item invention" algorithms that can bring a new dimension of dynamicism to interactive gaming. Other games have been and will continue to be developed alongside Mason. The project is also beginning to branch out into other forms of entertainment (e.g., comics, paper-and-pencil gaming), as it finds that its processes and multi-disciplinary nature are equally applicable there.
WorldForge is not without its problems, however. Because of its insistence on being innovative and unique, it incurred a long early development period during which it had to hash out its own protocols, processes, and so forth. This has given it an air of being in "perpetual development", and that it is geared more for people interested in developing game software than playing games (its developers may well admit the truth to this, but point out that it is an obviously necessary phase - the software must be developed before it can be played.) Because it supports many different game development efforts, and because much work goes on in parallel, it unfortunately tends to confuse outsiders; use of wiki (a rather egalitarian free-form system for adding & editing web pages) has been accused of exacerbating this situation. Due to the coming and going of volunteers, and the not a-typical iterative nature of software development, it has frequently started over on pieces of software (such as the server); while this can assist in achieving ultimate perfection, it sometimes gives the appearance of being a vast wheel re-invention conspiracy.
Another problem that the project grapples with frequently is the notion of being thought of as mere "vaporware?" - more bold promise than solid delivery. The project has attempted to seek a balance between gaining enough public profile to gain new participants, yet not so visible that it incurs the wrath of gamers sick of overly hyped commercial online games. Other than release announcements (which tend to be infrequent yet very significant), it is rarely seen in the news. This sometimes gives the impression to other software and game projects that WorldForge is "remote".
Time will tell what role of significance WorldForge will play in the game industry, if any. As it has survived nearly three years as of this writing, and is developing more swiftly than ever in its history, it's unlikely to disappear any time soon. Will its current in-ward focus continue indefinitely, or will it one day emerge into the mainstream? Will it be usurped by commercial interests or find a mutually beneficial balance (as Linux has)? Or will it somehow manage to remain staunchly non-commercial in an industry becoming as highly commecialized as the film industry?
WorldForge homepage: http://www.worldforge.org
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