Toontown Online

Summary
Toontown Online was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), the beta game was released in the United States for PC on August 2001 and officially launched on June 2, 2003. Versions were released later in Japan and the United Kingdom in 2004, France and Germany in 2005, Brazil in 2006, and Southeast Asia in 2007. The original version of Toontown was based loosely on "Who framed Rodger Rabbit?" and the concept of toons from that movie, as well as a game called Toon Tag, playable at DisneyQuest locations and showcased in 1997 at the Internet Zone in Epcot.

Toontown Online's story centered on an ongoing battle between a population of cartoon animals known as the Toons and a collection of business-minded robots known as the Cogs who are trying to take over the town. Players would choose and customize their own Toon and go on to complete Toontasks, play mini-games, and fight the Cogs.

Game Design
The game focused on the carefree toons in a world called Toontown, trying to stop the evil business-like robot cogs by teaming up and battling them with gags. There were also some non-combat activities. The world was divided into seven neighborhoods with several smaller areas. Each neighborhood has a non-player Disney character in its playground. Playgrounds are safe areas with no cogs. The streets that link them together, however, are greatly populated with cogs and cog buildings.

Toons
There were multiple species of toons in Toontown Online, some blocked by needing an active membership. There were Bears, Cats, Dogs, Ducks, Horses, Mice, Monkies, Pigs, and Rabbits. Horses, Bears, and Monkies were the three species locked behind a membership.

Horse Toons
When horses talk, they neigh. If a word not in the Toontown dictionary is used through the SpeedChat Plus option, or other toons do not have SpeedChat Plus, the word will be "censored" by "brrr" or "neigh."

Notable non-playable horses, other than those who give out ToonTasks (Named NPCs), include Melville, who hosts the Toontown fishing tournaments, Professor Prepostera, and Bud Erfingerz.

Horse toons have six sounds used when using chat. Here is a video of these sounds.

Horses have four different head designs that can be used to create a toon through the Create-A-Toon process. They can be created in any color.

Membership
Toontown Online featured two types of accounts: free accounts, and paid member accounts. Originally, free accounts were only allowed three days of unrestricted gameplay before being forced to pay for a membership. This was changed in 2007 to allow free players to play for an unlimited time with certain restrictions on the game. These restrictions originally meant that Toons were bound to the starting neighborhood (Toontown Central) and its buildings and streets, as well as Goofy Speedway where the racing events took place. Toons were also only allowed to complete Toontasks up until the final one that would allow them access to their third gag track. This was changed to allow free players to roam in the streets of all the neighborhoods, and to complete the final Toontask for the third gag track. However, free players could still only enter buildings in Toontown Central and were not allowed to enter the Cogs HQs or Cog buildings outside of Toontown Central. Paid members were allowed complete and unrestricted gameplay for the duration of their subscription. Options included monthly, semi-annually, and annual subscriptions. This unlocked access to things such as house furniture, golfing, and access to Cog HQs & buildings outside of Toontown Central.

As well as an online download, Toontown Online became available on CD for the PC on October 3, 2005. This allowed players to play the game without downloading it onto their storage devices. This version came in a box set with two months of subscription, a poster, a game manual, and an in-game bonus.

Gameplay
The gameplay varied between Combat and Non-Combat.

Combat
"Cogs" were the antagonists in-game, stylized to be corporate robots that wanted to take over the town to propagate business culture. Cogs came in four types: Bossbots, Lawbots, Cashbots, and Sellbots, each with increasing levels throughout the game that increased their health and damage.

Toons began with basic "Gags" and a 15-point "Laff" meter. Gags, rooted in old cartoon slapstick humor, were weapons used to destroy the Cogs in Cog battles. Each "gag track" had Gags with different properties that could be unlocked by completing "Toontasks", and each gag track would get progressively more powerful as Toons used their gags more. The Laff meter functioned as a health meter, representing how much damage Toons could take from the Cogs before going "sad" - in-game death. Cogs were battled using a timed turn-based combat system with up to four Toons in a battle. Cogs could be fought on the streets of the game, in "Cog buildings" or in their own designated "Cog HQ".

Non-Combat
Playgrounds were the only areas of Toontown permanently safe from Cogs. In the playgrounds, Toons could regain lost Laff points, receive or complete toontasks unique to each playground, purchase gags, play trolley games, or go fishing. By completing toontasks, Toons would grow in strength through additional Laff points or new Gags. There was a playground in each "neighborhood" of Toontown. Each playground featured one of Disney's classic animated characters as a non-player character. These playgrounds consisted of the following: Toontown Central, Daisy Gardens, Donald's Dock, Minnie's Melodyland, The Brrrgh, Donald's Dreamland, Goofy's Speedway, and Chip & Dale's Acorn Acres.

Every Toontown Online account came with a player's estate. Each estate consisted of six houses for each Toon on the player's account. Players could customize their Toon's appearance and house with objects ordered from the in-game catalog in exchange for jellybeans, the in-game currency. Wardrobes held clothing and accessories that were not being worn. Other elements of estates included Doodles (pets), gardening, fishing, cannons.

Toontown offered non-combat activities for players to earn jellybeans, additional Laff points, and other bonuses that could be used in the game. These included trolley games (a collection of minigames), fishing, gardening, kart racing, mini-golf, and more.

Closure
On August 20, 2013, Disney announced that after 10 years of operation, Disney's Toontown Online was being shut down permanently on September 19, 2013. Subsequently, every player was given membership for the remaining time of the game. Seasonal and holiday celebrations and special in-game events took place in the time remaining. Recurring paid memberships were automatically canceled, memberships could no longer be purchased and accounts could no longer be created. The website was also updated with a closing FAQ.

The main Toontown Online website was not due for closure until another year. The game remained open for a month after the announcement, finally closing on the set date, September 19, 2013, at 11:59 A.M. Pacific Standard Time. After the game's closure, Toontown's website was updated with a new FAQ to help with billing support and inform users about the game's closure. Petitions are continuously signed by fans regardless of the closure. Toontown's site, toontown.go.com, now redirects to Disney's main site, disney.com.

Fan-made Servers
After Toontown Online's shutdown in 2013, fan-made servers were made to play the game after the official servers were gone. Here is a list of the fan servers known to date. Video by Syonide about the various servers.

Toontown also had an official sequel that never made it past the prototype phase. It was named "Toontown 2.0" and was planned to be released as an official rework of the original Toontown Online, but was never made. The prototype is available for download here.