Versions of The World

[Erroneous]

For those of you unaware, there has been more than one version of .hack's "The World", the fictional MMORPG that we see the people of .hack playing. There has been many iterations with and without the The World name in the title, starting from the beginning Fragment, The World, The World R:2, The World R:X, The World FORCE:ERA, VERSUS the World, The World Armed Conflict, and finally The World Re-Vice Age.

In the the book .hack//Archives Vol. 5, the art/info book surrounding .hack//Beyond the World+VERSUS, we see some useful tidbits about the main 5 primary versions of The World. From what years each version operated and how many players played.

So from this can gather the following information.

• Fragment
  • Operation 2007
  • 1024 Players
• The World
  • Operation 2007-2015
  • 20 Million Players
• The World R:2
  • Operation 2016-2018
  • 12 Million Players
• The World R:X
  • Operation 2020-2022
  • 10 Million Players
• The World FORCE:ERA
  • Operation 2024
  • 20 Million Players

We don't see anything here related to VERSUS the World, Armed Conflict, or Re-vice Age. If I recall, these are not part of the main game's operation, rather they are games running concurrently and separately, but without any print material stating these facts I can only assume. With the exception of Re-vice Age.

In this image it says it is a sequel to The World that had 30 million players.

And from this chart from the official website, we can see that the following:

• VERSUS the World
  • Operation 2025
• The World Armed Conflict
  • Operation 2030
• The World Re-vice Age
  • Operation 2032

Not really clear on if these games ended when the next one began, or if they continued on being available to play for the characters.