People will find ways around the online stuff. I'd be shocked if there weren't communities out there who continued or preserved the online stuff. Sure, it will be a tiny percentage of the present size, but there will be people. Case in point--the PLATO community. I mean, if something as obscure and specialized as that system can still exist in its online form, I have no doubt whatsoever about Xbox live or whatever it is. I've seen lots of emulators out there with online capabilities, often utilizing the web to do things the original developers couldn't do. Again, I'm sure they will be very small, niche communities doing it. But it will be there for folks who really want to seek it out.

I wonder more about pure MMOs. The problem is that so much of what they do depends on the developers themselves, and I bet there would be lots of IP problems if fans tried to run their own servers after one fell. I didn't hear of any such efforts after the fall of Garriott's game. Still, assuming that clever folks can get hold of the source code or find ways to run their own servers, I bet at least some of them will resurface eventually.