I figured it would be a good idea to get a place for sticking all the discoveries from Worlds Chat and it's variations. It's not very well documented and has a lot less information around then the history of WorldsPlayer, and it's the predecessor to WorldsPlayer too, so we should have information.

What is defined as "Worlds Chat"? If it's based or originates from the codebase of Worlds Chat. This involves any Worlds Chat Japan derivatives, Worlds Chat Gold, and even Meet At Plaza (despite being more based on Gamma, it follows the design of Worlds Chat).

Worlds Chat servers were shut down in 1998 (?), when WorldsPlayer was released. While it is believed that the network protocols are similar, Worlds Chat does not support the WorldsPlayer server, or at least no work or effort has been done to make that the case. It is believed that WorldsPlayer supported the Worlds Chat protocol version though, based on reverse engineering alone.

Are the classic Worlds Chat servers still up?

No, but the protocols seem to not be that different.

The original WorldsChat Client was different than WorldsPlayer? The more you know.

Anyone know why they changed the client though?

Technological advancements. The new client was intended to be user-focused and a lot more flexible. It kinda is, but Thom bought the company mid-way through it's creation and put corporate crap into it. An old archive of the site shows they intended to use VRML for it. That didn't happen.

You can find stuff about Worlds Chat here, in the library page.

Yeah, I thought that would've been the case. It's also the year they filed their infamous patent. My reasoning being this: To my knowledge (that is to say, I don't have much evidence for this claim) I don't think WordsChat launched with 3D avatars, as Quake is the first program (to my knowledge) to have both 3D models and a 3D world. I've seen screenshots of worlds from 1995 and I don't see any 3D models. I think the patent also features the 3D penguin model, and it would probably make sense to include their new technology in the patent which is maybe why it wasn't filed earlier.

But that's just a theory. A... "virtual chatroom" THEORY!