The official servers were shut down in 1999.
Disorder reigns in Tyr, mocking its empty throne. Two factions vie for control of the troubled, leaderless city. Secrets murmur all around you. Entering AD&D DARK SUN: Crimson Sands, you join hundreds of other players in a quest for glory in the midst of this political struggle. Be human, elf, dwarf or one of five other races; join a band of thieves or a mystic order of clerics (there is safety in numbers); take part in perilous quests; and converse over TEN with other players from near and far. That's right -- instead of dealing with those piddly little monsters, you can deal with the meanest and most devious creatures of all -- *real people*. Yep -- real, live, flesh-and-blood, conniving, backstabbing, (and occasionally friendly) people. The world is large, the story is deep, and your character is what you make of it.
You'll also take on new roles in Dark Sun Online. Choose to be a Templar, and you'll work for the good of the Tyrian Council, undertaking quests and harassing innocent pedestrians with the best of them! Sound too slimy? Fine -- join the Veiled Alliance and fight the Templar scourge! No matter what side you choose, you'll often find that your quest or mission might come into conflict with the goals of the opposing group -- better be prepared!
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Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands is an early massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was developed and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. in 1996 for Windows 95. Dark Sun Online is based on the licensed Dark Sun campaign setting for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game. Dark Sun Online was one of the first fully graphical MMORPGs. Dark Sun Online was one of the first fully graphical MMORPGs to feature a number of features popularized by later games like Ultima Online such as nearly unrestricted player versus player combat. Due to the game's peer-to-peer structure, the game was susceptible to hacking by its players. Dark Sun Online closed in 1999.
AT&T was in the process of launching an online network, and wanted a strong game presence to help the network launch, based on the success of Neverwinter Nights on America Online. The Dark Sun Online project was led by Andre Vrignaud. Development was troubled; Andrew Park of GameSpot noted that Dark Sun Online "suffered from a lack of funds and time from the beginning". It had only one part-time artist. Many of the game's assets, including its sections of code, were reused from Dark Sun: Shattered Lands and Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager. Sprites and sounds were also borrowed from Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse, and from World of Aden: Thunderscape, which was also under development at the time.
Source: Wikipedia, "Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands," available under the CC-BY-SA License.