One of the things about the online games once they started hosting them on servers rather than them being peer-to-peer connections between you and someone directly... companies don't want to maintain those servers indefinitely unless they are making money off them.
Companies that are successful update their games and want you to buy the new version and they shift people from the old platform to the new and discontinue the old. Companies that are not successful eventually can't sustain the servers... either way, they don't keep the old systems running for long after they aren't making money on them.
I have heard of some home-brew "hacker" types every once in a while if there's a popular game that people want to revisit, where they have setup their own server and then "hacked" the games to use their homebrew server instead of the official one... depending on the game and its popularity you might be able to search around and find if such a thing exists in the hobby community for fans of that game. Otherwise you're probably out of luck.
You're right I think it was monetized at some point like many of the others that I go to that are still online because of fans and archivists upon further looking someone who uploaded the game to itchio was supposed to make server or proposed the idea of doing so but never did so I guess I'm out of luck BUT I think I can contact someone who may have an interest in this so then it can be accessed again
If you did some digging you might be able to find someone running a custom version of their own. I've used them in the past for specific Ultima Online versions as well as the original Ragnarok Online. What game, if you don't mind me asking, are you trying to get going?
Talkworld, it was a virtual chat site/application similar to Worlds dot com/WorldsOnline, Microsoft V-Chat, and Microsoft Comic Chat, Cybertown, Hyria 3D, etc. (too many to name that are either archived, revived, or defunct) here's some additional info/videos about it
Talkworld-Online (Wayback Machine)
^ its still downloadable here surprisingly and on itchio
If the game was multiplayer only, you should do some research to see if anyone setup private servers
Unfortunately they haven't so I think I'll email someone to see if they will take it on as a project etc.
edit for original post: it was definitely MORE than two years ago (most likely 2020)
