Playing in the MUD

Sometime in 1995 my friend Alex taught me something that would change my life. We - as nerdy middle schoolers - were new to the internet and were constantly looking for ways to use it to connect with others who shared our hobbies. At the time, these were primarily: D&D (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd edition) Computer games related to the above, such as SSI "Unlimited Adventures" Magic: The Gathering, then in its infancy One afternoon, he called me over to his house to show me something he'd discovered on his computer. The sequence of steps, which I quickly memorized, were: Connect to the internet using dialup Open the Netscape Navigator web browser Type in www.excite.com In the search bar, type "3 Kingdoms", then click the first link that appeared Click the link that said "Log on to 3-Kingdoms" After performing the last step, a program called Telnet opened. A large and detailed ASCII graphic greeted us. Alex typed in a character name and a password, and materialized in the town of…