These games were my first real exposure to game addiction. I had hacked an internet account with my local university, and had internet access long before you could just buy a dialup account.

LambdaMOO wasn't a 'game' per se, it was a place where you could build your own house and make scripts and do all sorts of mad things.

Via modems me and all my roommates would hang out together all day and then get on LambdaMOO all night. In real life we'd talk about the MOO, and online we'd talk about real life.

This went on for several months, basically living online and on four hours sleep a night (work, moo, sleep <repeat>). I had to give up the game, completely cold turkey, when I had a conversation and couldn't for the life of me remember if the thing I was talking about was real or had happened in the game. The same people were there online and off, and the line between fiction and reality had completely dissolved.

The power of the written word was never so clear to me. This 'game' engaged my imagination so much more strongly than any video game ever could.

Fuck WoW, that shit got weak fast. LambdaMOO was where the real MMOG action was.

As an aside, an old BBS 'door' for the Atari ST tried to replicate the online gaming thing by having NPCs enter and leave the room you were in all the time. It was so frustrating 'cause they didn't stay long enough for you to type anything to them. I forget the name, but it completely sucked.