Way, Way Back in the Olden Days...
The year was 1991. Can you believe that? I had been quite a nerdy girl most of my life, learning to program in Basic on the Apple IIe and Basica on my father’s original IBM PC, but it was a solitary and lonely pursuit. Then, I started university, and my room-mate’s father, who was a computer programmer, gave us an old Amiga he had lying around and a 300 baud modem. For those who don’t know, that was insanely slow, even for 1991. However, I did not know that. It was my first modem, and I was thrilled.
My friend Max had decided that he was going to hit the big-time by creating his own on-line game, which he called, “Space Bar,” and we all played it. It was a MUD, which you might know stands for “multi-user dungeon,” and it was a text adventure. Most of the time, Space Bar was more of a chat room than a game although there were gaming aspects to it.
Dialing the Space Bar at 300 Baud
Because there was no world wide web yet (if you can imagine), we had to dial in to connect to the game. I still remember what a thrill it was to hear the modem make all its beeping and whirring noises of handshake and connection to the server on the other end.
I was at a huge disadvantage with my 300 baud modem, though. Even though it was a text adventure, the text loaded so slowly that I literally sat watching as each character loaded onto my screen while people typed to me. It might have been excruciating except that it was probably the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me. Did I mention that I was a bit of a nerd girl?
One strange thing in those days was that I had to carefully guard my gender. Being female online was just not a sane choice unless you wanted to spend your entire game time fending off people hitting on you. This was not even flattering because these guys had no idea what I looked like. Were they really so desperate that any girl would do? So, I took on a gender neutral identity in the game, and I frequently got asked “ru m/f?” – a ridiculous question I refused to answer.
I remember almost nothing about the actual game play, probably because it was not memorable. I think it was the regular text adventure fare. You pick a direction, find things, add them to your inventory, fight things (if there is anything to fight), keep going, and so on.
The Best Part Was Meeting Fellow Weirdos
Probably the best part about the game was that most of the players lived within 50km of my home, and I ended up meeting many of them. This might not sound like a big deal these days because the internet really allows people to connect if we so choose, but in those days, it was not always easy to find the proper sort of weirdos and misfits that one might like to socialize with. The game drew in the sort of people I wanted to meet (some were even female!) and I met a lot of very cool people in real life as a result of it.
I don’t know what ultimately happened to Max’s project. I mean, it fell apart, but I don’t know why. Initially, it was free to play, and I think when he tried to monetize it, people got upset, which was pretty silly since he put in a huge amount of time and energy, not to mention the server. However, for me, it was a very interesting introduction to the world of online gaming. Also, it taught me a lot about life online in general. It was a more naïve time in which most people did not have computers; there was barely email, and no world wide web. Meeting people online was practically unheard of.
I learned that people are not always who and what they say they are. I learned (and this will seem obvious now) that people can be very mean sometimes when they are hiding behind a computer screen. However, I also learned that you can find a community of people with whom you have a lot in common. I did not imagine that would ever really be possible for me. And it began with an online game. It began with the Space Bar.