@elrainia@lemmy.world describes working on internet infrastructure back in the 1990s. This was on one of those "drive by" AskLemmys where a new user posts a juicy question, then after a couple hours they delete the topic and their account. However, those posts and comments are still visible in Piefed, ex: https://piefed.social/post/1733969#comment_9969293
Great story but the first “MMO” was MUD, or Multi User Dungeon, created in 1978. Shades was inspired by MUD.
I still remember the telnet address to the MUD I played in the late '90s. That will be burned in my brain forever.