As a result, I was basically one of the few children on MUDs that were largely full of college students or other adults. They were some of the first people who taught me how to program (an Objective C based language) and became good friends with a number of them. I didn't really know many folks inrl who were giant computer nerds, so it became an important social space for me (as well as a good place to kill dragons).

But like most things from ye' old internet this is going away. What worries me particularly is that this is not limited to commercial entities. Instead, what's left of non-profit, player content-sourced gaming will end up vanishing because it will lumped in with 'social media'. You want to make a new MUD? Too bad, its illegal unless you pay Persona $30k a year or some shit.

It might get to the point where @jerry has to ban people from New York.

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S4609/amendment/original