Back in 1991, the fledgling America Online created a series of game rooms for its subscribers. People could play classic games like chess and hearts, along with a handful of MUDs, or multi-user dungeons: games that let players go on epic adventures with real people as opposed to AI-controlled constructs.

One such MUD was Neverwinter Nights, set in the Forgotten Realms of TSR's venerable Dungeons & Dragons pen-and-paper game. AOL's original Neverwinter Nights, now known as oNwN on the message boards, broke ground that a decade later is still at the frontier of PC gaming. It was the first massively multiplayer game to use a graphical interface, and could support up to 500 simultaneous users. Players went on quests managed by AOL Dungeon Masters called "NWs," mixing the DM-guided hardcore role playing of table-top games with the new concepts of online communities and "virtual" relationships.

AOL promised to support Neverwinter Nights without charging fees beyond their standard rate, ostensibly giving their gamers an online home forever. At the time, it probably seemed like good business; if AOL could get people hooked on a game that took place in a living, real-time world, they'd have users logged on for hours every day. Since AOL was still based on hourly fees, this would mean huge profits -- and it did. Diehard players became used to $250 AOL bills, month after month.

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