Around 1998 I started playing MUDs. MUDs are precursors to MMORPGs — they are multiplayer text adventure games. After putting in over a month and a half of playtime on a MUD I frequented, I became interested in running my own MUD. I started one as a derivative of CircleMUD.
I wrote the code, while a group of friends and I built the stories and the worlds of the MUD. AtriusMUD was started around 1999, and then shut down in 2001. In 2002 I started developing it again. It has been offline for quite a while now.