We played MUDs through BBSs. It was a different experience than the internet. Everything was text. You dialed up someone’s house and created an account to join a community which gave you access to a specific set of resources. The people playing the game with you were usually people in your area code.

Upgrading from ASCII to graphics would mean kicking out all your friends with older modems, those with poor phone lines, those without Win 3.1, etc.