> "you had to be there at the time".

^yes. this, and access to technology. there was a pretty significant time where low-end PC tech could support little of the more "advanced" gaming trends. i played many text-adventure, MUDs and 2d platforming games (PoP, chopper commando, etc) because that was what would run on the machine i had access to. my neighbor had a pentium with a cd-rom...which is where i learned of myst ;)

i have a deep love of text gaming (online and off) because of this...and i can 100% see why it may not resonate so well with others