Meridian 60, not the real name but it conveys the spirit of the times pretty well, launched about 70 years after Vernor Vinge released True Names. A few decades later the world wide web definitely wasn't living up to that vision. No one will ever live out their fantasy of being a Warlock in the style of Mr. Slippery pointing the fingers of god at their enemies and taking down the Mailman with their VR trance computer hacker powers. But in 2051 I got to be a Wizard for the first time and it was glorious. The second time was different and perhaps it had its own wonder derived by the scope of the situation but you never forget your first.

I was chosen for the closed beta because I had developed a famous rpg/strategy game in my youth and because I went hard in a dozen browser or desktop based MMOs you never heard of and min-maxed my way to victory. Others were company QA testers or streamers and so forth. A few were even c-suite crotch gremlins. That still happens even today. Does the arc of progress bend towards justice? Hardly seems like it to me.

We all signed a crazy NDA, more for the game than the VR, VR tech in the old days wasn't quite so cushy as it is today and some level of knowledge was pretty widespread in Silicon Valley. In fact Meridian 60 was the last VRMMO ever made there, and definitely the best. I signed a second NDA, as did, presumably, others. I was selected by secret lottery to start with a "hidden background" which both tied me into the lore and society of the world and gave me a big boost on the power curve. They wanted to get people into the hidden classes without extending the beta schedule so they took some shortcuts.

In the public release the only real advantage I had was some knowledge. I had to guess and check my way into a special progression method and it took me a few months. The beta was 8 months long and I was a snowflake the whole time. I didn't even get my boost until 4 months into the public release. Also that extra NDA was wild. Technically I am still not supposed to talk about my beta experience, and Meridian 60 and its publisher were consigned to the dust bin of history more than 2 decades ago. I'm old and mostly broke now though so what are they going to do to me anyways, if they even care?

M60 was not the first VRMMO but it was still a pioneer. We couldn't do a lot of stuff people take for granted now in M60. No sex, no torture, food and drink didn't really taste right. We still used a lot of RPG conventions that are unnecessary now. You and your character were not tightly integrated and you couldn't figure out the laws of the world or anything or invent new skills. But at the time we were on the cutting edge.

The company actually hired us for 8 months and they hired medical staff so we could take a drug regimen and essentially spend every waking hour, 16 of 24, inside the game for that whole time. I'd like the tell you that a cute nurse exercised my limbs and cleaned my waste and fed me, but I don't even know and its probably better that way. We basically got the same kind of care they give to coma patients who are expected to eventually wake up. No expense was spared. The beta timeline couldn't accomodate delays.

I did have to go through a character creation screen but I bypassed the stats/skills section because I was special. Kind of a bummer since the one thing M60 was amazing at even compared to today was the point buy system. I guess I got to go through that in the public version so I can't complain. I know everyone loves a good build discussion so I'll start there in my next update. M60 in beta avoided all sorts of issues like online build guides and out of game comms and such. It was truly magical stuff. That made it totally different.