Last night it came up that Evil Hat got mentioned in the New York Times. It was basically a name-check inside a little history lesson about Jim Butcher and AmberMUSH. (If you don’t know what AmberMUSH was, check the article!) Jim’s at the center of the story, but plenty of other writers are covered as well. You might recognize a few of them: Cam Banks, Angela Beegle, and C. E. Murphy.
I knew them then and know them now because of my passionate commitment to farting around online well before that was something everyone was doing. (Does that statement make me a hipster? A netster? An old bearded guy with suspenders? Feh.) But directly or indirectly, it’s that activity — spending so many hours on AmberMUSH, playing all sorts of characters, cooperatively writing stories in semi-real-time, that has shaped and informed my entire adult life, directly or indirectly. It was through MUSHing that I met Lydia Leong, who, back in 1996, was the connection that got me a job at Digex. Digex is where I met my wife. Therefore, AmberMUSH is the tool that sculpted everything that’s true about me today.
I cannot overstate the importance of farting around online — of making friends who deeply and truly share common interests with you no matter who or where they are or what they intend to do with themselves — while in college. The education helps, sure. But it’s those people and the opportunities that come with them that will really carve out the path in your life. (Evie and Xander: if you’re reading this after GoogleFaceing your old man in 2029 looking for ammo, you have my archived-in-perpetuity permission to throw this one back in my face.)
Fred Hicks is a dad, a gamer, and a game publisher. He runs 
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