[Tegran]

I decided to do the "Five minutes of Wikipedia browsing" you suggested.

Under http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD I found this:

"In 1978 Roy Trubshaw, a student at Essex University in the UK, started working on a multi-user adventure game in the MACRO-10 assembly language for a DEC PDP-10. He named the game MUD (Multi-User Dungeon), in tribute to the Dungeon variant of Zork, which Trubshaw had greatly enjoyed playing.[18] Trubshaw converted MUD to BCPL (the predecessor of C), before handing over development to Richard Bartle, a fellow student at Essex University, in 1980.[19][20][21]

MUD, better known as Essex MUD and MUD1 in later years, ran on the Essex University network until late 1987,[22] becoming the first Internet multiplayer online role-playing game in 1980, when Essex University connected its internal network to ARPANet."

[brianstorms]

Sigh. You're making my point for me. But the irony escapes you I guess.

[georgeoliver]

Honest question, does PLATO or any other intranet count for 'first online' anything in the terms of this discussion?

[brianstorms]

PLATO was a network of systems, not just one. By 1978 there were PLATO systems in Illinois, Minnesota, Delaware, Florida, Belgium, and other locales, all internetworked using what was called "the link", a high-bandwidth connection between these various CYBER mainframes. PLATO had collectively many more users than ARPANET during this time; ARPANET's population wouldn't exceed PLATO's until probably around 1981, though it might even be later.

[piokuc]

Here is Wikipedia page on PLATO: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system)