Eric and I were both fans of the decades-old series of computer role-playing games called Ultima, and the summer after my freshman year the company launched one of the very first graphical role playing games, Ultima Online. Eric had his character’s name picked out months before the game launched: Gospadin Peroda. By the time we got back to school, Gospadin was some high-level character and none of the rest of us could keep up. Mud played so much UO (as it was known) that the new class of pledges did a skit at the Christmas party where Eric could no longer tell if he was “Mud” or “Gospadin.” Some real good came out of all this: through Mud’s engagement with this community, and the Everquest game that followed, he met his wife Monique.
Jay