Richard Bartle
Long before he became involved with virtual worlds, Richard Bartle was already creating his own worlds, on paper, through board games, etc. This urge to create fictional worlds eventually led to the creation of the first MUD (Multi User Dungeon), an online virtual world created completely out of text, which Richard developed with Roy Trubshaw in 1978 at the university of Essex.
Richard returned to his Essex University roots in 2002, teaching on its nascent computer games degree. He was appointed Visiting Professor in 2004. Currently, he therefore spends his time juggling teaching duties and research with the occasional demands of his consultancy business.
He still plays a lot of games, too!
www.richardbartle.com | University of Essex | www.mudii.co.uk