Damn, that’s crazy! I got introduced to MUDs in high school as well by one of my best friends. It’s neat the people you can meet but never though to go any further and meet them in real life especially if you needed to go to another country.
I almost met a girl through one of those online kingdom building games (Utopia Jesus, it’s still going) but called it off last minute. Kinda wonder how my life would have been different if I had gone.