In 1998 the creator of M.U.L.E. was given the Computer Game Developers Association's Lifetime Achievement Award. Presenting the award, Brian Moriarty said, "Nobody has worked harder to demonstrate how technology can be used to realize one of the noblest of human endeavors, bringing people together."

Behind M.U.L.E. as the first socially interactive multi-player game lay Benten’s deep awareness of certain fundamentals of our humanity. That awareness shaped M.U.L.E. and for the remainder of an unusual life the game’s creator repeatedly attempted to convince others of the importance of community.

In one speech, for example, we find this line: "No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had spent more time alone with my computer.'" The point was: Which is more important in the larger scheme, the "thing orientation" of the computer game business, or the "people orientation" of the real world?

It’s a quote that has become famous among nerds and geeks, but so far with little evidence that it has influenced game development very much. Perhaps we should view it as a seed which has yet to sprout.

But we’re still not at the end of the M.U.L.E. story.

Dan Bunten, who in 1992 became Danielle Bunten Berry, continued working as a game creator and consultant. Much in demand as a keynote speaker, she tried to spread her vision of the computer game as a social medium, saying things like:

"There's no equivalent in the computer world to our feelings in the real world—no love, no touching, no nuances. That's a big problem."

And:

"Literature, anthropology and even dance have a good deal more to teach designers about human drives and abilities than the technologists of either end of California who know silicon and celluloid but not much else."