I just discovered this in one of my surfs across the internet. There was this 3D online chat room in the mid 90s to late 2000s called "Cybertown", and it was pretty revolutionary for it's time!
You had custom 3D avatars, got to explore 3D worlds and chat via text. It was way more limited than the likes of VRChat and Second Life today, but I imagine I'd have loved it if I knew about it at the time! (Though my PC probably couldn't have run it)
From what I've been told, it even had a virtual currency, and they had people do jobs to earn it, which could be used to buy avatar items and furniture for your house. It was like a full digital economy!
There's a
revival project going on, though functionality is fairly limited for now, but more is to come.
Anyone here ever used Cybertown back in the day?