This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

A few months before the end of the world, Paul Monaco posted this message on YouTube.

Hello everyone, Paul Monaco here, Buddha Paul, as most of you know me as, you probably all heard

the news, Yay Land, the systems online closing down. The world that was ending was called

The Sims Online. It was an online version of one of the most popular computer

games ever made. You've all been wonderful. You've helped me through a hard time in my life when I first got online.

But ironically, the online version of The Sims was not very popular.

They ended up losing tons of subscribers and changing the name to

EA Land and then they finally pulled the plug. Thank you and please let's try to

stay in touch and if not good luck with whatever you choose to do and move on to.

As you can probably hear, E.A. Land is not a normal video game. There were no monsters, no killing, and although it had some competitive elements, for many players, competition wasn't the point at all.

Unlike a lot of other games where you might be shooting people or slaying dragons or

something, this was a game about socializing. That's Robert Ashley. I'm Robert Ashley. He produces a very popular

and fantastic internet radio show that's been on a very long hiatus. I'm the

creator of a life well wasted. life well wasted.

It's about video games and the people who love them.

An E-A-Lan was a video game that a dedicated few absolutely loved.

The crowd that attracted, I think, were people who just wanted to get together and sort of chat meet strangers.

It was a nice place.

Over time it became a kind of intimate, almost bar, like the cheers of video games.

Where everyone knows your name and at the moment that Paul Monaco

aka Buddha Paul found E.A. land it was exactly what he needed most.

...