Back in the mists of time before the internet revolutionized the world, people connected online with dialup services, like Compuserve. These services were known as Bulletin Board Systems, or BBS for short. Many different BBS programs existed on different platforms, but many standards existed between them. One thing many had in common was the ability to play games online, sometimes even against other players connected simultaneously. (A rare thing then because it ment a huge investment in the BBS setup of extra modems, if not extra PCs.) Since these games were external programs running on the BBS, they were called "door games", as you virtually stepepd through a door from the BBS to a new world.
In 1995 I ran a BBS called The Mostly Harmless BBS, and I created a door game called GOTHIK, which was popular on my BBS and a few others. It was a role-playing game inspired by Vampire: The Masquerade, which I played often and acted as StoryTeller. I wanted to play a door game that had story elements, RPG elements, but that was different from any other door game out there. I succeeded with GOTHIK, and even added a few new elements, such as having to go to many different stores to get your supplies, not just one place. The main feature was the ability to play either a human OR a vampire. Most games pit the human "hero" against the evil "monsters". I wanted GOTHIK to ultimately challenge that concept.
It's been over a decade since GOTHIK was created, but I still get email from System Operators who find GOTHIK online and want to install it. I even have a chap in April ask me how he could play the game without a BBS. This was possible, and I wrote a document to explain how it could be done, and even play an "old-school LAN party" as I called it.
This just goes to prove that you just can't keep a good vampire down.
