Was AD&D a Proto MMO?

How was AD&D meant to be played? I speculate on a few ways.
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[@RIVERSRPGChannel]

You make some good points.
I guess if you and your group want to play it like that there is nothing stopping you.
I never liked PvP in my games. Mine are a team of heroes saving worlds until they retire in their strongholds

[@adirondackgamecrafts]

I'm with you 100%. I'm was just speculating what Gygax and his peers thought of how the game was to be played.

[@eleanorholmes61]

It does track with the odd way large groups of players would split off into multiple small groups but continue playing in the same world 🤔 still happens now i think

[@adirondackgamecrafts]

It all depends on the DM and how they want to run things. Personally, keeping track of all of that would drive me nuts!

[@xavierp7658]

Was it played this way? Generally I’d say no.
Was it MEANT to be played this way? I’d also say no at least not exclusively.
Would this style of game be absolutely incredible? Yes, yes it would!!

[@adirondackgamecrafts]

I'm not so sure I agree. As one commenter pointed out on my Bluesky post, before AD&D was written - heck before TSR really got rolling - Gygax was still running games for his local gaming club of 20+ members. "How" the game was to played was still very much in flux at the time, and I do think that page 37 of the DMG does describe how Gygax handled multiple groups for his "milieux" as he called it.
Granted, that page could just be a holdover from how he did things - something he threw into the book as just a note. From what I understand, while he was writing the DMG, he amassed a collection of notes and papers, and handed it off to someone else at TSR to put into order and fill in gaps.