There are a number of really cool simulations running out there where you also can be part of it.
Ispeak of muds (multi user dungeons).

See Avalon (german), Nightfall (english) or Unitopia (german).

They are all of course text based.

When exploring the system it can occur you dont know where you are until you have a client program that draws a map (automap) for you.

These programs are hard to find, since the text recognition is not trivial. So I played around and started my own solution. It's not perfect in map creation, but it is a good start for some experiments.

Here it is, showing a session in unitopia:

I plan to release the java sources as soon as possible, but there are 2 or 3 items still on the todo list before.

Be patient...

RST