https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/272497049/ryan_james-addams
For those who don't know that name, this guy was HUGELY instrumental in the MUD community back in the early days of the internet. It's been a long time since I last looked, but I believe he's the one who originally came up with this massive "Autoquest" questing system that many other people were impressed by and started using for their own games after. I can't find any of the older articles and posts I remember reading over two decades ago (thanks, Google...) but from what I remember he helped work on a TON of different systems.
He originally created Moongate Online back in 1996, which later turned into Materia Magica (which is still around today, albeit under different ownership.) The players of MM only found out a few days ago that he passed away back in 2022. Literally nobody knew anything about it.
No details about his passing are really known to anybody... All I personally know, is that he was a great man who hosted some really fun Halloween parties for players back in the late 90s, he made a fun game that has lasted for decades, and he will be sorely missed :(
RIP Vass