Avatar is an early graphics-based multi-user highly interactive role-playing video game, created on the University of Illinois' PLATO system in the late 1970s.
It has graphics for navigating through a dungeon and chat-style text for player status and communication with others.
What makes Avatar popular is the high level of interactivity with other players and the sense of community that develops.
Development on Avatar began on the University of Illinois PLATO system around 1976 by Bruce Maggs and Andrew Shapira, who were junior high school students at the time.
[1] Avatar was a successor to several innovative and highly successful role-playing games on the PLATO system, most notably Oubliette, written by Jim Schwaiger and published on the PLATO system in 1977.