The game I want to see was actually described in a short story in an issue of Dragon magazine in the early 80s. It was basically a real-time RPG with real prizes - the ultimate prize IIRC was a virtual chest of coins that would be delivered to you if you won. For "real time" to work in-world, you had to find a safe place for your character to sleep, like a closet you could lock on the inside. Water, food, and other aspects were also stricter than the hand-wavy D&D processes of the time.

I don't remember the author, but it correctly predicted aspects of online culture and relationships that were not widely known or understood in 1982 or 1983.