Zardnaar
Legend
I'd hardly call VTT's "cutting edge" in 2008. Maptools, for example, was programmed in Java, and Fantasy Grounds was a dinosaur even back then. Roll20 and other browser based VTT's were still a pipe dream at that point.
But, no, VTT's have never been "cutting edge". Closer to "Kludge of old code that folks cobbled together to create a barely functional platform"
They existed but online D&D has taken off yes?
Hell computer RPGs technically existed in the 70s but it was the 80s they gained much traction, 90s before there could be called mainstream.