"Angband, or His 55 Desires" by Mike Meginnis (from THE COLLAGIST, Issue 19)

His avatar in Angband was the @ symbol. This referred to the fact that the avatar was where he was at. The goal of
              ____ __    __  _______   _______       ____ __    __ _______
             /       \  |  |/  ___  \ |       \     /       \  |  |       \
            /         \ |     /   \__)|        |   /         \ |           \
           /  /|       \|     |   ___ |        |  /  /|       \|     |\     |
          /  /_|     |\       |  |_  \|       <  /  /_|     |\       |/     |
         /  ___      | \      \__ '  ||        |/  ___      | \             |
        /  /   |     |  \            ||           /   |     |  \           /
       /__/    |__ __|   \_|\_______/ |_______ __/    |__ __|   \_|_______/

is to explore a 100-level dungeon. Morgoth waits at the bottom of the dungeon. Morgoth is the ultimate evil. Morgoth can be killed if the player comes prepared. Morgoth is the object of Angband's desire. He is the reason for the dungeon. He is the reason for the player.

Most Angband players will never see Morgoth.

Having visited the town, having fought a certain dog (represented by a C), having purchased food and extra torches and a leather shield at a bad price, having purchased one scroll of Word of Recall, he descended the staircase that led into the dungeon. It smelled of pencil lead. The air tasted sour and cruel. This is what he saw:

#+#######
#.......#
#....<..#
#....@..#
#.......+
#########

.--''~!A LEGEND!~''--.

# is a WALL

. is THE FLOOR, or in other words EMPTY

< is the STAIRS that LEAD UP. It can be CLIMBED

+ is a CLOSED DOOR. It can be OPENED, BROKEN, or TUNNELED THROUGH

@ is the SIGN of the AVATAR, is the BODY of the HERO

via dzancbooks.org

A brilliant (if depressing) look at, and explanation of what roguelike games are.