ABSTRACT
This chapter briefs description of the technical aspects of mudding suffices. A MUD (Multiuser Dungeon or, sometimes, Multiuser Dimension) is a network-accessible, multiparticipant, user-extensible virtual reality whose user interface is entirely textual. MUD players typically spend their connected time socializing with each other, exploring the various rooms and other objects in the database, and adding new such objects of their own design. Social behavior on MUDs is in some ways a direct mirror of behavior in real life, with mechanisms being drawn nearly unchanged from real life, and in some ways very new and different, taking root in the new opportunities that MUDs provide over real life. LambdaMOO is clearly a reasonably active place, with new and old players coming and going frequently throughout the day. Player Anonymity seems to me that the most significant social factor in MUDs is the perfect anonymity provided to the players.
