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Multi-User Dungeons, or [[MUD|MUDs]] for short, are essentially the forerunners to modern [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]]. Their primary distinguishing feature is that they utilize a text-based interface similar to [[Interactive Fiction]] games, but still allow dozens or even thousands of users to play at the same time. Interestingly, [[Multi-User Dungeon (Video Game)|the first MUD]] was so named because it was designed as a multiplayer version of ''Dungeon'' (an early version of ''[[Zork (Video Game)|Zork]]'') making it [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]] twice over.
 
Despite the current popularity of [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]] with flashy extra features like graphics, MUDs are still popular amongst certain groups, since they are relatively easy to maintain, require little to nothing in the way of installed programs, and are almost always free to play.
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Since the designers don't have to worry about rendering images or sounds for their content (most objects, creatures, and effects are described by a few lines of text and/or code), MUDs can get extremely in-depth, ''and'' extremely complicated. Expect different effects for eating, drinking, sleeping, resting, hiding, having a wound on a certain body part, being blinded, stunned, underwater, in the vacuum of space, in the faerie dimension, flying, or just tired. The ability to forge your own weapons, speak different languages, buy or build your own house, marry another player, declare another player attack-on-sight, worship different gods, and start your own guild are all fairly standard. The emotes list can often get into the hundreds, and if none of them suits, you can even improvise with custom emotes. And that is not even getting into the combat skills, spells, proficiencies and other statistics you can learn and improve upon.
 
Variants include the more free-form [[MUSH]], often called a [[Multi User Shared Hallucination|Multi-User Shared Hallucination]], which is a kind of MUD that is mostly used as a roleplaying environment or sometimes, a set of chat rooms; along with the traditional roleplaying-oriented [[MUCK]] and the [[MOO]]. These are descended from TinyMUD and forego the extensive, automated combat systems of most MUDs in favour of either free-form roleplay, system-supported/[[Tabletop RPG|Pen & Paper style roleplay]], or some other specific format. The term MUD has itself been [[Backronym|backronymed]] into "Multi-User Dimension", "Multi-User Domain", and several other meanings, possibly as a way to distinguish the variants that are not intended as games, or that have a [[Science Fiction]] theme instead of a [[Fantasy]] theme.
 
Compare [[Interactive Fiction]], aka [[Text Adventure]], which are script-oriented games. Contrast [[Point and Click Game|Point And Click]] [[Adventure Game|Adventure Games]], more graphical scripted games which may also use a fixed-room format or [[Text Parser]].
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* [[Atonement RPI]]
* [[Cthulhu MUD]]
* [[Discworld MUD (Video Game)|Discworld MUD]]
* [[Flexible Survival]]
* Genesis LPMUD
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* [[Materia Magica]]
* [[Mega MUD]]
* [[Multi-User Dungeon (Video Game)|Multi-User Dungeon]]
* UOSSMUD
* [[Retro Mud]]
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* [[Legends Of The Jedi]]
* [[Unwritten Legends]]
* [[The Eternal City (Videovideo Gamegame)|The Eternal City]]
* [[The Inquisition Legacy]]
 
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