Some claim MUD is a game, others that it is vastly more than a simple game.
Not surprisingly, there has been research carried out on what a MUD is and
how it affects it users. This falls well within the research field of
"computer-mediated communication". Here follows a list of articles, books and
other related reading that in one way or another touches on the subject of MUD.
Books etc.
Code begets community: On social and technical aspects of managing a virtual community
Daniel Pargman, PhD Thesis, Linköping University, 2000,
ISBN 91-7219-884-2
Cultural Formations in Text-Based Virtual Realities
E. Raid, Master Thesis, University of Melbourne 1994.
Cultures of Internet
Ed. Rob Shield, ISBN 0-8039-7518-X
Intermodality, MUD interfaces, and users with disablements
K. S. Hammarström, Licentiate Thesis, ISSN 0283-359X
Papers etc.
Interactive Multi-User Computer Games
R. Bartle, MUSE Ltd, December 1990.
Electropolis: Communication and Community on Internet Relay Chat
E. M. Reid, Honours Thesis, University Of Melbourne, 1991.
Mudding: Social Phenomena in Text-Based Virtual Realities
P. Curtis in Proceedings of Directions and Implications of Advanced
Computing (DIAC'92) Symposium, Berkeley, California, May 2-3, 1992.
Better Living Through Language:
The Communicative Implications of a Text-Only Virtual Environment
E.-L. Carlstrom, Grinnell College, 15 May 1992
Virtual Reality: Reflections of Life, Dreams, and Technology.
An Ethnography of a Computer Society
M. S. Rosenberg, March 16, 1992
MUDs Grow Up: Social Virtual Reality in the Real World
P. Curtis and D. A. Nichols. May 5, 1993
Collaborative Information Retrieval: Gopher from MOO
L. Masinter and E. Ostrom, June 10, 1993
Not a Highway, but a Place: Joint Activity on the Net
The Jupiter Project Team, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
A Rape in Cyberspace, or, How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster
Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into
a Society
J. Dibbell, The Village Voice, December 21, 1993, pp36-42
Conversational Structure and Personality Correlates of Electronic
Communication
J. Serpentelli, Haverford College