Hello! I’m new here, nice to meet you. I finally made a profile because I have an event coming up, and I was hoping for some insight and advice from the broader MU* community.

https://torontogamesweek.com/index.html

Every year, there’s a series of talks, book/game launches, art displays, interactive events, etc., called Toronto Game Week. Next year, June 2026, I’ve been given the opportunity to put on a talk about our hobby, from its earliest 80s MUD days to the current state of field today, exploring it as a hobby, as a videogame, as a piece of computer history, as a community, as a form of art.

I’m still fleshing out what exactly it’s going to look like, so even that brief characterization I just gave might change. That’s what I need your help with!

I’ve been MUSHing on and off for a couple decades, but it’s been strictly WoD games, so my experience is somewhat parochial. I’d like to know more if I’m talking about MU*s in general, so my questions for you are

• Do you know of any resources you could point me at on either the history of MU*s or the general state of the hobby?
• What would you in particular like to see included in such an event? What might you be worried I might miss (especially only being a WoD guy), and what would you want to make sure an audience of non-MU*ers would take away from such a talk? How do you want your corner of the hobby to be represented?
• How the heck do you pronounce “MU*s”, anyway? “Moos”? “Myoo-stars”?

I love MUSHing, and I’m excited to show it off to new people, but I need help if I’m going to really represent the hobby as a whole rather than my own narrow experience of it. So if you have any thoughts at all you’d like to contribute… thanks!

Thank you both @Eleret and @Faraday, excellent resources, just the kind of thing I’m looking for. And it looks like we have more votes for “mooing” than against, so there we go, now I’ll be able to feel a little less silly saying it onstage (though still silly). Thanks!

@Pacha Huh! I hadn’t known that, but of course it makes sense. I’ll make sure to mention that there are non-English MU* communities around.

@Pavel and @L-B-Heuschkel Yes! Thanks for mentioning that, that’s an issue I had been planning to get into. As a hobby, not only is it (usually, standard online messiness withstanding) welcoming to all kinds of folks, because it’s text-based it works really well for people with some kinds of disability or neurodivergence, and because it’s semi-anonymized RP you can use it as a kind of prototyping for self-actualization, a way for people to explore and invent who they are and want to be. I’ve got so many trans friends for whom MU*s were a safe space in which to figure themselves out, that’s probably the angle I’d come at it from mostly since it’s the one I’m most familiar with, Absolutely a point I think it’s important to hit on.

Saying that, there’s also a dark side to MU*ing (not exclusive to it of course) which I feel it’s a duty to bring up at the event, so anyone who does take up the hobby will be equipped to respond in case they’re playing and, you know, someone get weird, as someones sometimes do.

@Pacha Huh! I hadn’t known that, but of course it makes sense. I’ll make sure to mention that there are non-English MU* communities around.

@Pavel and @L-B-Heuschkel Yes! Thanks for mentioning that, that’s an issue I had been planning to get into. As a hobby, not only is it (usually, standard online messiness withstanding) welcoming to all kinds of folks, because it’s text-based it works really well for people with some kinds of disability or neurodivergence, and because it’s semi-anonymized RP you can use it as a kind of prototyping for self-actualization, a way for people to explore and invent who they are and want to be. I’ve got so many trans friends for whom MU*s were a safe space in which to figure themselves out, that’s probably the angle I’d come at it from mostly since it’s the one I’m most familiar with, Absolutely a point I think it’s important to hit on.

Saying that, there’s also a dark side to MU*ing (not exclusive to it of course) which I feel it’s a duty to bring up at the event, so anyone who does take up the hobby will be equipped to respond in case they’re playing and, you know, someone get weird, as someones sometimes do.

Thank you both @Eleret and @Faraday, excellent resources, just the kind of thing I’m looking for. And it looks like we have more votes for “mooing” than against, so there we go, now I’ll be able to feel a little less silly saying it onstage (though still silly). Thanks!

Hello! I’m new here, nice to meet you. I finally made a profile because I have an event coming up, and I was hoping for some insight and advice from the broader MU* community.

https://torontogamesweek.com/index.html

Every year, there’s a series of talks, book/game launches, art displays, interactive events, etc., called Toronto Game Week. Next year, June 2026, I’ve been given the opportunity to put on a talk about our hobby, from its earliest 80s MUD days to the current state of field today, exploring it as a hobby, as a videogame, as a piece of computer history, as a community, as a form of art.

I’m still fleshing out what exactly it’s going to look like, so even that brief characterization I just gave might change. That’s what I need your help with!

I’ve been MUSHing on and off for a couple decades, but it’s been strictly WoD games, so my experience is somewhat parochial. I’d like to know more if I’m talking about MU*s in general, so my questions for you are

• Do you know of any resources you could point me at on either the history of MU*s or the general state of the hobby?
• What would you in particular like to see included in such an event? What might you be worried I might miss (especially only being a WoD guy), and what would you want to make sure an audience of non-MU*ers would take away from such a talk? How do you want your corner of the hobby to be represented?
• How the heck do you pronounce “MU*s”, anyway? “Moos”? “Myoo-stars”?

I love MUSHing, and I’m excited to show it off to new people, but I need help if I’m going to really represent the hobby as a whole rather than my own narrow experience of it. So if you have any thoughts at all you’d like to contribute… thanks!