Editing BatMUD (section)

==History, Legal and Development==
[[File:BatMUD login screenshot.png|right|thumb|A screenshot of one of numerous login screens displayed by ''BatMUD'']]
''BatMUD'' was one of the first [[LPMud]]s<ref name="bartle" /><ref name="dog" /><ref>{{cite book
 | last1 = Shah | first1 = Rawn
 | last2 = Romine | first2 = James
 | year = 1995
 | title = Playing MUDs on the Internet
 | publisher = John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 | isbn = 0-471-11633-5
 | pages = 8
 | quote = LPmuds started appearing at the turn of the decade, popularized at first by such sites as Genesis, BatMud, and the first of the popular sites in the United States, known as Fenris.
}}</ref> and has been online with only a few, if any minor breaks since 14 April 1990.<ref>{{cite newsgroup|title=BatMUD flies to another location|author=Janne Frösen|date=1991-04-06|newsgroup=rec.games.mud|message-id=1991Apr5.124746.18640@santra.uucp|url=http://groups.google.fi/group/rec.games.mud/browse_thread/thread/7f7efbc8f89278a?hl=fi&ie=UTF-8&q=batmud#57e81bb351f2f74e|access-date=2009-01-29}}</ref>
The game was initially set-up by a [[Wizard (MUD)|wizard]] who named himself Jaf, followed by many volunteer coders, all becoming [[Wizard (MUD)|wizards]] in the process.
The MUD's name comes from the name of the server the game was first hosted on, '''batman.cs.hut.fi'''.  Since then, BatMUD has relocated several times, at one point residing in Oulu, Finland.
Between November 2007 and August 2021, the main ''BatMUD'' servers were co-located in the two data centers of Nebula in Helsinki, Finland. BatMUD moved to a new data center, Ficolo's The Air in Vantaa, Finland, in August 2021 and is running on dedicated servers with redundant connectivity.

Despite its phenomenal age as an Internet community, the MUD is constantly evolving which makes it both challenging and entertaining to new and old players alike.
Due to the rich set of features, ''BatMUD'' may be a bit overwhelming for a newcomer.<ref name="netgames">{{cite book
 | last1 = Maloni
 | first1 = Kelly
 | last2 = Baker
 | first2 = Derek
 | last3 = Wice
 | first3 = Nathaniel
 | title = Net Games
 | publisher = Random House / Michael Wolff & Company, Inc.
 | year = 1994
 | isbn = 0-679-75592-6
 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/netgamesyourguid00malo/page/91 91–92]
 | quote = '''BatMUD''' With dozens of races to choose from (each with different skills) [...] ''BatMUD'' is for hard-core MUDders, featuring hundreds of skills and spells!  Player killing is common, and the only time a wizard would intervene, explains one player, is "if there's a random mass murdering (i.e., summoning 30 random players into a room without exits and killing them all&mdash;for no reason)."
 | url-access = registration
 | url = https://archive.org/details/netgamesyourguid00malo/page/91
 }}</ref>

===Notable (external) events, timeline===
In September 1994, the organization Balanced Alternative Techniques ry was officially registered in the "Joint corporate information system of the National Board of Patents and Registration and the Tax Administration"<ref>The Joint corporate information system of the National Board of Patents and Registration and the Tax Administration, Finland [http://www.ytj.fi/english/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908175620/http://www.ytj.fi/english/ |date=2015-09-08 }}</ref> of Finland.
The game was also previewed in the gaming magazine ''[[Pelit]]'' and was highly praised for its rich set of features, scoring over 90/100 points.<ref>Kaizu, "BatMUD", ''Pelit'', 1994/6</ref>

In 2004, B.A.T. ry applied for the ''BatMUD'' [[trademark]] and "BatMUD" was registered as a trademark by the United States Patent and Trademark Office<ref>[http://www.uspto.gov/ United States Patent and Trademark Office]</ref> on April 5, 2005.
Also, a 91-page Pro graduation [[thesis]] emerges from the [[University of Lapland]], themed "Artificial Intelligence in text-based computer games' dramaturgy.
Study subjects: [[NetHack|Nethack]] and BatMUD",<ref>Graduation thesis, "Artificial Intelligence in text-based computer games' dramaturgy. Study subjects: Nethack and BatMUD", Audiovisual Mediaculture, University of Lapland, written by Jussi Huhtala (in Finnish) {{cite web|url=http://www.elisanet.fi/jotsio/tekstit/gradu/gradu_juhuhtal.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2008-02-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716152821/http://www.elisanet.fi/jotsio/tekstit/gradu/gradu_juhuhtal.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-16 }}</ref> Audiovisual Mediaculture written by Jussi Huhtala (in Finnish).

In February 2007, a 100-page Pro graduation master's thesis with the topic "[[Virtual goods|Virtual gift]] - Trading gifts in BatMUD virtual community"<ref>Masters Thesis, Cultural Anthropology: "Virtual gift - Trading gifts in BatMUD virtual community", University of Jyväskylä, written by Anu Ikonen (in Finnish) [http://thesis.jyu.fi/07/URN_NBN_fi_jyu-2007234.pdf]{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> in [[cultural anthropology]] for the [[University of Jyväskylä]] was published, written by a non-player in Finnish.

''BatMUD'' has a wide variety of [[race (fantasy)|race]]s.<ref name="netgames" /> [[Player killing]] is lightly moderated.<ref name="netgames" />