In
multiplayer online games, a
MUSH (a
backronymed pun on
MUD most often expanded as
Multi-
User
Shared
Hallucination, though
Multi-
User
Shared
Hack,
Habitat, and
Holodeck are also observed) is a
text-based online social medium to which multiple
users are connected at the same time. MUSHes are often used for online social intercourse and
role-playing games, although the first forms of MUSH do not appear to be coded specifically to implement gaming activity. MUSH software was originally derived from MUDs; today's two major MUSH variants are descended from
TinyMUD, which was fundamentally a social game. MUSH has
forked over the years and there are now different varieties with different features, although most have strong similarities and one who is fluent in coding one variety can switch to coding for the other with only a little effort. The source code for most widely used MUSH servers is
open source and available from its current maintainers.