Here's an English translation of the article making the rounds in channels and
news.
I apologize for the horrible grammar and typos. Finnish is not particulary
easy to translate to English. Atleast when slightly drunk and tired.

15 YEARS OF VIRTUAL LIFE
Small student project expanded into a virile, world wide community.

By Matti Jalasvuori (Crappy translation provided by Fizzl)

In year 1990 enthusiast students from Otaniemi, Espoo completed a modest
school project. It was a text-based roleplaying game played throught the
Internet. BatMUD, one of the first of its kind. At that time most of Finns had
not heard about the Internet at all. Because of that the game, opened to
public in April of that year, was left as a niche for its own small but
enthusiatic group. The players were polytechnic students from different
locations, because at that time the Internet was available more or less only
to educational institutes.
Now, 15 years later Internet has spread like a [silly allegory] and BatMUD has
expanded from its small user base to a migrating internet community of
thousands of users. Player base extends from elementary school students to
grand grand mothers. You can find doctors, police officers as well as
corporate bosses. The community is probably one of the oldest of its kind --
15-year anniversary was held at Helsinki in restaurant Kaivohuone last
saturday.
Althou start of 1990-decades games are too primitive even for our mobile
phones, has BatMUD managed to gain favour around the world. Behind the success
is the oldest and best graphical user inteface - the imagination. Game play
happens in text based UI, but there are lots of visual art and even comics
inspired by BatMUD.

BatMUD renews itself all the time
What is the batMUD really all about?
- Exploration of the enormous world, epic adventures and intercommunication of
human beings. You can build cities, fit ships or form your own guilds. The
possibilities are almost endless. Thanks to the tens of volunteer game
developrs, BatMUD renews itself all the time. Answers Niklas Lindroos, 28, one
of the maintainers of the game, who works for Nokia.
The arrangement behind batMUD has expanded little by little to grow from small
student driven group to a professional organization. Balanced Alternative
Techniquest Ry was found already in year 1992, to ensure the continuation of
BatMUD's existence. In the same year the main server was running for a while
in the premises of Jyväskylä University, before being moved to Tampere and
from the back to the Polytechnic.
Donations by the players have secured the cababilities of BAT Ry to respond to
the growing needs of its expanding player base and technical needs.
Nevertheless, the game is just a part of the community, which revolves around
BatMUD.
- During the years, BAT Ry has supported the off-game activities by arranging
cruises and collective festivities. BatMUD has been intensely visible in some
other bigger computer related happenings, tells Lindroos.

"Nice little fiddling"
The big happenings related to the game around the world are tell-tale singns
of its success. Players from all corners of the globe gather to these affairs
to meet their virtual friends. At summer time, tens of camping vans and tents
are gathering to the Campcon-happening in the middle of fields of Indiana,
USA.
Other such gatherings, or "Cons" have been held, for example, in Spain,
England and Las Vegas. There are on average about 10 of these gatherings per
year. Most of the in Finland.
So, what exactly is so facinating about this game, year after year?
-You know, it's nice little fiddling. Kind of like knitting. Explains Juha
Ristioja, 39, who has started playing before 30 years of age.
-At times you need to think too, unlike while knitting and based on feeling
you can can select whether you'd like to do something simple, or something
hard, he goes on.
California based Ryan Story, 21, on the other hand says he likes the game
because in there, every player is an individual and not a faceless wanderer.
-I like those political arguments which we have in BatMUD's channels. Finns
are tough at resisting our views of the world and discussing with them is good
practise for me, says Ryan, who studies politics.
And then, some of the players have forgotten about the game alltogether. For
them, bat works only as a common communications channel.

(Picture from Assembly 2004 with caption: "'What's up nerd', might have been
the most common greeting in BatMUDs 15-anniversary party)

"I came, cos I'm a loser!"
BatMUD celebrated its long journey at Helnsinki in Kaivohuone last saturday.
Hundreds of people had gathered around the Ursa observatory to wait for the
admittance to the club. You could distinguish several languages from the
mostly male crowd. Most were dressed in black suits, but you could spot all
kinds of crazy outfits, such as fur cloaks.
I asked Brian cervenkalt, 25, who flew all the way from Kalifornia, what had
him arrive to Finland. He answered without hesitation:
"I came, cos I'm a loser!".
Similiar mentality could be sensed around the merry crowd. "What's up nerds?"
might have been the most popular greeting, because internet bums understand
the novelty of self irony.
At the entrance to the club, everyone received their own personal ID badge,
which stated the name and the standing of te person within the community. The
guests were glancing all the time the badges hanging from each others necks,
incase they would identify the passer by. Lots of food was served and even the
dance floor was crowded -- Even thou male dominated dance crowd might have
provoked amusement from an outside observer.
The speech concerning the long journey gathered favour and the video on the
bigscreen about previous gatherings was functional. After Kaivohuone closed
its doors, the group scattered around and the voices of the guests echoed in
the night of Helsinki for long.

If I had all the money I'd spent on drink, I'd spend it on drink.
-- Sir Henry Rawlinson