Viking MUD was originally founded as a pasttime project by Olet and Pez in the autumn of 1990, and opened on 10 February 1991. There was no formal organizational structure, responsibility was handed down in a sort of meritocracy to Arch Wizards.
In April 1993, the level system was changed and the role of Administrator was defined. In the coming years, the MUD software would be controlled by either a current or past Administrator.
In July 2005, there was a member's meeting in Oslo, where an attempt was made at formally founding an organization to "own" the MUD's immaterial properties, such as the domainname, the software, etc., and register with the Norwegian business registry as a non-profit organization with a reference to the actual foundation of the game on 10 February 1991. The founding was rejected by the Norwegian business registry, and the effort was abandoned, leaving the informal structures in place.
In 2018, GDPR came into effect, and the topic of organization was again relevant. The only immediate results were a clear privacy policy and a contributor's agreement.
After the global pandemic started in late 2019, the in-MUD activity increased, and in 2021, there was a general agreement that a new attempt was a good idea, and the work on an approvable founding meeting and approvable bylaws began.
The non-profit VikingMUD organization (NO 928 266 400) was formally founded at a video conferenced members' meeting on 14 November 2021. The meeting was held in English, voting on bylaws and an organizational board. As a matter of representation, the members agreed that ideally, there should be at least one board member not from Norway. Voting was unanimous among the members present.