It was around 2002-2003 when I first heard of M.U.G.E.N and began testing it out. I wanted to make a fighting game filled with Capcom,
SNK, and Marvel Versus Series characters. At the time, there was a very limited selection of websites with
downloadable content for M.U.G.E.N. Backgrounds from many different classic
2D fighting games were usually downloadable in packs, while characters
were available separately. I always tested out the characters
to see if they were "authentic enough" to be added to my game (and weren't missing any special moves or animations). To my surprise, some of them had pretty accurate
movelists and played close to their original versions. However, in those days, there were
no Street Fighter III or Marvel VS Capcom 2 sprites in existence (on the internet)... so options were
limited.
I spent plenty of hours searching for new or "new-and-improved" user-creations, most of which were
characters from Capcom and SNK fighting games. I usually passed on all the ridiculous Dragonball Z characters, 8-bit Nintendo characters,
or "joke" characters. I wanted to make a pretty fighting game. 
After a few months... my dream game of "Capcom VS SNK VS Marvel" was
actually starting to take form, and I had fun making it. (Unfortunately, I
wasn't crafty enough to take screengrabs or record gameplay from my steam-powered (literal steam engine) crap of a PC back in 2002... so I have no screens of my dream-match fighting game to
share with you... but I can continue to tell you about it, at least.
So... I had somewhere around 100+ characters in my game. Every
character had their own stage and theme music (most of which were straight from their original
games). I still remember fighting
against Dan in my game... fighting on his SFA3 stage with
his theme intact (mp3 quality)! 
Sometimes, I had to choose between different versions of stages & BGM's
for a single character... for example I could've used Dan's
SFA2 stage with his SFA2 theme music instead. (Tough choices to make.) My epic mp3 library of BGMs from Capcom & SNK games really came in handy (thanks Napster!) 
Long story short, one day I got bored and eventually DELETED my entire M.U.G.E.N
folder (by accident or on purpose, I forget). I'd
estimate this was sometime around 2004-2005.
M.U.G.E.N. is an awesome creative outlet for coders and only limited to the depths of imagination (and time). I'm glad it exists. However, I actually love playing real fighting games more. And as a competitive fighting game player (and TFG website admin), I have to manage my time wisely! I gotta admit, though... it was
pretty fun playing the 2 vs 2 team mode... and my Darkstalkers 3 era
B.B. Hood / MOTW Terry Bogard dream team was nearly unstoppable (please
take a moment to 'imagine' their epic tag-team super moves, which connected nicely btw).
But there
came a point during a 117-hit combo where I had an epiphany... and I had to ask myself:
"What
in the blue hell am I doing? Why am
I putting so much time into this fake 'game' that won't matter at all if I'm good
at it? Shouldn't I be practicing my shit in a REAL fighting game to I can win a tournament or two?" 
Even as I drifted away from M.U.G.E.N. community... I still followed some of the creators for a while. I noticed some of the characters people
were making started to get beyond ridiculous. Users were creating distasteful things (that I won't mention), along with powering-up characters to a point where it seemed not fun and more of an "insult" to fighting games than a homage. I often wondered
if the original Capcom / SNK artists would be offended if they saw what was
being done to their original characters (and the ridiculous things they'd be fighting against). No
*M-Rated material shown in screenshots on this page, sorry. 
The fact that M.U.G.E.N sprites come in ALL
weird shapes & sizes,
and have the potential to be thrown into the same game kinda turned
me off of the whole thing. 
There are, however, some more professional M.U.G.E.N creators out there who have created some incredible "dream match" games and even their own 100% original games... and I can respect the heart they put into it! That's why I'm glad M.U.G.E.N. exists.
Okay, so sometimes M.U.G.E.N can be funny,
I guess....
Bad animation and all. 
In closing, if you haven't
checked out M.U.G.E.N and tried your hand at creating your own 2D fighter
from the ground up, then give it a go. You'll have a blast once you learn
how to use it and it's fairly easy! Or if you're too lazy, you can always
download someone else's creation and try it out. If you started your
own M.U.G.E.N now, you'll surely have many more characters at your disposal
than I did in 2002... but a word of advice, the time-consuming "road" to creating your fighting game
may very well be much more enjoyable than
actually playing it in the end.
These days, M.U.G.E.N
is something that you can whip out in front of some oblivious friends for
some decent laughs, and possibly some oohs & aahs if you
have an impressive character selection screen. The fact is, most games
that come out of M.U.G.E.N just don't have that "quality feel" that
you'll get from a proper fighting game. There is potential for the game engine to be developed
further, and it has... but I suppose that M.U.G.E.N is a different
version than the one I've been referring to. Plus, you could be spending all
that time getting good at actual fighting games.
Just my two cents.
At the end of the day, M.U.G.E.N is just for fun... and a great way to spend some creative hours if you even wanted to make your own video game (and use tons of shortcuts). 
M.U.G.E.N is sort of like
The Matrix...
M.U.G.E.N looks like a fighting game... M.U.G.E.N feels like a fighting game...
but it's not actually a real fighting game. M.U.G.E.N. is a user-created, code based, figment of our wild imaginations... like The M.A.T.R.I.X. 
On a side note: I wonder if Capcom spelled
F.A.N.G's name as nod to ol' M.U.G.E.N. 
Anyhow, thanks for checking out TFG's
article about M.U.G.E.N. I'm gonna go play a real fighting game now... perhaps something 3D. I need to rest my eyes. Thanks for
reading!
~Frank
Joseph, FightersGeneration.com | @Fighters_Gen
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