[KaVir]

Then we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. You want to attract players from outside of the "bubble"...but where are these people going to come from? What audience are you trying to appeal to? It can't just be "people who haven't tried muds" - that's far too vague, you need a coherent audience that you can explicitly target.

In your case you might try targeting DBZ fans, for example, while a mud based on a novel might try targeting readers of that novel. You know what your target audience likes, and can market your game accordingly, focusing on things that fans of the show/book are likely to find appealing.

But what do you think is more likely to catch the eye of a prospective player who's never tried muds before: A description of the game, or a screenshot of a fancy graphical interface? I think most of us in the mud community recognise that eye candy is no indication of a good game, but the sad fact is that pretty pictures will sell your game far more effectively than pure text.

Appealing to MMO players is difficult, because they tend to have high expectations in terms of graphics - but many of them will have played text muds in the past, and some eventually return to text muds because they know the gameplay tends to be deeper. Offering some sort of text/graphics hybrid, like Primordiax is doing, may provide a more appealing compromise for such players.

On the other hand, browser games are somewhat different. They tend to offer simplistic graphics that are far more achievable for hobby developers, and shallow gameplay that can't compete with most muds. Offering a graphical web client would bring your mud to the attention of players who would otherwise never give it a chance.