[scandum]

Playing your average MUD is like reading a bad book, what rests is a medium that is more suited for imaginary role play than anything else out there.

As a genre it's still dying, commercial MUDs have been unsuccessful at growth through attracting players from outside the mudding community, and last time I checked they're slowly losing players as high quality free graphical MMOs are gaining popularity.

One area where MUDs could beat graphical games is the ability to dynamically render the world in text using a physics engine, but even if this could be accomplished (doubtful anyone will pull it off) someone will create a believable graphical physics engine sooner or later, restoring the current imbalance where MUDs are cool for blind people and introverts with a reading fetish.