[Disillusionist]

I can only speak from a single person's standpoint, but I'm certain I'm not unique in this respect. For the most part, Threshold is dead-bang on the money with his points. Especially the 'keep up with the tech advances' part in order to play a game.

As to the comparisons of Harry Potter and Roman scrolls, I think a better analogy between MMORPGs and MUDs is book-to-movie. While the subject and much of the content might be nearly identical, it's that intangible element that a reader brings to a book, hefting some or much of the imaginary burden of visual and audial imagery, absent in the nature of movies to spoonfeed that content to the viewer in totem. No matter how good the graphics and sound get, human imagination is better, and MUDs passively accomodate those willing to lift that imaginary burden.

I can see some of Mike's points, but seriously, how much visual input or lore research does one need to do for 'orc'? No matter how most MUDs shade the differences, we all pretty much know what it is. Even if a game has fifty races, I'm willing to bet 8-10 of them are quickly recognizable from the name alone, if not more.

Granted, I do some things to my keyboard for MUDs to make it more like a very complicated handset, such as aliases and hotkeys and macros to make the experience less typing-intensive and more fluid, but it's been my observation that those who are willing to read almost 100% of their content don't mind typing almost 100% of their input. Generally. I'm actually -against- art in MUDs, for the same reason I was appalled by the inclusion of brothers Hildebrandt paintings inserted into the LotR novels. What I see in my head is better rendered, especially when viewing the words of genuinely great wordsmiths.

I'm also one who tends to think there's still a steady population (and will continue to be so) of people who like the challenge of the medium. Most of our graphics-based joystick reflexes will hit a peak, and in many of those games, the race is to the swift, those best in shape from the wrist down. Unlike such games, MUD skills, a different set, tend to only improve over time. You spell better, your read more quickly or more comprehensively, you type faster, and you're exposed to some people who are truly gifted at it, and their skills become part of your skillset as well. I greatly prefer learning (and I still do, even at age 47) from a great roleplayer to learning from a talented gamer. One such skillset is 'seeing' the map in my head. I do refer to some of the ingame maps from time to time, but to me, seeing the terrain in a MUD is as transparent a process as looking at a graphics screen.

Whether or not the market trends bear out my observations eventually, my prediction is that MUDing is far from dead, except in the cases of rigid development.

Two cents.