[camlorn]

Scandum, please look around more before continuing to insult the blind. Me and quite a few other blind players have successfully played Godwars2, and if you can name a more visual mud I'd love to hear about it. Godwars2 got rid of rooms. Yes, there's an alternative interface, but it conveys the same information, just without ASCII art.
Blind players tend to be less skilled at the computer in general. This is not the fault of the blind specifically and has to do a lot with the focus on tech training being about employment instead of genuine understanding. Even so, once someone helps said player set up a mud, and teaches them some basics, said player is about as competent as someone sighted who's never played a mud before.
And, I don't know what you think a "sound mud" is, but I have a feeling that you don't know what you're talking about there either. The only method by which a "sound mud" would be remotely interesting to many is if it were basically a full-on MMO. People don't realize this, but audiogames are basically 100% games for the sighted, just no one bothered adding the graphics. Swamp is an MMO, look it up on audiogames.net. It is not like an MMO, it is not a fake MMO, it is an MMO with a server and multiplayer and all that. It gets less players than a normal MMO, but graphics could be added, it could be labelled indie, and there you go.
I suspect, whichever mud you're on, you haven't actually gotten many blind players. Your impressions and opinions of what is and is not possible for the blind are very, very incorrect. I think you need to reevaluate what the blind can do versus what you think they can do. Someone blind wrote my screen reader. Consider that for a moment, and then think about what you're saying.
it is true that throwing an ASCII map at the blind will be of no help whatsoever. It is not true that exposing the same information in another format will leave a blind person less capable at playing the game.