I think everyone that plays games wants to play with/against other players. Some of us that wasn't an option, except via Internet.

When I started playing MUDs back in like 1997 or so, and I'm sure most of you are in the same boat, 56kbps modems were the dream, and most of us were still rocking something worse. Graphical online games weren't invented yet, and if they were, the technology couldn't support it.

So.. that left MUDs. It was text-based, but it wasn't that hard to get used to for those of us who were dedicated enough to try. Plus, it was our only option.

And so we played and became addicted. And some of us play to this day.

But kids nowadays? They have WoW, Call of Duty, and about a thousand other possibilities to get this PVP fix in. Plus, look at today's games. Playing a game is like watching a movie. We had Mario and Tetris, so it was easy for us to sacrifice the meager graphics we had for strictly text. But the kids these days are used to life-like realism. Switching to black and white scrolling text is a huge step backwards for them.

Now honestly, I still think that MUDs offer more variety, more options and more fun than MMOs. But can we convince kids who have only ever known modern gaming of that? How many will look at scrolling text for more than a few seconds without glazing over?

In other words, I don't think there's an "answer". I think MUDs will eventually die. MUDs aren't getting new players on a regular basis. So all we can hope to do is attract players from other MUDs, or players who haven't played one in a while, but still have nostalgic feelings.

I think it's a mistake to focus marketing on bringing in new players.. because new players are too busy playing WoW or Call of Duty to give us more than a second look. Instead, let's focus on stealing players from other MUDs. However we do that.. who knows.