Hey, I still play MUDs too! It's an underappreciated kind of game, but I understand why it's not accessible to most. I play over at Dead of Night (deadofnight.org) - pop in, the multiclassing system is ridiculous and awesome.

I think MUDs vs. Visual Games is analogous to Books vs. Movies. Yes, movies will always be able to achieve a level of graphical impressiveness that a book can't.

What a movie can't do is give a viewer the ability to construct a world in their own imagination. MUDs are the same way - every MUD player creates visual imagery in their minds, including what a given room or item looks like.