Well, one of my personal projects involves a single-player adventure game to which combines elements of a MUD (the text-display) with the point-&-click interface of graphical adventure games.

I don't think the problem is whether or not people like playing a certain game format, its whether or not people like playing your particular game. If it is designed well (and you were really passionate about it), then you might find yourself with a lot of people playing it.

Many indie games are designed in formats that are considered "unpopular" in comparison with what is considered "popular" in today's game industry, yet many of those indie games found success, because their particular game was just designed so well.

So you shouldn't worry whether or not people would rather play a certain format over others - if it is fun and if it is designed well, you will have a greater chance for success. If it turns out to be a failure, then you'll have to look at what parts failed, and I doubt it is because of the game's presentation format. The most popular presentation formats considered right now (3-D graphics) can still produce games that are failures; so it isn't about the particular game format, its about your particular game.

But that's just my opinion.

The thought of creating an entirely new text-based MUD with some of today's technology (java for example) seems like a great idea. MUD's seem to spring up all the time, with little advertisement and usually copies of older MUD's that have already been released.

The truth is there is still a slightly huge market for MUD's...this can be seen at www.mudconnect.com or looking at some of the bigger MUD's like Achaea.

As long as you brought some innovation to the table, I'd be rather excited about following up on a project such as this.