He's trying to re-invent the MUSH without knowing what a MUSH is or the early experiments with MUSHes linked to the web and such.
From my experience with MUSHes in the mid-early 90s the biggest problem is the general public is not terribly creative. A general cultural desire for drama and formulaic entertainment. Look at how big the Second Life world was, but how the population density was about 75% clustered around the spawn point talking, regardless of the world being nearly limitless in size.
I'm not going to try to beat wikipedia and google at their game, but I can try something like what if your MUD / text adventure was more mod-able than minecraft?
The experience of playing around on them in the 90s reminds me strongly of the linked article's ideas.
From my experience with MUSHes in the mid-early 90s the biggest problem is the general public is not terribly creative. A general cultural desire for drama and formulaic entertainment. Look at how big the Second Life world was, but how the population density was about 75% clustered around the spawn point talking, regardless of the world being nearly limitless in size.