The problem with text-based CRPGs is that the majority of them are not done well. It's very difficult to claim that text-based RPGs have superior gameplay to graphical ones simply because they're in writing, and make claims about how people are 'graphics whores' who care little about gameplay based solely on the fact that text-based RPGs come in the form of text.
Simply put, just because it's in text doesn't make it a good read, much less an immersive one. I'd rather spend my time reading a real book than playing a text-based RPG with hackneyed, or sometimes overdone (e.g. boring) descriptions.
"Boring? Hah, you're a dumbass.", you say? Hardly. Style is very important in writing, and reading verbose descriptions of hair-braiding hardly tides my interest.
I just don't find text-based games immersive. I'd much rather immerse myself in a book written by a good author instead of some prosaic nonsense written by some guy whose best work was "Why I like the girls", a college essay on heterosexuality.
There are a lot of elements that make a game immersive, and contribute to what is commonly known as 'entertainment'. Having a good storyline is one, as is having gameplay. Humans aren't simply intellectual creatures: we're also very sense-driven, and that means in order for something to be fully immersive, it would have to have a good display of visual effects (graphics), and fully immersive sound. Fallout would not have been half the game it was if it wasn't for the original soundtrack that provided the necessary ambience to the various areas in the game, and the memorable VO's spoken by The Master.
You (and I'm saying this in general) would be kidding yourself if you argued that text-based rpgs with 'good gameplay' are enough to create a great game.
Games, like everything else, require sophistication in order to be involving. Many parts constitute a whole. If you strip away all of these elements in favour of a single element, you will be left with nothing but a bare skeleton of a game. Compare playing a text-based RPG to the relatively uninteractive tech demo of Stalker.
I should add the following:
Most people, including many of you here wouldn't pick a text-based RPG over a good book because inputting the instructions into a text-based game can be a chore, especially if all you intend to do is read it.
The reason we provide input in games is because they immerse us enough for us to want to interact with the gaming environment and affect it some way or another. It's the reason why we feel the thrill of adreneline whenever we bust someone's head open with a gun in a good multiplayer first person shooter, and also the reason why we feel as if we've accomplished something when we do quests in RPGs and change the face of the game world, or earn loot as rewards - which we can see in the form of visual changes made to our character. It's much like how posting on this forum immerses me enough to provide input and share my thoughts with all of you.
In any text-based RPG, the input is relatively minimal, consisting mainly of answering a few pre-written answers like 'go west', 'yes', or 'open vase'. Where's the fun in that? Where's the sophistication? Dodging behind a wall, crouching and opening fire at the enemy soldier across the bridge from you is so much more of an intellectual, interactive, sophisticated experience than any text-based RPG - mainly because it requires the use of most of your senses - sight, sound and touch, as well as certain amount of tactical thought and the trigonometry required to take the action.
I suppose you could -try- (and fail) to argue that text-based RPGs may be as interactive as an IRC chat or a thread on a message forum, but you would be wrong because everything inside a text-based RPG consists of prewritten dialogue and not much else. You can't exactly argue with an NPC or hold a debate on politics, evolution, or what have you with any character in a text-based RPG. If you want to play a 'text based game' you might as well do as I do, and post on a forum. You are, after all, engaging in a form of intellectual competition, which is what's known as a debate.
Now, if someone developed a text-based RPG with fully intelligent AI capable of evolving responses, I would be the first in line to play that game. It'd at least be interactive.
