PBM is dead! Long live PBM!

[JonO]

[*]Lack of instant feedback to create suspense/anxiousness

This was the first thing you listed that (IMHO) is unlikely to be duplicated in a browser-based game. And I would argue that while suspense might be less if you find out right away whether you attempted sale of 1,365 widgets to the gremlin tribe went through at the price you asked for, there will be fewer players receiving a return that they read as saying "Since your first order failed, every following order failed, too. Thank you for contributing $5.95 to the GM's retirement fund, sucker."

[*]Imagination based (as opposed to graphic visuals)

If the graphics become the game and the action range of orders is limited as sometimes happens, then I'd agree that graphics are a hindrance, but even back in the day, there were ASCII graphics games on, for instance, Compuserve that players would be addicted to playing so much that they'd max out their credit cards. I think that there are times when the cliche about a picture being worth a 1,000 words is true.

The main problem is, as GrimFinger and ixnay pointed out, is that there has yet to emerge a game that has all these qualities and makes use of modern technology.

Then it is up to us to fix that, right?