Well certainly the internet helped with organizing fans, and has created a dialogue about what's happening in the books, and created resources to help fans and newcomers get into the series. But the books would be the books with or without the internet, and people would still read them because they're good. I think Cons and things would still take place, and there still would be a dialogue, but it would happen at the Cons, and probably create more WoT Guides written by fans, and maybe a newsletter.

I mean like, LotR got hugely popular in the 60's without the help of the internet, and so did Narnia, and Star Wars, and all sorts of pop culture things, and as long as the books are what they are, there would be fans. So in a sense the books would be just as they are, yes. But the way we experience them would be much different, and the way we interacted with RJ and currently interact with Brandon would be missing.