When I started playing it was without minis. One of the problems we had as a group is are position in relation to things, were the wall is, who stands in the fireball, and the like, often simplifieing tactics, used by the DM and player. In the closing years of 2e D&D I made the call to go to minis, and my players embraced it (later during 3e I had a player who didn't want to use minis, but he wasn't from the old crew). One of the reasons my players loved the minis was now they could really use tactics. For example, ranged weapons become a first round use weapon often in mini-less games, why because its hard to judge positions and movement. But for the most part though, using minis didn't hurt any of the roleplaying nor did not using them (though this did sometimes encourge it).
On the other hand, one thing I have noticed about many who don't want to use minis is they want to be able to cheat, because, these people can fib as to where they're characters are standing, and often do. I've personally seen guys magically move hundreds of feet to stand at the wizards feet so they could attack him (and usually this was the DM). The person that I mentioned in a 3e game, that was the reason he wanted to go mini-less as he wasn't so tactically minded, and felt he wasn't doing a good job (I thought he was doing alright and I was the DM).