For my money, Star Wars Galaxies is the gold standard here, imo that game was far ahead of its time, and we will start to see more games like that in the future

For my money, Star Wars Galaxies is the gold standard here, imo that game was far ahead of its time, and we will start to see more games like that in the future (I honestly feel like WoW set the genre back by 10-20 years). It was the perfect mix of social and gameplay, that enticed a broad range of player-types to come together and create little virtual worlds where stories could unfold. Of course EVE has done some truly remarkable work in this realm as well but it's definitely not enough "gameplay" for your average gamer.