Actually it did, in quite a number of ways, but no one wants to admit it. That isn't to say that WOW didn't go too far in it's quest for accessibility (at least in my opinion) and turn into a parody of its original form, but that also doesn't mean that WOW was worse than EQ or UO. Take this link for example - you get the"You Have 14 Days"rant, in which it was pretty clear how unhappy people were with EQ1 at the time (I know it resonated with me and quite a few of the people I knew who played EQ1 back then), followed by Alex raving about WOW, and right after that a recruitment post because of raid balance.
WOW just made sacrifices to some aspects of design while focusing on others. It's demonstrably better than EQ1 in some ways and worse in others, which is why people eyeroll whenever anyone tries to play the"EQ1 was better"card at every opportunity. I mean, we all played EQ1, I miss some things about it myself but let's not act like EQ1 is the perfect MMO or that WOW brings nothing to the table.
Of your three points here I'd have to say that non-instanced housing isn't a big deal (even if I would like it myself) and sounds more like someone struggling to find something to grouse about, EVE knocked your second point out of the park and the 3rd point is kinda give and take depending on personal gaming tastes. Some would say that EVE accomplished this to some degree, but other people would tend to disagree.
I've said this before but most of the problems that WOW has stems from their underlying MMO design, which is very similar to what EQ1 had. And EQ1 stole their design from elsewhere, so a lot of what we've seen since then is MMO after MMO trying to reprise the same tired systems over and over. WOW simply took the quality and polish to new levels, but inevitably even the most diehard grognards will probably have to admit that studios trying to make better games based on the same level/item/raid progression paradigm and throwing content in front of gamers nonstop isn't going to work anymore.
People can keep on arguing that game X is better or whatever the fuck, but that entirely ignores the underlying issues that keeps leading to MMO after MMO that doesn't excite but a handful of people.
I'd have to disagree with most of your specific points, but we don't disagree overall. Wow just copied EQ, it really brought almost nothing to the table other than accessibility, graphics, and a twitchier/better combat engine. Grind to max level (with much less character advancement, no AA, no epics) and play whack a mole with 39 other retards and hope nobody has to look away for 30 seconds. EQ may have copied some obscure shit, and we can argue about Runescape or The Realm or whatever the fuck, but it fundamentally had almost everything going on that WoW did, and most of what it didn't have, I don't want, like every item being soulbound completely fucking the economy. Find a purple? Well, fuck you, better sell it, because equipping it for two days was a fucking waste. You could play and enjoy EQ for months, even years, and never have to whack-a-mole raid the same shit every week on a boring and exact timer like WoW. Most of us didn't need or want to raid the bleeding edge in EQ to enjoy it, so "14 days" posts didn't really matter to everyone.
Wanting non-instanced housing is not just struggling to complain. The genre has turned into complete shit, there are more than enough legitimate things to complain about. You must not have played much UO to think non-instanced housing is some minor BS feature. Real estate had serious value, EMPTY real estate. Placing houses was difficult and proximity to points of interest magnified their value many times over. Having an excellent vendor house at a moongate or just outside the city limits was huge and could make the entire game for you if you were a crafter and economic type. Some of the most interesting times I had in UO was either attempting to loot someone else's house, or having my own looted. Hell, I remember literally defending a house once firing arrows and spells over locked-down entrance tables, not to mention the limited bank. Houses weren't just fluff, they were integral to gameplay.
I don't care enough to defend anymore specific points in this thread, and it's not necessary. The overwhelming tone of the thread is 100% spot on when it uses examples like Diablo 3 and Sim City. Corporate has bought up and whored out anything good in gaming to attract the CoD/Halo/Madden idiot crowd, and most of what is released now is mediocre at best. Players are littered all over this board who are willing to buy this shit at box price because "$50 isn't much money" and "I get my money worth after 2 months." They keep making sure these shitpiles continue to recoup their dev costs, and at least turn a small profit, so we keep getting them. It's almost hard to even blame them, since these shitty "MMOs" are setup to have all of their content consumed in 1-3 months and then they just end, aside from repeating the same pointless raid at the end. They've managed to turn persistent online worlds into shitty single player RPGs that charge you monthly to retain access.
The only area in gaming right now with anything approacing an acceptable price:quality ratio is (mostly PC) indie gaming. If you've bought any console since the Wii, you are pretty much a fucking idiot, because 99% of what is worthwhile can be gotten on PC, with no console cost, at vastly reduced prices with generally improved graphics and controls. Fuck, I can emulate any Wii game at 1080p via my computer, including use of the Wiimote, and it will look and run vastly better than it ever did on the original hardware. Consoles are basically dead (this coming generation may be the nail in the coffin) and AAA PC gaming, along with MMOs, is lucky to release 1-5 decent games a year.
AAA, even at 5-10x the price, doesn't have shit on FTL, Minecraft, Terraria, Killing Floor, Dungeon Defenders, Bastion, Amnesia, Legend of Grimrock, Binding of Isaac, Super Meat Boy, Orcs Must Die, or the other 100 games I've gotten under $5 each on Steam I haven't even touched.
