I've been trying to relive the incredible high of pre-expansion Everquest for a while now, but nothing quite comes close to the massive amount of investment you'd have to put into it, the total lack of help outside of the in-game community (no guides, no in-game extensions, bare-bones UI), and the sheer terror of death that the game would instill in you. UO folks probably can relate to that as well. Those games felt like sandboxes where you'd be thrown into the deep end with tons of real consequences for carelessness, decisions felt meaningful, alliances with other players essential for survival. Nowadays you can grind your way through an MMO on your own, everybody gets their personal rollercoaster ride, everybody gets to win. Probably a big reason why we've seen a resurgence in games like Dark Souls and rogue-likes.

I did "enjoy" EVE quite a bit too, although parts of it felt more like a job rather this incredible treacherous journey through a magical and hostile world. EVE was more about the politics and logistics than the game itself.

I agree with many other first-gen MMORPG old farts that we will simply never be able to re-create that experience in the same format, that era is gone and is best left as a positive memory. Perhaps as others pointed out VR will be that next big leap forward that will allow us to suspend belief once again.

On a side-note, I really do hope that creators keep making titles where the game world is a nasty, hostile, inscrutable place and you and the people around you have to band together and figure it out, nothing is going to spoon-fed you the solution. It makes such a big difference to the end-user experience.