I've played pretty much every single major and not so major MMO out there, not counting the 2 million korean ones.
EVE, anarchy online, evercrack, evercrack 2, guild wars, lotro, daoc, city of heroes, tabula rasa, D&D, SWG, etc..
I see you point about social influence.. but just because your synonym makes sense doesn't make it true; It's a great game.