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But is that because nobody's managed to break free from that model yet? World of Warcraft has the advantage of being able to look at a decade of previous MMORPGs that were essentially the same (Meridian, Everquest, etc). I think what has made Blizzard's game so great is that they took what was already a popular genre and cleaned it up, giving it mass appeal.
Second Life went off into uncharted waters, and although it may not have been a sleeper hit, it has generated enough buzz that I wouldn't call it a failure either. Whereas almost everything was figured out for Blizzard and co. by their predecessors, Second Life had to figure it out for themselves. I wouldn't discredit the genre of social MMORPGs just yet, as I think only now it's starting to get some steam. Look at Sony's recently announced 'Home' software, for example.
And Matt, look at your games for example. I would argue that the Iron Realms games have perhaps the most well developed player run politics of any games out there, and I also think that without it your games would not be nearly as popular as they are. I know that's a far stretch from player defined classes and other roles, but it's at least a few steps in that direction.
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