"What makes a good MMORPG?"

Ever since I started working as a video game journalist, I've been rather obsessed with this question, throwing it out in candid phone interviews and studio visits whenever I could. In particular, I love to ask this when I hear of a new MMORPG being developed, because when launch day rolls around, that's when it's time to see if the vision matches the product. Unfortunately, I don't think I ever realized what a loaded question I was asking until someone asked me the very same thing and hundreds of different answers popped into my head. Fact is, for every stellar MMORPG we run across, there are probably a dozen mediocre ones waiting to be launched. So just what is it that makes for a good MMORPG?

I've decided to devote a bit of my time and a few articles to exploring this.