011284mm: I must say that it does look like it took them both a lot of time and money, so I can only wish them well with it.
Yet when I see MMO I read "MUST interact with strangers" and just walk away. I want my gaming experiences to be pleasant, so with complete strangers is generally a no no.
I more or less feel the same way and technically I've never actually played an MMO specifically, but I've got friends who have done so a lot that confirm my suspicions, in particular with World of Warcraft. Aside from MMOs though, I've generally never taken much liking to online multiplayer games with strangers at all because quite frankly there is a massive quantity of people out there who cheat in one way or another and that's absolutely unacceptable to me in a public multiplayer game. If people want to set up a private server where cheating is a known freeforall and they announce that somewhere visible then go for it. But there are just too many people who get off by cheating the system in multiplayer games and that is not the experience I want to have with people.
As such, I play multiplayer but it is either LAN multiplayer, LAN using a VPN such as Hamachi to play online, or standard online multiplayer with password protected games which are invite-only to people who are known and part of the circle of friends, with occasional new players being invited by an existing member who vouches for them. If anyone cheats or does not work out socially with both stated rules and unwritten common sense, they don't get to come back again in the future. That has worked out well over the years although the number of players that are active at any point is rather low compared to public multiplayer free-for-alls.
I did play Path of Exile which is technically an MMO, but only played it once for a few hours so I never got a chance to get a good feel for it. It seemed fun though and I'll most likely play it again and try to get into it. First sign of cheating or douchebaggery though and I move on to another game.
I don't know how others can put up with cheaters and highly dysfunctional people showing up in public multiplayer games and keep coming back for more. I'm there to have fun and that kind of stuff just makes it entirely non-fun. :)