EVE Online has just about everything you just mentioned, and is doing just fine. I prefer the WoW model, and so do the majority based on the numbers, but there is still a lively community for that type of gameplay.
> Then again EVE isn't really a game it's just a strange branch of real life.
True, in that it's very complex, and it does reward an analytical approach, which may or may not accord with one's own real life. Eve is a fantastic hobby, in that it is intellectually demanding, time consuming, skill rewarding, and an emotional investment. I can't recommend it but I'd certainly suggest it for whatever it is that ails ya.
I really should try Eve, from what I hear it's pretty awesome. I'm just not that into the spaceship thing. Still, from the stories I've heard, it does sound like it has the experience I'm looking for.
That spaceship thing is just a graphical representation to a very complex social simulation. Most people would keep playing EVE if CCP changed it into "Goat Simulator Online".
As someone told me once: EVE online is about spaceships like astronomy is about telescopes. (Of course he butchered a famous quote there).
