Do you miss virtual worlds?

There's no doubt that MMORPGs have become more game-like and less world-like as the genre has gone mainstream. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing depends largely on what attracted you to MMORPGs in the first place. For some, combat, killing, and an endless avalanche of gear, achievements, and character stats are the main draw. For others, crafting and world-building are the raison d'etre, with small helpings of escapism and immersion on the side.

With the exception of Second Life, you'd be hard pressed to find a well-known MMO that isn't an exercise in tightly-controlled carrot-chasing in one form or another, and the days of highly evolved non-combat gameplay systems seem to have gone the way of the dodo bird.

Today's Daily Grind question is three-fold: Do you miss the days of MMO virtual worlds, and what current-generation title do you do think best does the term justice? Finally, how do you personally define "virtual world?"

TH