Problem is that developers cant see that "players" can make an impact on the world on their own.
For instance I was playing warhammer online in the beginning and I was playing on the destruction side and we were vastly outnumbered getting grinded every day. People were starting to lose hope and the small playerbase we had on oure side started to fade away.
Then I started sending letters to all the guild leaders on the entire server requesting a meeting at specified time. Almost every guild on the server showed up and we had a ventrilo server set up. I explained I was tired of getting the [censored] kicked out of me and I wanted revenge. We elected an "unofficial" destruction commander which got the name of all the other guild leaders.
despite order side outnumbering us 4 to 1 we didnt lose much the next 3 weeks. We simply obliterated their side because everyone had healers and tanks. Watching their masses all around us having no effect at all. Awesome experience.
To this day that has been my most enjoyable experience in any MMO because of the impact I had on the game.
This is the kind of experience I am chasing in every MMO I play. Not a singleplayer story where I am the "special one" like millions of others.