Run a website for online gaming information and it is really REALLY easy. Plunked down like $7 to $12 a month then paid $25 for website registration rights to my domain name + privacy rights and boom off I went. It is a joke and when a person reviews that game they are comparing it to games out there making it a further joke. No game so far has been compared "just on its own" from what i've seen which is sad. Any MMO game that comes out now is compared to WoW or what WoW used to be and if it doesn't reach that zenith point then it's crap.
Games that are very similar to other games are going to be compared, it's going to happen. Of course a new MMO is going to be compared to WoW because it is the most successful and well known. Of course a new JRPG is going to be compared to Final Fantasy because it is the most successful and well known. Developers know that when they create a game it's going to be in direct competition with other games in the genre and the reviewers have to know it too and really that's the main thing fans are thinking about. We as gamer's do want to know how good a certain game is by itself, but we also want to know how it compares to another very similar game. When we see a review of CoD: Modern Warfare 3(for example) we want to know if the reviewer thinks its better then Battlefield 3, we are making a $70 investment and we want to know which one is worth the money.