What makes an MMO different from WoW?

MMOs with lot of money backing them are developed by major studios. One by one they are announced as the "next big thing" only to fall by the sword of World of Warcraft. Only EVE Online could maintain its existence and profitability on the long run. I believe the reason for it is that EVE is different from WoW, therefore address another playerbase. The fallen MMOs were not different, therefore players have little reason to switch.

What makes an MMO different from WoW? No, not the graphics or the story. Having Caldari instead of Alliance and Guristas instead of Gnolls does not make EVE different. Using blasters instead of swords neither. Having 12km optimal range instead of 40 yards spell range ditto. These are "lore" changes, the gameplay is the same: you approach mob or enemy player, use ability, one of you dies. An FPS where you have to manually aim is different gameplay.

Where is EVE different from WoW:

• Item loss on death: if you die in WoW you just lose play time. So worst case (permanently graveyard-camped) is equal to not playing. In EVE you can lose a $3000 titan by clicking "jump" instead of "bridge".
• Transportation: all WoW items fit into your backpack or placed into the conveniently available bank. If you send an item via mail, it is accessible everywhere in the World. In EVE items are on their location and has to be moved by player action. This can take hours and demand planning of your logistics.
• Zone ownership: in EVE players can take formal control of gaming zones where enemy cannot use NPC features. In WoW every player can access everything, they can't change the behavior of the World
• Single shard: in EVE every player plays the same game. In WoW you are separated by servers and within the servers the raids, dungeons, battlegrounds are locked from third party invasion. You don't really have to care about others on the server.
• Item creation from industry and not combat: in EVE items are gained via industry and destroyed in combat. In WoW you gain items by combat: bosses drop them or give Valor points to buy, players give Conquest and Honor points to buy PvP gear.

There are other differences but I find these the major. These changes define the gameplay, while the textures, lore and technical mechanics are only small variations. If we'd implement the "small" change in WoW that you can loot killed players from their gear, the game would change totally and players would think that the Star Wars Old Republic, Lord of Rings Online, Rift or Wildstar are more similar to the old WoW than this "new WoW".

To create a new game that can live next to WoW, it has to be different. It doesn't mean "be like EVE" as those games would be killed by EVE, like Darkfall. They have to be different from all of them. Here is an example of the game that is different from all:

• Mobs only guard resources but don't drop them besides meat and skin. [similar to EVE, very different from WoW]
• All items are created from resources via industry. Quests only give currency. Currency is not used for anything else than player trading, there aren't any currency sinks, inflation is constant. [dissimilar from both games]
• Gear is never lost in combat. [similar to WoW, very different from EVE]
• No PvP. [similar to WoW, very different from EVE]
• Gear is decaying over time and has to be replaced after X hours of being online. [dissimilar from both games]
• Characters are toplisted according to their raid progress. [similar to WoW, very different from EVE]
• Raids give nothing besides fame. [similar to EVE, very different from WoW]

This game - assuming it is properly written and coded - could attract lot of builders and achievers and would have a different playerbase than EVE and WoW, being able to coexist. A game which is similar in all main gameplay features to WoW, cannot.