Why is WOW so popular if it's so "shallow" compared to these other games that you mentioned? Maybe because it's some of the things they DID right that many of these "feature rich" games missed out on.

1. Kept the hardware bench down to a reasonable level. Armor dyes, each individual customisation multiplies the amount of model work, hence the data that would need to be called up in a crowded area. As nice as these options are many folks would not like the performance lag that came with them.

2. Getting characters involved with the main story line. This is the big success story of WOTLK in particular which beats out both Burning Crusade and the original core game in this aspect. It' not just the top 1-5% in the uber raiding guilds that get to see the main characters, Arthas is in your face almost from the time you first step off the boat in Valgarde, and you're seeing his involvement in quests and dungeons all over the place. Go questing around Coldarra and you might even run into Malygos.

These items of substance can make up for a lot of the frills that some feel make a "feature" rich game, but to me, armor dyes, player housing, after experiencing the latter on Lineage, is just wrapping on the package. It's the meat of WOW's content that's kept me in the game, without that none of the frills would have kept me here just as they didn't keep me in Lineage or Lineage 2.