@gorillapaws EVE is persistent world, and you can be attacked in your sleep. Ryzom is persistent world, but nobody can enter or destroy your apartment, and your mektoubs (pack animals and mount) disappear when you log off. And in WoT, you only really exist (from the viewpoint of others) during battle; the only thing you can “lose” is the in-game currency required to repair/reload your tank. While there are also constructed team battles, it’s always team-vs-team with no outside interference, and no opportunistic jackals wiping your infrastructure out while your units are in battle.
While Ryzom is easier if you’re in a guild, or can find someone to help you out, there’s very little that is impossible to do solo. Outpost battles are scheduled in advance, so anybody wishing to defend has a couple of days warning at least, and since most of the players are adults with day jobs, you won’t ever have to leave work because a guildie texted you about a sneak attack and they need you to log on.
I gamble with my life at work and during the commute to/from.(Seattle drivers are dangerously incompetent.) I don’t feel like gambling my rent money for a game as well, nor quitting my well-paying job in order to be able to defend myself against professional players wearing diapers and popping amphetamines in order to play 20+ hours a day. To me, EVE Online lives up to all of the negative stereotypes about MMOs and the people who play them, while also throwing in many of the things I despise about bankers and schoolyard bullies. It’s best left to rich sadists who have nothing else to do with their time or money. I get enough adrenaline already; enough so that I don’t have any left when a real, life-threatening emergency happens.