While I don't particularly like Lord british (he has an ego the size of a small country) I do agree with him on a lot of points there. More MMO's need social/non-combat areas to be much, much more important.
Last time I played Ultima Online (last year) it was pretty much empty of players at least on the Europa shard. Shame cos I really liked UO back in its hayday. Would love to play a full UO again.
the idea of logging in anywhere for 5 minutes to check my store is stocked sounds pretty cool to me (links back to the discussions on portable gaming and playing on the bus) then return home to get my warrior out
Have you tried Mortal Online, Dawn expansion coming within a week really starting to become UO (although a long way to go)