A lot of the 'streamlining' they put in game to improve the individual player experience actually make the multi-player experience worse. The best examples I can give are EQ and DAOC.

In EQ you had to queue up to farm bosses for loot, which led to people meeting up and making friends. Other gameds then introduced instances to avoid this delay, but this then removed the social element.

In DAOC you levelled in an area with other low-level players, which obviously led to you meeting other players and teaming up with them. DAOC introduced fast transport, so new players and alts could easily go somewhere else, which left the original new-player levelling zones nearly empty, thius removing the social element again.

Modern MMORPGs have become single player games, where individuals team up for raids, but have no flexibility in their game play, as there is an associated raid guide telling everyone what to do and how to do it.