Ok, heres my plan for an MMO.
WAR is stupid. Orcs again, elves again, warriors mages and thieves. Whatever. Been there done that.
War40k, though, thats a game.
Take the spore engine. Vast, procedural, limitless, and time doesn't matter. Just like warhammer. Put the player in charge of a small squad of units and have him adventure around finding artifacts and PURGING HERETICS or COLLECTING SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE. Earn a spacecraft, hit the warp, explore the galaxy.
Traveling the warp takes some time. You get better at it as you get advanced and hire a better astropath or whatever. Travel restriction is controlled with warp currents.
Major battles at set locations become draws for players to win honor and glory. Otherwise, while you decorate the armor of your unit or dig for necron artifacts on some shithole moon, no one is around to fuck with you.
Spore would have been a lot more fun if:
1. it was a disjointed 4x game
2. it was warhammer 40k instead of spore.
the possibilities are endless for such a galaxy.