Ussually, it goes like this:
The Author has an idea. It's captivating, awesome, destined to push the shit in to EverQuest and all the other classic MMORPG's. It will have a sandbox, dynamic open world stuff, tons of playable races and classes, lots of skills and blablabla.. estimated time to completion - 2021
But then comes a spider, The Publisher, who wants the game to drop the dynamic sandbox open world, only wants 5 playable classes and races, limited skills and wants it to be out by Christmas 2016. Or we pull your funding.
The outcome is an MMO which is but a shadow of it's former (original) glory, who doesn't actually satisfy anyone and gets an average score of 3.1/10 (except in places where The Publisher bribed the people trying it and it gets 9/10).