I do think MH3 satisfied an "MMO lite" void in my gaming habits.
I think the concept behind MMOs is great. That being: who better to supply dynamic and "realistic" content than OTHER, REAL PEOPLE.
Unfortunately, the few MMOs I've played suffered from what I consider a fatal flaw that MH3 avoids. That flaw is the idea that, though you have near infinite choices of character customization, unless you want to suck goats, there is one "right" build for, say, each class.
Oh you wanna be good at magic AND attack? Well now you suck at both and no one wants to play with you. You want to be a support character who sometimes goes on the offensive? Well, again, you spread your stats too thin and now you can't help anyone.
That's been my experience with most MMOs. But in MH3 I found I had a lot of freedom. I really felt like I could sit down and say "ok, it would be fun if I could do X, Y and Z" and then I would just look over the weapon/armor/gem combinations until I found the one that best fit my needs.
I can craft a character who is built for offense AND a bit of support, and my skill in playing will determine my effectiveness ... not some under-the-hood stat calculation.
Now, go bug James to tell me what he thought about the end of 999 ^_^