WoW and other MMOs have had story driven content for a while, and in some of them it works quite well; but it hasn't been their focus.

WoW's implementation for example might be that there is a new zone, but there is a story behind the zone and before it can be unlocked (or completely unlocked) the server, as a whole must complete a series of quests and tasks.

Sure you don't have to pay much attention to the story line, and sure a lot of the key elements of the story fall to raiding guilds, but the scope is usually so large that it takes somewhat active participation from the entire server for days/weeks.

I remember a story driven series of events in Everquest where the Ogre race (or was it Trols, long time ago - both were playable races) was driven out of their home town by Froglocks (another playable race). It was the introduction to expansion that was coming out, and it was very story driven with elements players could both passively observer and which they could actively participate in.

People seem to think the story must be about a character, specifically their character, but there are bigger stories and bigger stories have many participants.