My opinion on all this is that a Shadowrun MMO would work best as a 'hub' one. I've recently been able to play the wonderfulness that is Monster Hunter Frontier, which is basically Monster Hunter Online for those who know the game series. The primary hub of the game is a "Guild City" that houses the main buildings used by Hunters: The Forge, Item Vendors, Guild Housing (AKA where you drop your shit off/bank), and a few minigames. RP isn't that hard, but given that it's still only a Korean/Japanese MMO, it's hard to do.
You see, the problem is most people don't get into RPing online for one reason or another. It's annoying as hell to see PVP grinders on an RP server 'because they don't want to deal with the assholes', but that's how it is. People just don't roleplay in games any more, unless it's the only way to interact. That's why games that will be heavy on it enforce proper character names. Granted, a SR MMO would be easier to connect with then Ye Old Fantasy MMO.
