Wake up people!

Indeed, .Hack was the first MMO anime i remember. However i think the story lines are nothing alike. To put it into perspective that would be like saying all Mecha anime are the same. The Gundam series does follow a very similar pattern. However shows like Buddy Complex, Majestic Prince, Linebarrels of Iron, and Valvrave are nothing like the Gundam series. So in essence .Hack, SOA, And Log Horizon are different in their own rights. . Hack was very slow paced and dramatic, SAO was more fast pace and action packed with elements of romance. Log Horizon was much like SAO in a lot of ways but was more about strategy and politics. It also had elements of mystery and discovery. And lastly "Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?" which is currently airing has MMO/RPG qualities also but it has taken on a different aspect. In stead of a person going into a game and earning levels through a game. The RPG system in their real world, Stats are part of their lives, which i found very interesting.

honestly I wish SAO / log horizon / .hack / etc would be more about the actual game and less about politics, etc like I would actually love an anime based on true dungeon crawling MMO's

I actually enjoyed both SAO and Log Horizon. I watched SAO first and loved it then herd about log horizon, many people said it was a knock off of SAO but i found the stories to be a lot different. Also Kirito and Shiroe are nothing alike. Kirito will jump into a fight all "balls to the wall" where Shiroe will plan his moves in advance.