C
I'm sure with all the talented game designers in the world theres a way it could be done if they would just be willing to think outside the MMO box.
No, there would be no way to do it without making an incredibly crap game. Almost every game that tries to do too much just for the sake of it, has failed utterly miserably.
Multiple people in one big ship would create havoc, and be rather pointless. How many people are going to stay in engineering throughout their life in a MMO, seeing four walls and changing energy levels, seriously think about it. 9/10 things needing doing on a ship would be boring, dull, stupid and no one in their right mind would do them.
The idea would mean only the guild leader would ever get to fly or shoot, everyone else would sit around doing nothing, it would never in a million years work. Theres simply not enough to actually be done. YOu can't run a raid in Lotro without the healer, but the healer would actually be doing something in every fight, even if its attacking small guys, or healing everyone in a big fight. In an MMO where you're traveling around you're proposing one guy sit in engineering for a few hours while other people do things.
Would you also require a backup crew to keep the ship in orbit or from being taken over while you're on an away mission? How far does realism go before it becomes pathetically boring.
The game WOULD have fallen flat on its face days after launch if only 3 people in every 1000 players could actually "do" anything, while the rest sit at stations waiting for someone to tell them to transfer some power from shields to engines every half hour.
Personally haven't seen much on it, but something between Eve in space and a wow/lotro land based setup could be very cool. IE combat and kit to wear on land fighting people, story based quests mostly though. THen in space, mining, fighting, pirating, huge fleet battles or small skirmishes to control space.