D2 Multiplayer died for me when 1.10 patch came out. 1.09 was awesome, the patch ruined the game for me, I pretty much quit after that. Well, I admit it wasn't all the patch, but it was the main reason behind my quitting. The bots and hackers definitely helped though too.
Yeah, Cuch, I was gunna say, that doesn't change Mo's point. Since you grouped D2 and HGL in comparison to NWN, while D2 multiplayer with full features is free like NWN and HGL is not. Not that you didn't raise good points, just that they can't really be grouped when it comes to free multiplayer.
HGL does sound alot sweeter due to free online play and single player, that puts it apart from other pay to play games. But nonetheless, that "people who pay for it get more features" thing... has always pissed me off.