I've played eve, i liked it but got bored with the obsession with combat and 'leveling up'
I want to get into an MMORPG, one like this:

Not a fantasy setting

No levels, or leveling-up and points scoring is not the main point of the game

Not entirely combat based. I'd like to be a trader or a businessman.

Some element of actual roleplaying (not obvious you are playing 12 year old kids who keep talking in l33t speak)

Playable from the UK.

Is there such a thing? Im tempted by City Of Heroes but there is no demo that I can see. I've considered the Sims online, but again no demo. Im not sure why the guys that make MMORPGS expect you to try their game without a decent demo.
I really want something like the multiverse from snowcrash, just an 'alternative life' to live i guess.

how about the Sims Online? or There.com?

Have you checked out Second Life or Savage?

Runescape is also a fun game, although you do have to "level up" in some ways. You just get to do all sorts of stuff, like be a chef, or a miner, etc.

Just a thought.. what's the point of playing an MMORPG if it hasn't got a fantasy setting of sorts?

Take Sims Online.. I haven't played it. but it sounds like it's geared for someone who can't or won't have a real life! :)

Without removing the player's ability to TALK (Don't knock it, Toontown did that!) it's pretty hard to avoid leet-speak and non-roleplayers in a MASSIVEly multiplayer. If lack of roleplaying really bothers you, you should probably stick with smaller games with vetted character applications - of course, I hear most of those turn into stupid politics struggles with GM X fighting with GM Y and banning all a player's characters because of his sock color, blah blah blah...

From my experience, RP in CoH is fairly rare. Most people are obviously just playing and talk only in meta terms (with occasional bad spelling and l33tness). A few people get into running around shouting out appropriate phrases for their character (I've met a pirate and one of many Swedes who kept up the accent in all dialog.) And there are a few griefers, but I haven't met any myself. (I've heard reports of a few people inviting lower-level characters to team, then promptly teleporting the player to 100 ft in the air, directly over a pit of high-level monsters. Splat.) But I have seen people requesting RP guilds over the broadcast channel, so there's bound to be some out there... My other half's trying to form a cheesy golden-age/pulp themed team.

Have you tried A Tale in the Desert (http://www.atitd.com/) ?

Hehe well removing the levelup component from MMORPG is like cutting off the ball in an arkanoid game :P

However I understand what you mean, I'm looking for a MMORPG too that isn't to obsessive. A game I can play even 2-3 hours a day maximum and still having fun.

I played Everquest for 3 years but when I discovered the "raid" I lost lot of motivation. You could *WASTE* an entire evening only setting up the whole team... that's bad, that wasn't fun :)

I am tempted by Star wars galaxies, even if I prefer fantasy setting (the opposite of cliffski tastes), I heard that there you can simply work as a tradesman and isn't so obsessive about levelup...

I would love to do an RPG that is just a blank slate... where the players have absolutely free reign to do whatever they want -- code new features, graphics, areas, goals, etc. This would basically be a throwback to the old school MUD style of doing things. I think it could be a big hit. There are some issues to work out though... security is obviously a big one!

The other big issue is this... How much of a game do you need to begin things? To bootstrap the game and get things rolling?

Have you tried Legacy Online?

It's basically, you get a sum of money, you get into a planet, and then you have to build your business from scratch from there. If you do well, you can bribe politicians (also other people) to allow you to build more stuff, etc. If you do well, you can even be mayor.

It's a nice concept and a nice game, shame I never had the time to play it alot.

I would say City of Heroes, it's fun, not fantasy based and you (or at least I) can play it for a couple of hours a night 3-4 times a week and still have fun. The only problem is it comes very far from filling your other requirements. It's entirely combat based, which makes sense given the subject matter, traditional fantasy style MMORPG crafting and economics just doesn't make sense in a super hero game. It also has lots of leveling up and very little roleplaying. Also, you'll be hard pressed to find a MMORPG with a free demo version, so you're really limiting yourself by saying "it doesn't have a demo, I won't try it." You could try to get in betas for some games on the horizon, that's kind of a "free demo", also I think There, Second Life and A Tale in the Desert are all either free to play or have a demo.

I would jump on a Snowcrash MMORPG in a second, too bad nothing like that really exists. Like people have suggested you could There or Second Life. You seem to want a good mix of combat and economics, and I don't think there is a game out there that does both well.

Than I will have enouth time (daydreaming :( ) I'm going to check Puzzle Pirates. It looks very innovative. Graphics is crap of cause, being a small developer studio product.