I've argued it in the past and I'll argue it now, The World was a shitty generic game. The only thing that made it interesting were the characters from the games/anime/manga and the VR-aspect. You might as well play Vindictus or PSO2, or any other MMO and you can get the experience. Just join a good, tight-knit guild rather than going from one crappy game to another and not making any meaningful contacts/friends.
I will say, though, that Final Fantasy XIV: RR is the closest to The World that we have currently. It will be on multiple platforms (PC, PS3), has (or had) some neat *** crystal teleporting (tho not like The Worlds, but still looked and felt great). The graphics style even feels similar to what I imagined The World in real life would be like (and no, I do not mean the crappy PS2 graphics from the actual games).
Your best bet is to focus on MMO-themed literature/manga/anime, such as .hack, Sword Art Online, Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, Epic, Ready Player One, etc... Unfortunately, there is only a very limited supply of these types of stories, which is why I've started to write my own to keep my mind occupied while I wait for the next one to pop up.
