Yep, those are the criteria that matter most anyway
. If you compare any game from 1996 to any game (of the same genre) in 2006, there are 4-5 major areas of advancement that make a later model game the "better" game.
1.
Graphics (an obvious choice). Though not as important here as in other games. (do to the fact that the majority of gameplay is conducted via information consoles).
2.
Artificial Intelligence. AIs have come leaps and bounds in terms of their sophistication, with advanced games showing trully life-like decision making from its AI opponents and proponents. This is demostrated most openly in the the RTS and FPS genere, but can be applied to games of all generes (from cardgames to racing to anything else).
3.
Physics Modelling. The name of the game is reality. Getting those objects to bounce, turn, stop, roll, fly just like they really would in RL. The more accurate the physics the better. Again this is most demonstrated in twitch games like flight simulators and racing, in which physics takes priority in the gameplay, but again applies to all games as a upgrade in performance.
4.
Online interconnectivity. Self-explanitory.
5.
New hardware technology insertion/utilization. The use of the mouse comes to mind as a jump in game advancements (though probably not fully appreciated)... the original use of the internets is probably the biggest hardware utilization jump in recent gaming history. Something that may come out in the next year that will be a great example is the Wei controller... heck, I still haven't figured out how my old Nintendo Gun works!
... dw's use of Voice recoginition falls under this category.
So, yes I agree that DW's use of multistation online play is very forward thinking in the spirit of #4. Also, its utilization of voice recognition software is also very advanced (#5), and not something other game developers have taken full advantage of. Its physics modelling is sophisticated in the fact that its probably the most advanced sonar propogation model in existence (one of the games cornerstones in development and a lenchpin to its excellence)
, along with a reasonable radar model (i'm reversing my stance from previously, the radar model is pretty good when looked at more closely). But a lot of the aspects of a fairly "advanced" game have been passed over: the AI could be better, other aspects of the physics model (for example, in a naval game, realistics wave mechanics would be a real sign of game advancement) could be better, and its nice to see efforts of SCS in improving them (with the physics efforts of the last patch and ongoing work... which still need a lot of improvement).
All and all, I would say that the whole naval sim genre has actually fallen behind in terms of programming, with no game really approaching the sophifications widely known to be possible, but that's just IMHO. Though I may have a slightly different view from sole-simulator gamers as my gaming interest pans across several genres (racing, fighting, fps, rts) in addition to simulations.