Sayeth the Shwayder:

Massively multiplayer online games, as a genre, are still pretty new. But, some players have counted MMO gaming as their primary hobby for about a decade, and others even more still. We, as gamers, are getting wiser to the ways of the online world, and we’re learning to line our expectations up with something at least resembling reality. The point is, I think players are getting smart enough, or at least experienced enough, that they are beginning to react much less impulsively when something unforeseen occurs.

I think there’s a few things here.

Getting Older: A lot of MMOG players, especially vets from EQ1, are that aforementioned decade older. You learn a lot in ten years, like how not to be a little spaz. I am reasonably certain that has as much to do with it as a change in the tenor of the genre.

Managed Expectations: The CMs ten years ago sucked. If there were CMs. Which there weren’t, alot. Or if they were doing CM work without the title … they were bad at it. Today’s post-Sanya crowd of community folks are a lot better at keeping the playerbase down in line informed about what the reality of the situation is.

His specific examine of Warhammer: EA has more money than jesus. For whatever flaws Mark Jacobs and Mythic might have, they have the backing and the talent to get it done right. Waiting on the game to come out is not very hard at all.

In any case, it’s a valid point and one I think is a great sign for things to come. Just imagine what it’ll be like when the WoW noobs are ten years more mature!