Just been ranting (surprise) about the recent revamps to breeland in lotro, and obviously the old forest changes over time and it got me to thinking, are MMO's catering to the really useless casual types more and more these days, rather than anyone who enjoys the fun side of challenges that gaming can bring?
I mean, from changes such as lowering exp (levelling games only) to make it faster for people to get to "endgame" as thats the perceived place to be to really enjoy a game, usually skipping HUGE amounts of content on the way (Yes endgame is important in the games were it is present, but the journey is just as, if not more so?); to area revamps to make it less time consuming for people to get stuff done. I know the latter does help some people, but even me with random amounts of available time would like to log in to something and just do stuff as it comes, not be all "go to A", "go to b" etc etc etc, find my own way...
Then of course there is "quest-helpers" and map radar systems that point people in some cases right to the actual items... WAR kinda got these right, but I still turned that one off as it wasnt a feature anyone who READS quest descriptions needs...
Or am I just a bitter MMO vet with a pulpit?