Quote Originally Posted by Tarta View Post
snip
It's a different time. I admittedly did not play the older MMOs, but my guess would be that things like class strategy, boss mechanics and clever tricks were spread more so by word of mouth than by watching a youtube video of the top guilds doing the encounter. This really removes the fun of struggling through the encounter and learning as a group.

What you are saying about games leaning more towards graphics is something you could say about every genre today. I look at the Elder Scrolls series from Morrowind to Skyrim and I see a series that gets more and more graphically and physically impressive while they continue to flush mechanics, complexity and depth down the toilet, but I digress.

I think one of the major culprits of the high reward for low risk has been the introduction of "token" gear. It's just a bit more satisfying to finally get a drop than to meet the ETA on your next piece of token gear, except of course when the drop you are farming is gating you from progressing content.