I Think I finally know what it is

[Whiteroom]

The Skinner Box Loot system did all that.

[Reaperking386]

that moment when your static kicks you for being a "true gamer".

[Twilite]

OP it's been like that for many years now. Its more apparent in this game. And its been getting progressively worse.

[Fenwick]

The amount of unneeded capitalized words in this post is painful, with your mathematics and scientific method, you might have also considered English a bit more.

I guess you can romanticize your version of what a 'true' gamer is, but it isn't mine and I don't agree with it. There are a few points that I can get behind, but I wouldn't say that people who do them aren't gamers, such as buying gil from gold sellers. I don't agree with people doing this, but it's also kind of hard to label them as non-gamers when you can just as easily buy Eternal Bonding from SE and achieve the same thing by re-selling it, the only difference is who you are handing your money to and the latter case is considered acceptable.

Also some of the examples you are giving aren't even relevant to this game, such as buying level-capped characters. This is only really possible in World of Warcraft that I know of. Perhaps I don't have as much nostalgia as yourself, but I also can't remember a time where people didn't complain about nerfs and mind numbing quests.