Built-in Parsers

[RiyahArp]

explain how people plated mmo before the parser.... as mmo existed before a parser. It isn't hard to figure stuff out on your own with out a parser.

Older MMOs generally didn't have as much of an endgame or raid focus as modern ones did. Just getting to the level cap alone was an achievement, and there was much more alternative play such as RPing, open-world PvP, and more freedom for players to create their own identity. WoW wound up being a curse on the genre imo in that it sped up the leveling curv, created cross-server play, and created the idea of modern endgame raiding based on math and stats. They contributed to the munchkinization of the genre, and tipped the balance of the MMO genre to the math nerds.

I think this is why the genre is in decline. You have a brief leveling curve and a rather bare-bones world focus, with the majority of long term play in endless raids. The idea of MMOs as worlds gives way to MMOs as math exercises.