Ah! There is a Caj who goes to the unofficial (and probably official too!) Runefest meet ups. I thought I'd better announce myself, in case you're her.
Every country has its good and bad, and the recession has bitten us all. Mind you, I was whining about it once, when my Spanish friend said, "You think it's bad over there, try coming over here." We compared statistics and I had to give her that one.
I have been known to haunts the forums a lot, when there's something on my mind. But I haven't been in for weeks now. I'm Merch Gwyar there.
I feel so sorry for the Maple Story players too. Their game is being held up as the great success story for micro-transactions, yet I know how many people find this article by searching, 'Insight Venture Partners ruined Maple Story'. It's obviously not all roses there either.
My feeling is that IVP took the idea from Nexon, then pushed it on all that they fund.
Wizzley won't delete comments, unless it veers off into the realms of illegality or dodgy stuff. I can't see that happening any time soon. Unfortunately, Jagex are so busy protecting their brand name that they've given up on listening to criticism, once it becomes negative. Especially when people are pointing out that SoF et al flies in the face of the RS ethos since the beginning. They lost their way big time when they stopped listening to Andrew.
Everything you said about the hey-day of gaming, I'm right there with you. There's some amazing indie stuff happening on Steam, but the big MMORPGs have gone for the money. It's a recession, people have none, so big business panics and tries to grab for more. Then players walk away. This recession has ruined so much, so fast. It's heart-breaking when you consider it. I think that's part of the reason people got so angry with Jagex. Runescape was cheap enough to play (cheaper than a night out anyway), then that got ruined too.
I haven't looked at any of the games that you mentioned yet. I'm still working my way through my purchases from the Steam sale. Terraria reminds me of a slightly more up-market Runescape Classic; though it owes much more to Minecraft. And I loved Dear Esther. (
http://wizzley.com/delusion-or-reality-dear-esther-takes-us-on-a-journey/) Those that you listed largely started with micro-transactions. People knew what they were buying into. Jagex had to change the rules of Runescape to foist it on a game that had been established for a decade.