Let's see what does it take to attract the vets in this genre...

Something obvioslly most if not all post WOW MMO's have failed to achieve. So I'll start with myself.

#1 Security. Protect the game I choose to play from botters, exploiters, multiboxers, rmt spammers or other cheating hacks. And if there is ever a breach, do a rollback followed with perma bans. I'll gladly endure few days of progress rollback than permanent change that is negative to the economy in the long run. Also perma ban anyone who's account is compromised twice in row after a month of first compromise. Yes, it's not their fault if botters hack their accounts and bot with their accounts, but if it happens again, it's no longer the botter/hacker responsibile for the botfest. MMO outlined and designed so it's hard to bot, afk macro, or allows any other way the game to be played not the way developers intended to.

#2 MMO focused on player created content over outlined, finite themepark ride. Aion, DCUO, Rift, SWTOR, The Secret World, Guild Wars 2, FFXIV, Elder Scroll Online, Wildstar. I mean when you see WOW bleeding and bleeding and bleeding over the last couple years and delivering new dungeons/raids once per year despite the massive income of subs and expansion fees it charges per 2 years it's crystal clear the themepark formula is not as viable than player created content. You want raids/bosses? Allow players to become those bosses and others to raid them. You want lore, let players make their own stories and build their reputation through the good/bad choices they make in the world.

#3 I'm tired of companies not willing to invest or take risks in innovation and creativity and be happy and contained with nickle and dimes. Yes nickle and dimes are enough for a nickle and dime studio with a team of 10-20. Reality is that's not sufficient team to maintain a MMORPG for couple of years for millons of players. I rather see multiple big companies merge together and invest their resources, show to the public they willing to take the risk to build something truly big to capture the big market out there that's either scattered through so many different type of games right now or simply lost interest in all together and moved on. I'm convinced generating $20 monthly on average (with expansion fees/boxes) from 5-10 million is much better than generating $5 or 0 from thousands to a million. The game will also last much longer and it will have potential for rapid improvements and being able to provide the necessary things to function properly.

Today the market, especially the veteran experienced one is very vulnerable and sensitive when it comes to quality. If the fondation is not stable the game will collapse quick and it takes a solid launch to keep it up there floating long enough like WOW/EVE for instance to continue developing and improving the minor flaws over the next years.

So again for the love of God, post WOW era has been pathetic and it's one of the reasons why such mediocre game as WOW has been able to keep some decent market for a decade. Keep in mind before WOW existed, Everquest, Ultima Online, Anarchy Online, FFXI, and of course Star Wars Galaxies were some of the big MMORPG's and they were DIFFERENT than WOW. WOW would not be WOW today if it choose to be a clone and take no risks or not willing to invest big and be creative and innovative.

It's just sad that I've decided to wait out another year and that will mean I won't buy/spent $ on anything new that has been released for over 4 years (which means anything that has been developed for the last 5-6). What I mainly see today is just companies trying to cash in on hype based on popular, successful IP's. FFXIV, Guild Wars 2, Elder Scroll and so on and so on.

I did not outgrow the genre, I did not became burned out from it. I've just been fortunate to be part of it long enough to know exactly what I want and not settle for less. Sites like this while ago had massive fanbase for Guild Wars 2, but I held my ground just like I held my ground with SWTOR and I'm fortunate that I was able to avoid spending $ on such hyped games and vote with my wallet.

Themeparks are not the future for MMORPG's. The future is sandbox (player driven virtual world) with PvE as a side thing at best. But no, I believe we will still see more of the same and of course MOBA's and card games will flourish out there, keeping big chunck of the market. At least those games know how to create competition of some sort, which is lacking badly amongst MMORPG's when there is no freedom left for the player to compete and make his own name, his own reputation. Just like in real life, the person who spends more time working makes more income. I don't see why that is something frowned upon by the casuals in the MMORPG, persistant world. Dedication should be rewarded, but others who are less dedicated should have a roll to fullfil. Being a peasant, a private or a surveyor has it's own unique experience players should respect and appreciate.

When I was a light jedi knight, yes I was in power and I was calling the shots where we will strike the Empire, but I needed others by my side to make things easier and control the town or city. And yes when I got surrounded by bounties with their covert allies I had to quickly rush to my closest house and wait for backup before I could go out there and dominate those 20-30 with a group of 4-5.

I mean if not by now developers at least have so many examples of great MMORPG's and they have the technology to deliver. I don't see a reason why us the players to continue suffer and wait and wait and watch our lives go by before we can truly be part of something great and epic.