I've been playing this game a long time, but in many ways I'm still a bit of a newb. One of my biggest complaints all along has been how unfriendly this game was for new players. I feel like a lot of the changes over the last several years have made the game simpler for new players to pick it up and easier for dense players like me to understand things.

This goes from the xp penalty stuff, mob death xp loss cap, gear coming back to you in all areas, quests command, even the recent damage redux changes I think make the game easier for new players to understand what's going on without having to do ridiculous number crunching.

Also the general attitude from the immortal staff has improved greatly and there appears to be much more openness on the forums with respect to what stats affect certain skills/spells and other mechanical things. Help files have been greatly improved, etc.

Anyways there just seems to have been huge progress in making the game more enjoyable. Whether or not it was a concerted effort towards that end or a happy accident I'd like to say I appreciate it.