To me, in the old days, it very much felt like a group of cliques, and no one was helpful. I do not buy the claims of coordination, but I do believe people avoid the big bads, but also, people have less time, and short logins always look odd.

But my short fort experience in 2009/10 was probably the worst character experience I've ever had. Elites hanging with elites, clearly planning where they'd be, using you only for eq runs or raids, and not giving a #### about you otherwise. I still see this in some players (we all know who they are), but its the exception now.

I can see with fewer players how it looks more fairweathery, but also, high-hours, active characters can single-handedly swing the pendulum (as you've seen first hand). Also, even with fewer imms, I've had more first hand immteractions with my 4 characters than I have with all my middling characters from the old days.

In short, I'm still here *because* of the current imms.