the golden years are over, for sure man. sad but true. The few mmos released from 5 years ago and back that are still running are a dying breed. WoW was good, and I played the first few years, but saw the change in players. Now I'm not saying it started there, but WoW did pull a huge ammount of new players into MMOs.
I agree with the pvp as well and know where you're comming from. I'm on a pvp server, but only because the open world pvp makes it more intresting, I'm a pve player overall.
PvP is something I've seen grow into problem for MMOs. I see a lot of people only playing for the PvP, and that's fine, but the mix of the intense pvpers and the players there for everything is distaster waiting to happen. PvP and PvE seem to be getting pulled apart when it used to be a good mix for everyone to enjoy. Now the publishers are pressured to settle the two so everyone is happy, and that's hard to imagine.
Yeah it seems like the PvP got turned up to overkill, with all the console players joining MMOs wanting some of that online action from fps.
I also relized that the term "MMO" used more than "MMORPG". Grant that it's just a shorter term to use, I think the MMO is losing the RPG in the long run. I hardly ever see a person RPing anymore, and those that do get cut off in their own server.
Which brings me to the point.. MMORPGs getting dissected and put into seperate servers, groups, ect.. it does stop the RPers from getting harassed by those that don't RP and that's understandable, but the fact we have to do that these days paints a not so community based picture.
Also to answer the LotRO Housing question. Yes it's still instanced towns and not houses. I love being able to display items from bosses outside in my yard and inside my house to show what I've accomplished. It's nice to sit back and see all the hard work you've done displayed, plus some items you can interact with is awesome, such as the orc armor display you can use it and wear it for about 10-15min.