I think a major change in the game is that the playerbase has aged. The oldest are now 10 years older than when they started--even those like me from 2007, are 4 years older. We've married, had kids, graduated highschool and/or college, gotten a job, etc. So we don't have a lot of time to write or even read long narratives--but we still love battlemaster, and so we become buttonpushers.
While I wouldn't go quite that far - I'm more than just a button-pusher - I did definitely scale back my participation. I simply didn't have time to give the game the attention it deserved. I paused all but one of my characters so I could spend what little time I had all on one. Besides, anyone who's played in Outer Tilog knows that it's an addictively-unique sort of place, even on BM terms. I couldn't possibly give that up. :-)
So many of us have too little time to do the game and its characters justice. I love the game, I love the community. I think my BM account is older than just about any account I have on any service anywhere (except maybe my original Gmail account). The fact that it's held my interest for close to 8 years is stunning given how little time I have to play online any more.
This idea of a freeform RP based in the BM/SM universe has definitely sparked my interest. Enough so that I might even find reasons to make more time to play.
-Greg
