Judging the game too harsh

Really? And what percent of the entire MMO community does the GW2 player base make up? That's like saying the average american is thin because you looked at a small percent of people living in Soho, New York.

How many players did GW2 before it lost the 50%? Compare those numbers to WoW's player-base... then decide if the "overall" MMO community is nomadic or not.

No it doesn't. You can't just look at one game that has a small chunk of the MMO community and make a generalization like that. That's like taking 100 people and 10 don't like bacon and saying that, overall, people don't like bacon. You seem to have a problem analyzing data.

RIFT
GW2
TOR
TSW
WAR
AION
WoW post cata

All of these games with any type of hype all went the same way.

http://beta.xfire.com/games/wow- WOW is starting to feel the bite now too.

Actually WoW is making it's "new expansion" turn around at this time. The numbers are up. All part of the cycle.

The important question is...

What is the reason for this?

Is it, as apologists say, that the players are nomadic and won't stick with anything?

Or is it that the games are crap and couldn't hold customers any better than a strainer can hold water?

Does nobody play group-centered, difficult MMO's because they don't want to or is it because nobody has made one since Vanguard?

WoW post cata? Lol... it's back at 10 million subscribers. What hype for MoP are you talking about? Was there some general belief that it was supposed to get 20 million subscribers? Post Cata did WoW lose so many subscribers that it had to go F2P like many other MMO's (LotR, DCU, ToR).

All the hype of the other games were basically they were "the next big mmo"... the "WoW killer". You can't say an expansion for WoW was hyped to be the WoW Killer.

So please clarify how the MMO community is nomadic, overall?

Exactly... DarthMeerkat just can't see the forest through the trees. I can agree that there's probably a significant portion of the MMO community waiting for a change... waiting for something new, but the truth is that none of the pastures look greener than WoW. Having virtually no competition in 2004 is almost the same as saying that WoW has virtually no real competition today. That's why there numbers are still up. Because, too many, there MMO is still the best. And the numbers show it.

The reason players switch from game to game is actually pretty simple, and I don't think it has a lot to do with a changing player base or even the quality of the games as a whole.

If you wanted to play a MMO a dozen years ago you had a very very limited number to choose from. Players were more forgiving of game mechanics they didn't care for or buggy games because their options were limited. Sure maybe they would have preferred a red Model-T, but black was what was available, so they drove the black one. Today, there are a number of options out there if you want to play MMOs. Now, if a game has mechanics you're not crazy about, or doesn't play nice with your computer, you can go play a different game. There are choices.

On top of that, you have simple curiosity. A new MMO or expansion comes out - why not see what it's like? If people find that the new MMO is more to their taste than the old one, then they'll switch to that one. This isn't some grand conspiracy. It's choice and curiosity.

Its not as black and white as you're trying to make it.

Its a bit of both, People leave WoW with the hopes that the game they're leaving to play has the same amount of content as an 8 year old game does. Its not that this game is worse than WoW it's just that WOW has had 7 more years worth of development, compared to that of GW2 and TOR WoW's first year was far less than spectacular but it was the best around back in 04'.

As for you're last point, that is exactly what GW2 is yet people are leaving it.