Cats on the Moon was the beginning of the end; that much is obvious from step one, when the expansion was named "Shadows of Luclin" (SoL = Shit outta Luck).
AAs, the Bazaar, The Nexus, and the updated graphics all killed the game. Maybe many of us were too young for it to have realized it at the time, but looking back I think many of us can see that this was the expansion, not PoP, that killed the game, because it killed the community by reducing the reliance on Druids/Wizards for ports and eliminated the need to interact with people to trade. Things like AAs, which added never ending progression at 60 and created a schism between fresh 60s and veterans, and the updated graphics engine which forced many people to upgrade their comps when previously there was not a need for such a thing, only added insult to injury.
Even if everything was left as is; new zones with one or two connecting points (e.g., only allowing travel to Luclin via the Dreadlands spires where the Combine originally left from), the graphics engine was left alone, AAs weren't added, Shadow Haven wasn't some "one stop shop" for all your basic needs, and the Bazaar was absolutely obliterated from all memory, I still think Luclin was an absurd expansion. How many of us can actually pronounce the names of many of the higher end monsters? How many felt this diverged from both lore (the combine empire was supposed to be long gone, was it not?) and common fantasy archetypes?
Game would've been fine if we expanded some of Odus, Antonica, and Faydwer (look at a Kunark-era world map; notice a lot of places that were never in the game until like the 12th expansion?) and if they added Kerras as a playable race starting on the island west of Toxxulia.
There, I discussed. :P
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