Note: This post has some general rambling along the lines of Woodsman's points.
It started early with UO as there were many systems that were talked about like they were
just around the corner by the original Dev Teams...But nothing materialized or was mysteriously scrapped after being in testing a few weeks. The original
coded design for necromancy and 'advanced alchemy' were on TC back in the day. They hit a few snags (such as invisibility and rainbow potions crashing the server) then pulled the plug without saying why. Then we have the Virtues... a few released, then the rest never made it past design docs.
Players bitched about this...and rightly so. Now they are scared to tell us what they are doing in case plans change. *shrugs* It's sad.
However, when we look back at 2011 and what was talked about by Cal.. we saw only a fraction materialize. Arenas and Shame. I honestly can't call the terrain update "finished," since there are still some that has issues (plus, there are people who can barely tell the difference). Where did the New Player Experience go? Where did the 3rd booster go? Where did the umpteen promises of "increased communication" go?
Considering that the last major UO email newsletter that was sent out was borderline fraud, I think I can forgive them this one...

(re: borderline fraud - it promised returning players access to arenas, something that wasn't actually released until over a year later...)
Agreed. I like Mesanna and think she's done great things for/with the EMs, but I was disappointed with the 'interview.' It didn't tell us anything beyond the canned 15th Anny hype we've heard over the last year, and it sure as hell didn't say anything which would draw in new (or old) players.
Speaking of old players, I think it's hilarious that people think they will come back in droves. Especially those who quit over AoS. The Shame revamp is AoS on crack tossed in a technicolor blender. Itemization on steroids. Yet now, we get items with
even more properties. Yay? The bloom is already off Shame's rose after only, what, two months? This doesn't bode well for rolling the loot system out to all the dungeons...
Speaking of new players... Sorry, but while the interview
might potentially interest a few people still into sprite-based games, those who play anything modern will only laugh at us. We still have no NPE to teach any newbs the game (the EC's 5 min NPE is pathetic). I can only hope the NPE is what they're so silently working on.
Edit: Malag's point about the screenshots they used for the article is correct. They are god-awful. The first one even has graphical artifacts dotted across it. I really hope these were screenshots taken by mmorpg.com and not ones set to them by a BioWare Mythic PR drone. And really, would it have hurt to have one of the screenshots be from the EC? Especially with the odd mention of 'high resolution' graphics?
I wish Jeff would talk to/at us period. He's posted here 15 times here since 9/15/11 and a total of
once to the Herald. Not an auspicious start.
The only thing I can think of is that UO/DAoC/WAR carry the stigma of not originally being BioWare's products, but being ones forced on it by EA. Thus, these three games get the backburner treatment when it comes to the flow of capital and are not the 'first choice' for new hires at the studio. Even now that SW:TOR has launched, I highly doubt things will change. Why put money into something old when the shiny new toy has everyone's attention? I really hope I'm wrong.
The Ultima Forever hype is just that. Hype. Seriously, who (here)
really cares about a Facebook version of Ultima V? (Shut up, HD. Don't even start about 'Chinese UO') This website ties in nicely to your national secrets point, Woodsman. The site's been up quite a while now without any sort of substantive announcement...the Ultima wikis are FAR more informational.
For those who cite all the "negativity" on the boards as the "reason" they don't post, I call BS on that - you're just making up excuses for terrible CS. They are adults. I'm sure they can handle criticism better than the average high schooler. They work for EA, after all.
*sigh*