I've only been a follower of MMOs for 4-5 years (I'm guesstimating based on when Guild Wars was released), so I arrived too late for the much-discussed halcyon days when forced grouping was all candy-canes and high-brow conversation - nothing but tortuous in my time-frame.

I'm not denying that those days are purely the product of nostalgia though - as I've participated in enough online & offline gaming to know that communities can indeed change wildly - but whatever delicate balance allowed such a state years ago as either become unreplicatable or financially unviable.