My humble opinion on Nexon's path.

I don't know about Khaini, since it was a relative small server compared to Scania and Windia, but even in '08 I used to see GMs smega very frequently, at least once a week. Also many events had opportunities to speak to and see GMs. As for '05-'06, I recall GMs appearing after Zakum to chat with us.

I played in bera from 05-07, scania from 08-09 and khaini from 2010-2011. The only reason GM's were seen initially in Windia during that time frame was because of the release of horntail. Same goes with the zakum episode. The events you are referring to were done by bot's more than interactive GM's, no different than what we dealt with last year to be quite frank.