While part of it may be attributable to differences among devs, I think a lot of it is just the price of success. When I joined the Beth boards back in February 2002, they were much more like the Obsidian boards now--a relatively small community where folks knew each other and the devs were much more present. Now you have many more people, lots of them raging and/or indignantly clamoring for this or that. Sadly, the boards no longer support the level of trust needed to foster the sorts of dev interaction more common in the early days. Just too many folks lying in wait to twist words and for whom "we thinking of" later translates into "they lied to us."
Todd has said a number of times that the team contains lots of folks that have worked together for a very long time and that that's where he looks for community. He and others have made comments about gaming together. Not sure about whether that includes P&P sessions, but I don't think that you can assume that because things aren't visible from the outside they aren't happening.
Yeah I don't doubt Bethesda are a tight knit community, and their growing size will certainly affect how they relate to us mere forum dwellers, it's all totally understandable but at the same time slightly sad
Anyway, here are some high res shots of the Alduin statue, part of my brain really wants the shiny things but the price...deary me.
Also, stores are receiving their promo stuff.
Why do I want that?...seriously, why?