Interesting note... I know exactly what you're saying, but there has just been drastically less room to tell the story of the Matoran. The only place we were getting any idea of how the Matoran lived is through MNOLG 1 and 2, and we don't have online games (at least not big ones) anymore. The Metru Nui guidebook helped in that respect too, but the updated Encyclopedia was to be the last guidebook.

Also, for the record, there were tiny little attempts at filling in Matoran culture in 2006-2008. Reread Island of Doom, City of the Lost, and Shadows of the Sky... City of the Lost is admittedly the best at filling in little details, since the Barraki didn't even appear until halfway through the book, whereas the Piraka and Phantoka appeared pretty early on in the other two.

Another thing--you said that the past 3 years, Matoran have always been living in rough places with tough conditions, but arguably the only year the Matoran were living somewhere peaceful was 2004 (2005 doesn't count because Metru Nui was destroyed and there were no Matoran that year). Mata Nui wasn't so safe, with the vicious Rahi and then natural dangers (it wasn't a tamed city island like Metru Nui); the Matoran also had to hunt for food whereas in normal conditions Matoran would have a place to recharge their energy like on Metru Nui. Things were obviously not the best there, arguably at least as bad as Voya Nui. As for Mahri Nui, that would be considerably more dangerous; going outside of the city requires an air bubble and the wildlife there was considerably more vicious. Karda Nui actually seemed the safest of the five "Nui" (outside of Metru Nui of course), at least until the Makuta came. There wasn't really anything threatening the lives of the Matoran.

As for 2009:

One last thing: maybe I'm just reading too much in this, but are you really complaining that the story is the same over and over as the title of this entry suggests, or are you just upset about not getting to hear much about the Matoran anymore?

But on Mata Nui, the real danger lay with the dangerous creatures under Makuta's influence. The environment itself had its dangers, certainly, but was for the most part well-suited to the Matoran.

City of the Lost did have some interesting bits and pieces, yes, but still nothing especially substantial. There is considerably less space in the story for that kind of thing, which I think is a real shame. I would really like to see something, somewhere, about the inhabitants and their lives as a supplement to the main story. The MNOLGs were absolutely fantastic in this respect, although expecting one of these every year is certainly asking a lot and almost certainly not going to happen (I'm sure the experience would wear thin eventually, too). I'm sure there's space somewhere, perhaps on the web, for some information on this. I just feel I'd like to know something about the people living where the story's taking place.

The title could be more appropriate, yes, but I couldn't think of anything better when I wrote it and can't be bothered to change it.

Or maybe there could be a year where it's even more harsh and the story fosuses mainly on agori/matoran/ small inhabitants...