One of the biggest resons we will never have the "Classic EQ felling" again is because in 1999 there really wasnt another option.
When you first logged in to EQ all you had was *a tattered note to go on. NOTHING ELSE. you had to figure it out for yourself. This is a difficult thing to do and to try and duplicate this today is impossible because of all the other options that are our there. Most people (and therefore most of the profit) will opt for a game that is a bit easier and that choice is a credit card payment away...
I think for the next MMO to be success full it will have to cater more to the casual player. If the new dungoens were instanced but required a flagging that would be great but I think it would cater better to the aforementioned player if that flag could be obtained in several small steps (ie: Logging in for 1-2 hours to obtain an item or kill a specific NPC and logging off) and then the final step to be a bit of a hard one (ie: Something that takes a group or two and 3-4 hours to kill). After that you would be flagged for this instance that your guild could get together for and accomplish in 4-5 hours.
This type of play would cater to a casual player a bit more. They wouldnt need to log on for hours and hours on end to experience content and it would still feel like you have worked for your end goal.
My 2 pennies...
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