If you want to talk about creating an entirely new MMO, then it wouldn't be EverQuest anymore, and there are infinite ways to go with that.
I think it's more interesting to make very small tweaks that would make the game feel more classic.
So here's what I would do--not to make the game technically classic, but to make it feel more classic for everyone, and to bring out the best parts of classic:
* Make the world darker, as mentioned by several people
* Ban PLing from people 10+ levels higher. Make powerleveling against the PnP and implement countermeasures to stop people 10+ levels higher from buffing/healing/PLing/killing-for-and-blurring. There would be many ways to do this but just keep making changes until powerleveling by people 10+ levels higher is pretty much non existent. Allow powerleveling by similar level players though--so a druid 9 levels higher can still PL you. There will still be a market for PLing it just won't be as game breaking.
* Ban twinking. Don't let people use stuff that dropped off mobs 10+ levels higher. Crafted items could be the exception.
* Change the nature of currency in the game:
Let players create promisory notes to each other that are authoritated as coming from the player--that is to say each player can add their authoritative "signature" proving that they wrote a particular note. The notes can be traded and kept in special wallet bags that will hold dozens of notes each. Additional bank slots for holding notes will be provided to each character. The notes themselves will weigh 0.1 each.
The addition of player-backed paper money allows making flexible and player enforced contracts. The contracts could be shown to anyone. Reputations could be created and lost.
For coin, keep the same platinum/gold/silver/copper, but make it so there is a fixed amount of platinum pieces, gold pieces, etc in the game. This amount can circulate among vendors and players and banks. Deflation, while bad for real economies, will make the game more immersive as people will actually use gold/silver/copper. To offset deflation, the paper money currencies are available and will be used more and more as time goes on, as likely all the coin will be concentrated in a few hands, who will then use paper money to invest.
It won't create a utopian economy where everyone has abundance and money flows freely. It will create a struggling economy, but one where everyone is in it together, that will increase immersion and make for a general sense of both opportunity and threat.
The promisory notes will intensify the social elements of the game and make trading way more common. Being able to trade or not trade with NPC vendors will become more interesting and meaningful.
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