The term 'classic' as I understand it stems from the history of Brad McQuaid and Verant's acquisition by Sony.
Brad McQuaid, as I'm sure most here know, was the dude responsible for pitching the EQ vision. He was the head honcho of design for stock, Kunark, and Velious.
After Velious' release, Verant got bought up by Sony Online Entertainment which also resulted in Brad being promoted (need to fact check that), and become responsible for more than just EverQuest apparently (EverQuest 2, EverQuest Online Adventures, PlanetSide, and Star Wars: Galaxies).
He wasn't super stoked with his new responsibilities and left SOE in 2001.
Luclin onwards were expansions that EverQuest's creator had no input on. They lacked his vision and took the game elsewhere steered by people who didn't know what Brad had in mind for the game.
Classic = Brad McQuaid's work.
Non-classic = everything else.
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