How much nostalgia plays a role here

[peterpal]

I think it has a few core elements that new mmos don't offer, I'll go into one:

One of the most genius thing the game has is placing high level mobs into newbie zones and naturally making a relationship with high level players that guide newbies, providing help with buffs, binds or advice. And also newbies getting resources high level people have demand for with bone chips or bat wings, crushbone belts etc.
It's a natural economic and social back and forth that's community building that I haven't seen in many other MMOs. It's usually grind all quest in zone a with static levels 1-10, then go to zone b 11-15 and once you're done with a zone you have no reason to come back ever.

On the other hand I definitely wouldn't recommend the game to people who haven't played it though or expect them to have the drive to keep playing it.