I think people really forget the amount of running they had to do in EQ. Pretty much anywhere you wanted to be was going to take time to get to. Before PoP and the hub that it was, not only did you have to plan where to be, but you had to make sure you were within distance of a vendor who would even sell to you. Fucking peridots all up in this business.
If you were a caster, every 4 levels was a run back to your trainer for spells, discs etc. And if you were a dark elf cleric worshipper of Innoruuk (Like I was) you could get fucked.
Just getting to raids even sucked; what the hell was on the way to the fear portal again? Driders? I can't even remember now except people occasionally got lost and died to them.
Let's not forget camps could also be taken - that was always fun. Make the run out to Sebilis and everything down to juggs was taken. Fortunately, someone would always want a cleric so that was rare, but man.
For the record, I played from release to Omens. I was on the servers first fear/hate raids. (Bristlebane) Raids that could last for 3 days because it was a bitch to break and once you did no one wanted to relinquish it.
That doesn't mean it was ALWAYS sucky. I fondly remember many runs to weird places just because. The first time I discovered Befallen was epic. It was like an old dungeon crawl - traps, monsters, floors that gave out and landed you into spikes...that was awesome. Reminded me of the nights I'd spend with friends doing spot and listen checks every turn to make sure I didn't end up in a pit of spikes.
But I always did a lot of running in EQ. My race was a factor, the places I leveled were factors, my helpful nature was a factor, raids were a factor, etc etc. There were a lot of factors that went into travel, that could make it more bothersome, but there were very few factors that could truly mitigate it until PoP. That's sort of the point I'm trying to make. Realistic travel is all well and good, but eventually even the world has to evolve.
I loved the 2 hour boat ride...the first time. Maybe even the second. I think I fell in the third time. But after that I sort of felt like spending 2 hrs to travel on a weekend, when I was babysitting was sort of a bad way to spend my time. I'd like to experience the game that they made, and explore it all, but travel hindered it. And not because it was hard, but because it would take forever, and most people weren't up for that.
EQ always felt like what it sold you was the idea of the carrot to reach for. Then it slowed you down, and slowed you down, so that carrot was always there, but it would be a damn long time to get it. When I first started playing WoW, people went nuts at the things they could do. Things wereaccessible. Whatttt, you're saying I can log in, and start leveling, immediately? Like, just log in and do that? No camp checks, or yelling CLERIC LFG in ooc, or praying someone goes to bed so I have a spot to take over etc.
I'm also not on the extreme end; the instant gratification that WoW is in a lot of areas doesn't really appeal to me, especially since they've started giving arbitrary slow downs, that a bothersome rather than hard.
But they will need to meet halfway, and when they described EQN, that sounds like what they're reaching for.