Because of Battlegrounds ?
They were the nail in the coffin for me.
I tried them, but got to Sergeant and quit.
But PVP in WoW 6 months after launch had name plates. You even had ranks that you fought for, up to what.. Grand Marshall?
You just provide nameplates and things go from intelligent mobs to intelligent mobs with unique names.
PvP needs more than just nameplates, it needs opposition with a voice and it's why I never liked WoW PvP from the start and its hardcoded faction communication. I completely understand why they did it, it saves an assload of money on customer support when you completely keep people from talking to each other and all the tears and bad words that come from ganking, but it left the PvP soulless.
Ranks and getting gear just made thing get turned into another grind like EQ PvE. What also mattered was your servers population distribution and we Flowers were unfortunate to be Horde on an Alliance dominated server which left doing anything but idling in Alterac Valley a worthless endeavour.
PVP wasnt cross realm and eventually, you ran into the same people you fought earlier.
No, you don't, at least not in my experience. I can't recall a single Alliance member I fought against and only one guild, Vicious Cycle and its feeder guild Vicious Tricycle because they were Frostwolf's dominant guild and so got mentioned often in Horde chat and on the forum.
The only Alliance member I remember from my time playing was Jantz, a Paladin that died RL after being hit by a car whose friends and guildies got trolled by my guildies after they turned him into a meme via yourethemannowdog.com.
I just dont understand the comparison to Classic WoW at all.
In my case it's because it was my last real experience playing an MMO long term. After three years of EQ it was a summer of Eve right before WoW, then EQ2 for a couple months in 2006, TBC for a bit, then Darkfall, some testing in Face of Mankind here and there mostly dicking about with WWIIO, LOTRO and EQ emu on and off from 2007 to 2010.
For me, all these campaigns and shit are alien and leak meaning. I was a RZer and PvP to me is contesting shit be it a spawn or a raid target if only to deprive your foes of things if you yourself don't directly benefit - PvP must be zero sum in my mind or it's meaningless, the key is finding incentives for the majority to tolerate it and not quit trying to escape for the small pack of PKs that are feeding on them. The largest fault in the EQ Emu PvP community is it's all wolves and no sheep and I fully admit the majority of EQs PvP (and the fun that came form it) was ganking unsuspecting people or merely fighting those that didn't want to PvP and you laughed and them whining.
Winning in Alterac Valley or in Cyrodiil these days has none of that and your victory is quickly reset, erased and thus hallow.
I could only see such a set up mattering in a game designed like WWIIO (Never played PS1 or 2 so don't know how they handle things) because of how tight knit and involved the community is, or was in that game, I haven't played in years. Having a command structure with high tier players directing the campaign with lesser players helping out here and there gave you that sense of accomplishment even if the overall campaign and who won didn't really matter. For the higher up it was their plans going well, for lesser players it was just helping out and I certainly loved playing support in a tank helping infantry cap a base or idling in command teamspeak waiting for the leaders to need people for certain missions like protecting far flung bases as the majority of our side was busy capping some of the enemies. This was in all in a FPS mind you, I don't think it would translate well into a fantasy MMO and my experiences with Darkfall seem to confirm that.
If WoW went sandbox i don't think it would have been nearly as successful. The joy of WoW was its simple and clearly defined goal-oriented gameplay. Lots of people really enjoy that format.
I first noticed that when I came back during TBC. It was fun for a bit to break up the monotony of lving up my guy, but once I began to transition to max lv and raiding I got lost in it feeling grindy without any of the sense of personal achievement that I got in little ways on EQ. That isn't to say that you're wrong, just that I'm just another curmudgeon who loves MMOs EQ, though I fully recognize that I'm not only in the minority but that time played a factor in EQs success and that time has passed.