In general I actually dont like questing, in Vanillla, Classic, or Retail. Always much preferred the more organic approach; the Ashenvale “slaughter a Night Elf outpost” event, escort quests, general requirements like “collect X item” but that item can be had from the AH, dungeons, the world, doesnt matter, and ofc the built in requirements of the world; “I need more potions.”
Never needed much excuse to go roam about and kill/harvest.
That said I much prefer the long and realistic chain quests like reporting findings from WC to multiple cities and experts.
I hate in retail how you are forced to do 2-3 quests at a time having to return to the quest hub each time before running back out again. Does allow for better story telling but you have a lot more downtime vs action time.
In Vanilla/TBC you can spend some time gathering up a full quest log, march around half a zone killing everything in your path and in the end turn in a big stack of quests which is always satisfying. Trade off is story isn’t hand fed.
For MMOs though, OSRS/Runescape is my personal gold standard. Now those quests feel like true quests. WoW quests aren’t that interesting by comparison, though some have good storylines and interesting lore bits.
"Bring me 30 [Perfect Flawless Pristine Unmolested Tiger Urethra] and I’ll reward you with this fabulous piece of armor with +5 Strength and +5 Spirit that vendors for 13 silver."
I’ve never been that big on quests in general, and I tend to avoid many of them unless they’re class quests (which feel meaningful and I do tend to enjoy) or important things like attunements. If it’s an annoying quest that doesn’t really reward anything but xp, I have no problem skipping it.
There’s something about questing that feels like I’m just following directions, painting by numbers, and not really playing. I usually find it more enjoyable to run dungeons, grind mobs, and make up my own quests.
When Wow came out EQ was already really really old, but point taken. FFXI, DAOC and like maybe AO, and AC were the main competition but you’re right, Wow did revolutionalize leveling to be more quest based vs the simple grind you saw in those other games
Vanilla/classic imo sits right in between BFA and EQ. Classic is wow is still kinda system driven. EQ is much closer to a sandbox where BFA is essentially wow skinned Diablo.
Wow classic has extremely basic but memorable quests, actually wow up to about Cataclysm does. If you ask me to recall quests I remember before Cata, you’re gonna get a TON more than if you want me to remember quests after that. There were a few good ones in the world revamp (I did enjoy the redid Badlands) but old world quests are super memorable.
The slow pace and general freedom to just run around and go at it however you want, makes me feel super immersed. It might not be for everyone but for a certain percentage of players, it scratches that itch.
Another thing to add, is in classic, quests were more a suggestion where to go hit things until you level up, but in retail, they’re a means to ferry you from A to B. They inherently have to be different due to the two different approaches.
The leveling experience was definitely a more fun experience before I knew what laid ahead. If all you care about is reaching the end then it’s just a chore, hence why boosting is popular. You have to really find a class you can get into and try to enjoy the scenery and immerse yourself into the game. This can be a hard thing to do if you’re impatient or just want to get to the end.
The part everyone talked about in anticipation of launch was forgotten as soon as the server went live. I’m sure most everyone that leveled with a group of friends really enjoyed their experience. Now we are at the point people are on their 3rd or 4th level 60. That nostalgia is long gone, but thanks to boosting they can just afk their alt.
That is where “You think you do, but don’t” came from. That is why we got heirlooms. Now here we are back again on the forums complaining about the same thing people did 15 years ago.