The level of IMMERSION within EQ1 has been dropping sharply:

* Levels 1-10 zip by too fast now, as though the developers think they
are worthless.  No wonder they now place next to zero emphesis on the
starting cities.

* They made one big city, PoK, that everybody goes to so now the culture
of the individual cities -- EQ1's biggest charm -- has become virtually
worthless.  No characters truly start as warriors of Halas or paladins
of Felwithe anymore -- they have been streamlined to start as slaves in
their starting zone.  Players no longer identify themselves as "yes, I
started in my noble city of Kaladim", instead it is:  "I started like
you in the same place, doing the same thing, and a slave at that." (that
is the net effect of their new slave revolt tutorial).  IMMERSION was
taken away right there.

* Insta-travel abounds so the world has shrunk to nothingness.  If
everything can be reached within minutes then nothing is worth reaching

* trolls lost Grobb and get shafted in everything.  Trolls no longer
have anything and are regarded as nothings rather than dangerous
dwellers of Grobb.  Remove all racial  xp penalties (and bonuses!)

* Nights are now bright enough so even night-blind people do not need a
light source.  It was great back when, as a night-blind Erudite I had a
moonlit night and was greatful things were just a touch brighter; other
nights I would sometimes run inside Blackburrow because there was more
light and things were too dark outside in Qeynos Hills.  Things were
immersive then.  Often you would see night-blind races running around
with smoking torches, or a torch coming at you through the darkness.  
Whoa, that was cool.

* They might as well go the EQ2 route and remove the charming cultural
cities and make the characters originate within their new tutorial zone
and have no option whatsoever of starting life within their own native
newbie zones.

* newbie life was better back when you had to go find where your
guildmaster was (hey, that was a quest in itself), and strive hard to
save up for your first large bag.  Now they give away backpacks to the
idiot newbies.

* instanced dungeons mean you cannot just walk by and see people
fighting in the EQ world.  That in itself was a pleasure.  You could
walk by, see them fighting, chat, give advice, perhaps buff them a bit.

Some true improvements have been made for EQ1, but most of the changes
have ruined the EQ experience for me.  They have grown this game so
"horizontally" and spread the populations out over so many zones that
rarely do I see many people grouping anymore.  They should of grown the
game more "vertically", adding the new zones to the original 3
continents.  They could of fleshed out the continent of Odus by adding a
few more zones there and arranging them so more traffic goes through
Erudin & Paineel, to bring more life to those areas.  Or they could add
high-level dungeons to Faydwer to bring more people there so the old
charm of that place continued as a meeting place for the inhabitants of
that continent.

Much of the charm of the original EQ is gone.  The developers will never
fathom the "charm" or "immersion" element.  It was actually comforting
to walk through East Commons and here the people trying to get a good
bargain on something; the bazaar not only took away that charm but
multiplied the twinking problem times a hundred-fold.  The original
developers would work legally to stop EQ items from being eBayed, but
the current developers let IGE sell platinum by the boatload.

Whatever good elements exist within EQ2 (there aren't many) could of
been worked into EQ1, but what is going to harm EQ1 AND EQ2 the most is
there being two versions of the same EQ.  And why fight for Norrath in
EQ1 when you know everything is doomed to destruction inevitably anyhow?  
Why fight for the glory of Halas when it later is destroyed in the
timeline in EQ2?  Why enjoy the pleasures of Rivervale when it is
doomed?

EQ1 in its infancy was more about role-play and IMMERSION, and it
incorporated it well from the very beginning.  Roaming about Qeynos you
would see maybe a few barbarians, some humans, and some Erudites,
because they belonged there.  Any high elves you saw, were looked at
with surprise because they were great journeyers and had either managed
to hassle with a wizard (hmm, even those teleports should be removed) or
had traveled the dangerous path through the countryside.  That path
between Freeport and Qeynos was made dangerous to low-level people FOR A
REASON, it added to immersion.

The slow boat rides were FOR IMMERSION; you felt it was real.  The long
treks were for IMMERSION.  The dark was for IMMERSION.  Starting towns
were for IMMERSION.  Initial poverty was for IMMERSION.  Struggling to
buy your next meal was IMMERSION.

That immersion is forever gone.