I want to toss my two cents in, as a very casual player. Casual to the point that I don't have the time to read the entire 30 page thread that only started yesterday. I'd rather just sit down and play.
I've spent a good amount of time wondering how to maintain a "Classic" feel, as I slowly level up. I certainly loose quite a bit of that feel when I walk into Unrest and see 3 Power leveling groups mopping up the entire zone. I loose some of that classic feel when I group with a player who's under level 20, and has a full set of pre-plane gear that is obviously out of the reach of that player. What I really want to get out of playing EQ is something as close as possible to what we got when we played back in '99. I think that the Admins, Developers, and GMs all do a wonderful job doing their part, and for the vast majority of the time I'm online, I enjoy myself very much.
I do fear the end-game content, however. I don't have an answer that doesn't require some very very heavy handed GMs, which probably isn't any good either. And I probably won't be level 50 before Kunark is released (just like back in live, oh the good ol' days.)
While I'm sure this thread is loaded with players who put more than 5-10 hours a week into this game, please keep in mind those of us who don't. We're people too, and a "Peson's a Person, no matter how" much they play EQ
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The OP suggested we split the server, and I would be more than happy to run a "copy" of the official Project1999 server. If they are willing to open source their work and database, I would open a clone that weekend. Unfortunately I would be a terrible GM, and would probably set the level cap to 1 level higher than my current character's level, just to be mean, so it would probably be me all by my self for quite a long time, if not indefinitely. (It's taken me 6 weeks to hit level 19, wee!)
Anyway, I hope the outcome of this open forum is a positive one.