I remember Vanilla WoW being called the casual lil brother of EQ at first, and it really was - EQ itself was a casual PVE MMORPG and people who played hardcore PVP MMORPGs looked down at them, too.
I really enjoy levelling in MMORPGs so I do miss this journey, but alas WoW has gotten over it and ruined its levelling experience with weird pacing, odd story elements and way too fast exp gains.