Is anyone else not really enjoying themselves?

[koko-on-da-forumz]

Even 1.0 wasn’t an entirely ‘open, persistent world’, not besides extremely early on in the game’s lifespan. It had its instanced dungeons too, I think Cutter’s Cry and Dzemael Darkhold were two such ones.

That's true, but I haven't played any MMO completely absent of private instances, going all the way back to the early 2000s.

Remember, in 1.0, levequests in the open world were a feature they pushed as a selling point on the back of the box. You were intended to be out there exploring and playing with friends and meeting people doing them. The game had a lot of faults, but it was certainly a lot more of an MMORPG than 2.0+ is.