Quote Originally Posted by ElHeggunte View Post
I don't know why people keep cherrypicking very specific examples from WoW.
It's not cherrypicking. The example of Blackrock Depths/Stratholme/whatever that EQ zone was etc. are large non-linear dungeons from previous MMOs (important) that are easy to get lost in with optional objectives like the OP seems to desire, and explaining why they were discontinued for more linear dungeons.

1) they're huge dev resource sink, imagine something the 10x the size and visual intricacy of the Arboretum - they don't even want to do three dungeons per major patch, so it would have to last basically a whole expansion for one dungeon with their standards.
2) getting lost tends to be a waste of time, casual time-limited players tend to not enjoy "wasting time"
3) dungeon-running players tend to chase objectives and goals. the first time through they may enjoy taking in the sights, but afterwards they want it over with. Heck, a lot of HW dungeons have optional chests off the beaten track and mostly the're ignored.
4) ergo, players will prefer to not waste time getting lost and make a beeline for their objectives, thus invalidating the majority of the dungeon and wasting dev time.

Granted, the devs don't seem adverse to creating instantly obsolete content, but huge dungeons just seem a colossal waste of everyone's time when more concentrated zones lend time for designing interesting bosses (because most of BRD bosses were rather... not special).