From my reply last week in the thread about what people want to see in 5.0 --

Quote Originally Posted by tinythinker View Post
Reasons for people to visit/play in old zones

Current reasons:
- leveling a new character through MSQ and side quests

- FATES for seals and achievements (weak reason unless you are leveling a job, looking for a specific minion, doing a relic weapon questline, or the Yokai Watch event returns)

- Hunts for seals and achievements (weak reason, you were probably already in the zone and though, "Hey, easy kill ranked mob")

- Nostalgia

- Catching up on old beast tribe quests


Possible new reasons (share yours, too):
- Wondrous Tales, Part 2. Doesn't have to share the name or be a sticker book. It's the concept. Yeah you can say "what about weekly challenge logs? Those are fine, but they added Wondrous Tales anyway. Challenge logs let you earn the rewards wherever you want, which is cool. But the goal is to give something for going to old zones. So, like, "Complete 20 FATES in an ARR zone", "Do 20 repeatable quests in a HW zone", etc. Then give something suitable for higher level jobs participating in this new system. Perhaps a new currency or maybe a small bit of whatever the current #2 tomestones are.

- Repeatable quests in old zones. Yeah, we have leves, but unless you are leveling a job there is little reason to do them. Soooo... add reasons to do them even if you're at cap. Or add new ones for jobs that are at cap. Or add a different repeatable quest giver system for jobs that are at cap. Note this can synergize somewhat with the first idea in this list. Then give something suitable for higher level jobs participating in this modified or new system.

- Level synch the ranked mob hunts. Yeah I love one or two-shotting ARR hunt targets too. But this would make hunts more engaging and encourage hunting parties/link shells to visit old zones. Like FATES, you would still be synched to hit harder than when you are a true low level character, but not enough to solo the ranked mobs.

- Scavenger hunts. Yeah, a weekly(?) scavenger hunt with a series of clues that take you through old zones. Clues and multi-threaded so not everyone just follows everyone else. Not my favorite idea without some additional work, but still, it is an example of giving people a reason to get into old zones. Might be fun to make it into team races as an extension of the Golden Saucer.

- DoH/DoL special quest giver. Appears in a new zone each week. Asks for materials (or items made with materials) only available that week in that zone (or set of zones from a particular expansion).