Always bugs me when people say XI wasn’t that big due to only half a million subscribers, I still remember having to use dial up to play when it launched, as you correctly pointed out, EQ2 is still going strong
For it’s time XI was incredibly successful, sure in the modern age it is dated, especially the things like randomly speaking to NPCs and hope they have a quest, rather than a marker, but I use to spend hours in some zones just taking in the scenery